If you follow my blog, you will know that I have been away to the Lake District for a few days last week, I have a few more pictures that I'd like to share with you from that trip.
As we were driving up to the lake district, we saw the signs for a place called Barnard Castle, and we wanted to see a castle, so decided to stop off, sadly, the place was rammed, so never got to see the castle, we couldn't really find anywhere to park. On street parking is a nightmare, especially with idiots just opening their car doors into traffic, the bloke who did it got a bollocking, but some how, he was one of those that was blaming everyone else but himself, even though he was the one who opened the door.
Anyhow, I digress, apart from that little incident, we decided to have a little drive around and we ended up in the Bowes Museum, still in Barnard Castle.
This is a magnificent building, and has a wonderfull art gallery, I did notice there were quite a few paintings of women killing themselves, which were great portraits, but I wasn't a fan of the suject, however the landscapes were fantastic, the pictures really caught your attention and the detail they put in the paintings were phenomenal, the artists were definitely masters of their craft.
On the way in we saw a old abbey (first picture) and I got all excited, I love all these old ruins, I think it's because it gets my imagination running. I saw a little pull over point going in to Barnard Castle, and I said to my girlfriend that we need to stop their on our way out.
The view was spectacular, looking over a small valley as the river Teese ran through it, and Eggleston Abbey just above.
It was a great stopping point for some drone photography.
We then decided to go and find where we were staying, we followed the sat nav deep in to the countryside and found the village, Newton Reigny, it's a really rural place, probably the most rural place that I've ever stayed in.
Where we stayed didn't look the cleanest place, but the bed was comfy, the staff lovely and the shower was the best shower I've ever been in lol.
We went down for dinner, and decided to have a little walk around the area. The barmaid was really friendly and told us some little routes we could take, she said if you walk up the road, you get a lovely view of Blencathra, one of the bigger hills/mountains around the lake district.
It was a beautifull night, we also found a place near to where we stayed that had red squirrels, for those that don't live in the UK, the red squirrel is our native one, but the population has been decimated by the gray American squirrel which has taken over just about everywhere, so there are only small parts of the UK where we still have the reds.
Sadly, they were no where to be seen, I'd love to see one of these in real life, so it's certainly on my bucket list.
I like this shot of starlings having a rest.
The following day, we had a trip to Gretna Green, I posted a picture of me and my girlfriend there, and everyone thought we'd gone and got married, as this was a place where young lovers used to run off to and get hitched, although you can still do that, you have to be a resident in Greta Green for 3 days before you can get married.
I also had the best breakfast ever there lol
It might not look it. but it was the nicest tasting breakfast I've had in a long time, highly recommended if you visit the food hall at Gretna Green.
That's it from me today, I really hope you've enjoyed this blog of my adventures up north.
Thanks for reading and all the best :-)