Off on our travels

J and I are off on our travels this week in my new little car Gertie.  I always give our cars names based on their number plates (for example our Land Rover with plate KRZ was Krazy).  This is actually the first car I have ever owned myself (rather than a shared resource).

So we took ourselves off down to Cumbria this week, staying in a lovely cottage not far from the village of Dalston where I was brought up.  Dalston itself is a few miles from Carlisle “The Border City” which is…  Well the name tells you.

Carlisle has not changed much in the last 45 years.  It still has an ugly civic centre and a horrible one-way system.  Just joking – I have the affection for the place which people generally do for the area where they grew up provided their childhood was happy.  Mine was and I still love Carlisle.  First we went to the Cathedral.

My favourite bit is the starry ceiling.  Then we went to Tullie House museum (they have renamed themselves to “Tullie” to “make themselves more relevant” I wonder how much the marketing company charged the council for that one) and saw the Gladiators Exhibition.  It was OK but the main museum was better – they have made a good job of it.

The we found our cottage which is right in the back of beyond and right in the middle of a mobile blackout zone – it is lucky I remember the roads around here.