Buxton to Carlisle

A very varied day. We heard from Carole and John yesterday that they had arrived in Edinburgh but that their bags had not, and that they may not be able to meet us in Carlisle today as planned...frustrating situation, people didn’t seem to know where they were....anyway, to cut a long story short (bags mis-tagged etc) the bags miraculously arrived this morning, and all the original plans came back into action- and we have met them here in Carlisle this evening, had dinner together and all is well!

So to start at the beginning of the day, we met Gill and Bob who had to leave early afternoon to drive almost to London for a 50th wedding anniversary with friends. But we spent a lovely morning with them. First had breakfast and had substantial food, brunch really, and it did keep us going till dinner. Then Gill knew a nearby walk up to another high spot above Buxton and it was magnificent. On top is Solomon’s temple, nothing to do with king Solomon or religion, but I believe I was a folly of one of the Dukes of Devonshire a few hundred years ago. Anyway, it had a magnificent view over Buxton and the surrounding countryside and amr says we walked about 12 kms, so that was good before our train journey.

We got to the train station early as we had checked out of the hotel, and Gill and Bob had gone, and realised we could catch any train back to Manchester as they were not booked seats and local trains, and also the second train from Manchester to Preston which was similarly unbooked seats, but this second one turned out to be extremely busy, and we were glad we weren’t even later on a Friday afternoon. Each journey was almost an hour, and we got to Preston in tons of time to find the platform for our last train to Carlisle. We had to wait for the correct train this time as it was a big express from London to Edinburgh and thank goodness we did have seats as it was also madly crowded.

All went well and we are now safely ensconced in our Ibis near the station and have enjoyed catching up with Carole and John, and ready for new adventures.Read more