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| A Wee Trip to Jolly Old England! | |
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08/10/06 - Ellemford, Scotland (photo album for England & Edinburgh) A quick tour of northern England: Hadrian's Wall, Carlisle, Liverpool, Newcastle and Durham |
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While we were in the UK, we really wanted to take advantage of our location and see some of England. Although distances are relatively short, it still takes a bit of time to get around and hotel prices are exorbitant, so we decided off the bat to save London and the surrounding areas in the south for another time. Our thought was to head for the the industrial port town of Liverpool. But first, we stopped off along the way to see the historical 70-some-odd-mile-long Roman ruins of Hadrian's Wall that runs roughly along the Scottish/English border (actually located entirely in what is now England). There are many museums along the length of the wall that you can peruse (for a fee, of course - the British love nickel and diming you for everything, except surprisingly, public restrooms). We stopped at the ancient fort of Housesteads, said to be the best preserved of such forts. It was mostly just piles of rocks where you could see the outlines of buildings, rooms, etc. The highlights were the ancient latrine building, which did seem relatively advanced when you consider how long ago it was created, and the stunning panoramic views over the surrounding countryside. Overall, not that exciting in Caroline's book, although the countryside we drove through along the wall was quite picturesque. We decided to make it an easy day, hence our stay in Carlisle, which is located roughly at the west end of the Wall. Our expectations were low, but we found Carlisle to be a pleasant, livable-seeming sort of town, although due to the casinos there was a slightly rough-around-the-edges/unsavory vibe in certain parts (near our hotel, of course!). To its credit, Carlisle does have a very large multi-purpose sort of park that we enjoyed strolling through. The next day we arrived in Liverpool, the land of construction. It was much more a normal, modern English city than we thought it would be, without much evidence of its industrial past (did we make this up?). Unfortunately for us, the city is undergoing a massive transformation in preparation for the Cultural City of Europe (Liverpool???) celebration coming up in 2008. There was construction EVERYWHERE, with massive sections of the town center closed off to all traffic, making it difficult to drive and even walk around. It does, at least, look like it will be quite nice when completed, judging from the architects' renderings posted all over town. Not a particularly friendly city, Liverpool is slightly reminiscent of San Francisco, with its main tourist area concentrated in the historic Albert Dock area and cold, windy SF-in-August weather. It is however home to a lovely, giant cathedral, Europe's largest Chinese gateway and our now-favorite restaurant in the UK, Tokyou, serving a variety of delicious Asian dishes at prices to make a frugal American weep with joy. We ate there twice. And yes, we did shell out the cash to visit the Beatles' Story museum. It was actually nicely done and our favorite part was the 1960s re-creation of Mathew Street, home of the Cavern Club and the interior of the Cavern Club, itself, where the Beatles used to play in the early days in Liverpool before Beatlemania took hold. Leaving Liverpool on Wednesday afternoon, we drove almost three hours northwest to Newcastle, where we were only staying due to the high cost of hotels in our intended destination of Durham about 15 miles south. Having zero expectations of Newcastle, we quickly decided it was our new favorite city in the UK after spending the evening walking around. The old stately downtown buildings give it a cultured, Parisian sort of feel in spite of it's industrial and mining past. And the eclectic mix of ancient and modern bridges, beautiful cathedral, and castle ruins in the city center make it an extremely interesting city to walk in. It was a good feeling to be back in the northeast, where the people are so friendly - especially after Liverpool. We ended up chatting quite a bit with the man in charge of maintenance at our Holiday Inn Express, after he picked out our 'American accents' after a simple 'hi', since he and his wife are heading to San Francisco on holiday in a few weeks. The next morning, we backtracked south to spend a few hours walking around the small city of Durham. Another charming city, Durham's town center is a peninsula formed by a section of the curving, 'U' shaped River Tyne. Barely two streets wide, starting in the bustling, modern shopping district you can walk up hill to its famous cathedral at other end of the U in about ten minutes. The cathedral, not the tallest or longest, seems huge due to its massive proportions since it had to be built like a fortress to survive the hundreds of years of battles over the English/Scottish borderlands. We had a very pleasant afternoon walking the quaint streets and the river path, fantasizing that we were staying in a small city instead of the middle of nowhere. The peace and quiet of Ellemford is nice... for a while... but we're longing to be able to step outside and walk to a market or cafe instead of having to drive a half an hour to do anything. Oh well, we plan to spend the weekend at our digs in downtown Edinburgh, where there's no shortage of things going on day and night this time of year with the massive Edinburgh Festival taking place. See you there! |
Caroline atop Hadrian's Wall
Lively Carlisle
Caroline suffers from temporary 'Beatlemania' while visiting The Cavern Club
Don't be fooled (like we temporarily were) by the "Cavern Pub" across from the real deal
Watch out for the lions in Liverpool's Chinatown - they bite cheesy tourists
The supercool Millennium Bridge in Newcastle - click to enlarge
Durham Cathedral rises over the rooftops at the top of the city |
