Apologies to all – I know I promised to get this Blog going on departure, but it's been a few days with very little time, and not much internet either. But now we are settled into our timeshare in Cumbria for a few days, and there is wi-fi at the bar (very convenient!) Linda actually got started on a journal, and being lazy, I've borrowed the first few days from that. So....here goes:
Fri Jun 13,2011
4am Glasgow... awake....time to start the journal?Thanks to Tony and Barb for car sitting and the lift to the airport.Thanks to Bill and Diane for the pickup at the ferry and the wonderful dinner with old Aquanut buddies Stan and Bruce invited too. That Glenmorangie cask-strength blew me away, Bill, particularly with the few drops of water releasing the flavor. Had no idea that would happen. Wow!
Flight over uneventful. Crowded as only charters can be. Watched three movies en route, none of which we'd recommend......The Green Hornet, Burlesque and Gullivers Travels. Flight arrived early 04:15 am which is about 8 pm home time. Took awhile to get through immigration as only the night staff was on but everyone was in a good mood as to us it wasn't really 4 am! As we couldn't pick up the car till 9 am, we decided to leave our luggage at our hotel and as per their website, we were able to walk to our hotel a scant 10 minutes away. They locked away our suitcases and we killed time having breakfast in their dining room before returning to the airport to get the car which we then left in the hotel parking lot as we felt we were too groggy to drive.
This is our little diesel Ford Fiesta, (gives 60 mpg so far)
To fill the day, as we couldn't check in to our room till 2 plus we wanted to try and get into the local time zone, we took a bus to town and tracked down an inexpensive cell to use en-route.
After that we joined a double decker bus tour of downtown Glasgow and finished up with our first (of what no doubt will be many), pints before returning to the airport and the walk back to the hotel and checking in.
Glasgow has a great history of shipbuilding, with LARGE Cranes (BFC's) like this one!
We were starting to fade, so succumbed to slumber.
When we first found the website for the Premier Inn Hotel chain advertising accommodation at a mere 29 pounds a night we were a little nervous but so far we are totally impressed. The building is new and offers your basic room (eg no wasteful little soaps and shampoos although there is a body wash dispenser), and is clean, quiet (despite being so close to the airport and motorway) and not overly hot like so many hotels. Hopefully we'll enjoy their other locations we've booked as well. Apparently there are over 500 sites in the UK. So thumbs up for the Premier Inn and thumbs down for that brew we tried which we both found had a VERY strange flavour.....“St Andrews” by Belhaven.
Sat May 14 – Broom in bloom and leaping lambs…
The joys of jet lag. Couldn’t stay awake past 8:30pm. Awake at 4:30am. Staying at a lovely little B&B in the town of Dalbeattie. Had a good day yesterday as Don got used to our car, driving on the wrong side and being told where to go by “Tomasina” Tom Tom (instead of by me, for a change). He’s convinced all women like to tell you where to go.:-) BTW thank you Ray and \Kathy for the use of your GPS. It’s wonderful! Except when you miss an exit and it insistently tries to get you back on course sometimes going the wrong way on a one-way street!
To break ourselves in we headed first to the west coast from Glasgow then at Ayr (Rabbie Burns territory) turned south through the lovely green rolling hillside spotted with many white dots that occasionally spilled out over the road and became mother sheep with lambs.
The broom is in bloom making a gorgeous contrast of orange against the green of the landscape. Spring – life is in the air!
Sheep, watching us watch them.
The town of KirkcudBright is on the sea (Solway Firth)....so we stopped for a bit of a walk around, visiting our first castle, and then the marina, where the boats were mostly sitting on the mud due to the low tide.
Our First Castle, at Kirkcudbright.
Our First Abbey, founded 1142.
Local Marina at Low Tide.
Interesting Sign at the Marina.
We checked in to the Kerr Cottage B&B in Dalbeattie and learned that the man of the house had gone off on his first sailing expedition with some friends to sail around Skye. Alas the weather was so poor they were having a bad trip. Of course this made Don green with envy and he was sorry to not be able to hear of the fellow’s adventures. This area seems to have a bit of a sailing community as well. The large tide was out as we walked around the shore looking at bilge keeled boats all sitting on the sea bottom.
Kerr Cottage B&B
Liz, the hostess of the B&B told us that many of the houses in the town were built of local granite which led to the nickname of the town as the granite village (in contrast Aberdeen is the granite city) Their house had been built in 1826 and had remodelled beautifully without losing the old world charm. We also learned that the first officer of Titanic had come from this town. For breakfast Don sampled his first blood pudding which he very much enjoyed. Haggis was also on the breakfast menu, something we had previously only had for dinner.
We were off to Caeverlock castle and arrived to learn they were having a re-enactment that day. A bit of luck as we were able to chat with all these characters who were reliving the lifestyle of medieval times. Great fun. The castle itself was most impressive being unusual in being triangular and complete with moat. It’s in fairly decent shape and one was able to imagine how these ancestors may have lived. They must have been very tough for one thing as the wind whistled through the unclad windows and the only heat would have been the fireplaces.
Continuing on we heard on the radio that BBC 1 was having a huge concert in Carlisle with such stars as Lady Gaga, the Foo Fighters, Bruno Mars (and many more) performing. As we had to to through Carlisle on our way to the timeshare we anticipated slowdowns on the highway but this didn’t materialize as the concert was on the other side of the town.
We went into Penrith to purchase a few groceries for our upcoming week at the timeshare. It was a Morrison Superstore and incredibly busy possibly because it was a Saturday. It’s always fun to see what kind of items are sold in different countries. The food items seemed to us to be quite reasonable, compared to home prices.
We found the timeshare location about 8 miles away and checked in to one of the more unusual locations we’ve ever traded to. The entrance floor had one room with bunk beds, a Master bedroom with a double, and a tiny bathroom. The next floor had a room with 2 sofas, coffee table and large TV. Otherwise - bare. Across the hall is the kitchen and eating area. Then up another flight of stairs was another tiny bedroom with 2 singles. I’m sure the sofas made up into beds, so the place could probably have slept 8-10 people with this one tiny bathroom.
We managed to stay up till 9 pm before flaking out and slept all the way to 5:45. Progress with the jet lag. We cooked a breakfast of cut-up orange and strawberries with porridge which was much creamier that what we have at home, and followed up with instant coffee which seems to be a staple here.
Sunday 15 May
Time to explore the home country of some of our ancestors, the Waistell (Westell, now) family. We drove east about 20 miles, stopping in to view a little church and graveyard in the town of Temple Sowerby, where my gtx3 grandparents were married. As far as we could see, however, none of the family is buried here. Then on, past Kirkby Thore to the village of Warcop where most of our ancestors hail from, before leaving for Canada in 1835. The village is now a military training centre for the British Army, but still has narrow streets and beautiful old granite homes. The church and graveyard were at one end, and being Sunday, with little space to park, we decided to come back on a weekday when we could search more easily for our kin. So a short look around town, and we headed back to our lodging for a quick lunch. Then time to explore in the other direction (west), and we drove the 11 miles to Keswick, a market town at the head of a small lake. It's pronounced "Kessick" - no W's allowed in the middle of a word! The town was bustling with people shopping and enjoying a jazz festival going on in full gear. Very touristy area, and every second shop seemed to be selling outdoorsy clothing and equipment. Half of the rest of the shops sell food and beer. It was a pleasant afternoon walking around, enjoying some of the jazz venues, and admiring the flower gardens along the lake. Nearby, on our route home, was a pre-historic Stone Circle, made even more mystical by the light mist.
Castlerigg Stone Circles, in the Mist.
Back to our timeshare at Whitbarrow Village for a supper of chicken and veggies, and then, even though we still found ourselves trying to drop off to sleep we managed to stay up and awake until after 10 pm by watching the local rock concert on the television.
Monday 16 May
Forcing ourselves to stay awake worked.....we managed to sleep through the night almost until a normal waking-up time. Up and about by 0700, and after breakfast, southbound on the highway to visit the County Records Office in Kendal, to sort out some of our ancestors' records. It took a full day of searching, and almost going blind reading the microfiche files of the Old Parish Records of births, baptisms, marriages, burials, etc.
By 1545 we were a bit tired, so left the Records office for a quick lunch at McDonald's (I know – I almost don't believe that either!). Then across the street to visit the local library, for a bit more searching on microfiche for obituaries and to try to get a handle on the economic conditions prevailing at the time our 2xgt grandparents decided to emigrate to Canada (for a reasonable explanation for the big move). We did find one of the obits we were looking for, but nothing else conclusive.
The drive back north was on the scenic route, rather than the motorway. The narrow, twisting road climbed over a bit of a pass, through beautiful hilly country. There were lots of sheep and lambs in the fields surrounding us, and occasionally they seemed able to find their way onto the road. Although I was only driving at about 45 mph, most of the other drivers were a bit faster, and many parts of the road seemed only wide enough for a car and a half, rather than 2....but other than the occasional groan or involuntary cry of terror, Linda handled it well.....even when some of the sheep found themselves leaping out at us, right in the roadway. We made it home to our humble abode by 1900, with time to finally type up a quick issue of the Blog to post from the bar this evening.
Here's a short video of the re-in-actors, preparing to storm the castle.
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