Monday we had a bit of a recovery morning and then went to see the highlights of Carlisle.
Here's the front of the Carlisle Cathedral. We didn't go in, just walked by.
Next stop was the Carlisle Castle, which we just explored outside again because we'd heard the inside wasn't very exciting.
Tuesday we drove out to Beamish, a town reconstructed from little bits of other towns. We both really enjoyed ourselves. I was a model tourist that day and took 270 pictures. The town had a tram system to take people around, a steam engine and rail yard, an old and rather large house, a downtown with a bank, lots of little shops and some apartments, a farm with real animals, a church, a miners’ family housing complex, and a mine that we got to go in. Some of the more interesting highlights are...
...a curly haired pig variety that was rather funny looking,
...an old burnt wagon,
...a working steam engine called Puffing Billy that we rode on,
...an old printing shop where you have to think really backwards,
...a very sweet candy shop,
...a dentist’s chair that I’m very glad I don’t have to sit in,
...a train track control room that would take a genius to operate,
...some huge machinery that almost swallowed Leif alive,
...a miniature pony like those that worked in the mines a long time ago,
...us before going for a trek down the very dark and tiny mine shaft,
...and the most complicated mine shaft elevator machine ever.
Tuesday night we got a bit down and dirty. Wayne raises chickens and since Leif has no problem helping him, I thought I should man up and get out there. Here is proof that I held a dead chicken.
Wednesday we took a drive out to Drumlanrig Castle. The gardens of this place are absolutely gorgeous!
Here’s the long driveway.
This is the best garden.
We were not allowed to take pictures during our tour of the inside of this beast but it was also quite spectacular. The Duke, who lives there on and off, has a huge art collection including a Leonardo Di Vinci that got stolen but was recovered 5 years later and now lives at a gallery.
In one of the castle wings, that used to be the stables, we went into a woodworking shop. The man there grew up in Scotland, but his roots are German. He was a wonderful story teller and told us all about the castle.
Thursday we took a train up to Edinburgh in Scotland. We went on a tour of Mary King’s Close, which is the old town underneath the current courts buildings. A close is a very narrow space between up to 7 storey buildings where people lived and worked. It was dark down there and very scary. They told us ghost stories and had life size plastic models of people dying of the plague. No pictures allowed down there.
Then we took a walk up the Royal Mile to see Edinburgh Castle.
And we saw (and heard) some dressed up bagpipe players.
After some sightseeing we did some shopping and I would not be a nerd if I didn’t take a picture of this exposed floor system in one store.
Friday we had a much quieter day and stayed around The Bow, packing up for convention. We took a walk around the farm.
Leif was quite happy to get up on every piece of machinery.
We went to convention Saturday morning with Wayne and had a wonderful couple days. More on that excitement later.
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