UK Road Trip

September 4, 2014 —Edinburgh to Keswick

We took the express bus to the airport after breakfast to pick up the rental car for our drive through England.  Once in the National area, it took us over an hour to get the car.  Other companies like Enterprise, were not crowded, and people were in and out.  We had to queue for about 45 minutes before we got to see an agent, who was pretty clueless and didn’t explain things well.  Finally got the car and Jay couldn’t get it out of park and there was no manual.  He got a guy to help him and we were finally on the road, going back to the B & B to pick up our luggage and the Lyndalls.  Gayle and Jerry are spending 2 more days in Edinburgh and will go to St.  Andrew’s and see more sights in Edinburgh.  After making several wrong turns in Edinburgh (using phone GPS instead of Garmin), we eventually got on the right road going south.  We wondered what sign would be at the border, and it was just a stone (like a large tombstone) with ‘England' on it.  Very classy.  There are no billboards along the roads in Scotland or England, and the scenery on this drive was very picturesque.  This was our third cloudy day, but no rain, so it was very pleasant for sightseeing.  We got to the Housesteads Roman Fort section of Hadrian’s Wall about 3:15.  This section of the wall, which runs from coast to coast at the narrowest part of England, is the best preserved.  It was a steep, long walk to get to the Roman fort, but very interesting.  Roman emperor Hadrian had it built around 124 AD, and one of his reasons was to keep the Scottish clan, the Picts, out of England.  The Picts were a scary bunch, as they were tattooed from head to toe and went into battle naked.  The Picts were located in the Inverness area of Scotland, so it would have been a long walk or ride to get to this area.  We were at the site a little more than an hour, then back in the car (Toyota Avensis) for a drive to Keswick, where we’re spending the night in the Lake District.  The countryside here is beautiful, with lots of hills, sheep and pretty stone buildings here and there.  One of the roads we were on was the M6, and it was 6 lanes wide—you could actually go 70 mph, as opposed to the 34-45 in Scotland and other parts of England.  After a 22 mile detour because we missed the correct turn off the roundabout, we arrived at the pretty little town of Keswick and checked in at Linnett House.  We walked around a bit, then stopped at an Italian restaurant for dinner.   The food was not exceptional, but we were hungry.

© Jay 2020