The Road to Scotland

Today we take the next step of our journey travelling North into Scotland. We had some options about the route, but in an attempt to avoid to much duplication on our travels we headed East and then North, travelling along the A1 for most of the day. Here is the route:

Breakfast at Northcote

The day started with Breakfast at Northcote. The breakfast menu has many options, and even after all the delightful food the night before we opted to eat plenty this morning.  

We began by an order of Coffee, Pink Grapefruit for Drew and Orange Juice for me. This was followed by Wheatgrain Toast for me and White Toast for Drew. We then both had the full English Breakfast: Greave's Home Cured Back and Streaky Local Bacon; Farnsworth's Thin Link Cumberland Sausages; Fried Mushroom and Grilled Banks Tomato; R.S. Ireland’s Famous Black Pudding and a Bowland Free Range Egg (fried for me, scrambled for Drew).

Opting to go straight for the meat without any cereal, fruit, grapefruit surprised the waiter who asked: "Are you sure you don't want any starter". The idea of 'starters' for breakfast is something very new for me!

The breakfast was rich and pleasant, as the menu indicated none of the food was bland, mass produced stuff, but locally sourced quality ingredients that were a delight to eat - a real enjoyment. The empty plates which returned to the kitchen after breakfast were testimony to how much we enjoyed our breakfast.

Drew also made good use of the homemade marmalade with candied rind with his toast, this would be to sweet for me. But he said it was sharp and sweet at the same time, a perfect breakfast flavour. Drew finished the pot of it.

Yorkshire

As mentioned above our route today say us travellling East into Yorkshire at the start of the journey. We left Northcote at 9.00 am and headed along the A59, soon coming into the West Riding of Yorkshire. We travelled through the pretty village of Gisburn. There are no photos of this part of the journey as:

• Drew was driving and he is better at taking moving photos than I. 
• It was raining very heavily, so photos taken from within the car through the windscreen were impossible and taking them with the side window open meant getting a bit wet!

I had travelled around this part of Yorkshire back in 2010 when our holiday was based around Skipton and we travelled around this area extensively. 

The A59 turned on to the A65 and we passed one of Nigel Howarth's pub chain: The Bull at Broughton. Nigel has five pubs in a chain he calls Ribble Valley Inns each presenting high quality local food in a pub setting. We visited four of them on our 2010 holiday, so we passed by today.

We then bypassed Skipton (recollections of the 2010 holiday) and got back onto the A59 towards Harrogate and Ripon; both of which we also visited in 2010. We continued skirting the south of the Yorkshire Dales National Park and saw signs for Pateley Bridge, one of the places we will be staying when we head back south later in the holiday. In avoiding lots of days on the same roads we have two 'cross-over' points, where our route up crosses our route down, and the junction in the picture is one of them.

As we come into Ripon the sun comes out and all the rain behind us (at least for now) it becomes a glorious day.

Up North

After Ribon we joined the A1(M) and this is a three lane motorway for 10 miles as we head due North. Even the signpost indicate we are going to The North

After 10 miles the A1(M) reverts to the A1, but is still dual carriageway 15 miles later it is the A1(M) again and filled with complex road works to widen the road. 

We travel on an up to Scotch Corner - I had to wikipedia this to find out why it has this name. It turns out that with the A1 heading north to Edinburgh and the junction to the A66 being here, where people can turn off and head for the M6 up to Glasgow, this is the central junction on the road north, so people have to choose which part of Scotland they want to go at this junction (or Corner). After reading about this on route it turns out that due to the major consturctuion works Scotch Corner is closed for renovation!

As we travel North it gets warmer we started the day at 16C in the wet, by this time it is 21C and sunny.

Newcastle 

Our first stop is in the City of Newcastle. I was last here in 1988 and Drew in 2003. So we both have very few recollections of it from that time. We drove across the Tyne Bridge into the City and walked along Northumberland Street up to the Haymarket and took in the sights. 

Newcastle was bustling, and like many UK citites had plenty of maps so that tourists could find the key locations. Given that I last visited before I began working in Higher Education it is a surprise to me to see how much of the City Centre is dominated by the two Universities - Newcastle and Northumbria.

Given the quantity and quality of the food last night and this morning, we opted to lunch on fruit and a bottle of water each and sat in Newcastle and enjoyed these before going back to the car after 2 hours and heading further North.

Berwick upon Tweed

Our next destination was the border town of Berwick upon Tweed. This picturesque little town is dominated by its bridges and its town walls. Having been taken by the English from the Scots in 1482 it retains much of its medieval town walls and its Elizabethan ramparts. These were used to defend Berwick at various times in its history. 

We walked along the walls and down to the river and got plenty of photos of the bridges and fortifications. (Note on photos - the wi-fi at the hotel tonight is not designed for large files, so the photos will not be uploaded until we get to Thursday's overnight stop. Blogger lets me load small size photos, but the full range on Flickr, for those looking at them, will have to wait until we have more powerful wi-fi.)

Into Scotland

From Berwick we were only 2 miles from the Scottish Border. I must admit the Scots seem to take much more care of their border than do us Welsh. Not only are there three Scottish flags flying and a large board marking the border, but also a lay-by for those who wish to stop and take photos of the border. Even better for a passenger taking photos from a car there is a 1 mile warning that the border is coming.

From the border we travelled along the A1, with the sea to our right, up towards Edinburgh, or CaerEdin if you prefer, as the town name originates from the Brittonic tongue (i.e. Old Welsh).

We arrived at tonight's destination - Leith - at 5.45 and had time to get our luggage into the room before heading off for tonight's dinner. Of which more in the next post.