Blogs from Northumberland, England, United Kingdom, Europe - page 6

We wondered whether sleeping above a pub might mean a disturbed night’s sleep but how wrong we were. We arose fresh and ready to go chasing a spot somewhere between Hexham in the east and Carlisle in the west to watch the Flying Scotsman go by on its run from Leeds to Carlisle. First though we have another full English breakfast ahead of us. We could have gone for just some cereal but the knowledge that if we leave here with full stomachs we won’t need to stop anywhere for lunch and breakfast should get us through until dinnertime. We were downstairs just after the prescribed breakfast time of 8.30am and it was all that we expected and really it is pretty hard to resist black pudding for breakfast, well at least for me! We had ... read more

We have reached the halfway point of our walk along Hadrian's wall passing the highest point on the trail at 345 m above sea level just before the village of Once Brewed, home of the Twice Brewed Inn. We crossed from Cumbria to Northumberland and the scenery changed from the gently rolling farmland to the rugged windswept moors and crags. We also crossed the watershed so instead of flowing to the Irish sea, all the rivers we encounter in the next section will be flowing to the North Sea. In the last two days there has been far more direct evidence of the wall with many sections of original wall. From Bowness on Solway to Gilsland the wall was originally made of turf and wood. From Willowford the wall was made of stone and there are ... read more

A Northerner’s Guide to Tripping in Northumberland After another exhilarating adventure in Northumberland, possibly my favourite British county (although I am biased), I decided I’d like to share some of my favourite things about this beautiful rural region with my fellow travellers! These recommendations are the product of many, many journeys through the region, in the hope that you can pack all of these Northern delights into an adventure of your own. Food: Craster I couldn’t recommend a trip to Northumberland without mentioning the Jolly Fisherman by name. This Craster pub is an absolute treat for ale enthusiasts (I’d go for the Timothy Taylor Landlord - delicious pale ale) and has an evening menu packed with scrumptious fresh seafood. Add to that the panoramic sea views and warm local atmosphere and you’ve got yourself an unmissable ... read more

Camping adventure continues in the North East I have added the photos of the puffins which I could not do yesterday - don’t they look cute - you want to take them home. We wake up and decide that we are going to go to Lindisfarne so after a bacon butty made by the fair hands of Mike (told you he is doing all the cooking), we jump in the car and off we go. As we did not look at the tides it could have been a wasted trip but we were really lucky and the tide was out. So we drive over the causeway and park up. I thought I had taken Mike here before and kept telling him he has been here before but it appears last time we were not as lucky ... read more

Geo: 54.9863, -1.61224 6 May - 31 May 2015 We returned home from New Zealand after a long journey, 42 hours door to door (we do always allow extra time in case something goes wrong on the way to the airport) and decided in future we would make stopovers. Once recovered from the flight and after staying with Gilli for a few nights we moved to Rochford in Essex to stay with Pauline and Colin and prepare ourselves for Pauline's 60th party. It was a really lovely afternoon and I hope Pauline enjoyed it. P & C are really patient with our comings and goings and uncomplainingly store our excess clothes for which we are very grateful! From Essex we moved down to Eastbourne for Dentist, Optician etc and then with a mix of excitement and ... read more