In yesterdays post over at Photography Lovers I shared a few details of day one of our journey from Torpoint, Cornwall, to Embo, Sutherland.
I did not share details of the error in accomodation booking.
We arrived at our Blackpool hotel at 7pm, a good two or three hours later than planned. When making the original booking it was for two twin rooms, one for wife and daughter, one for son and me.
Then we changed the dates of travel and I rebooked. The bookings were through Hotels.com. I phoned and it all seemed to have gone swimmingly. Old bookings were cancelled, new ones were arranged.
Except, the person I spoke with booked us double rooms instead of twin. I failed to check the reservation properly.
Last night was not as restful as anticipated for anyone - well, our daughter seems to have slept okay.
My restless sleep saw me awake about five-thirty, and out for a gentle stroll in the fresh breeze of a bright Blackpool morning. I considered recreating yesterday's pictures, but instead took the opportunity to stand on the tramway and take the shot below of the tram with Blackpool Tower in the background:
I'm putting the jaunty angle and poor framing down to little sleep and zero caffiene. But if you compare it to the picture from yesterday, it's always amazing how different things look in daylight.
From Blackpool we were heading up to Stow,in the Scottish Borders. Lacking the road issues we experienced yesterday this was a much smoother, and swifter drive. As ever there was a moment of joy on reaching the border even if, as with all borders between nations, it is a human construct and not a discernible change of land or flora.
Stow is on the A7, a rural road through some beautiful contryside which, had I not been so tired, I may have stopped to take pictures of. However, weariness was fighting with the tea, coffee, and two energy drinks I'd taken and there was a desperate desire to be at our accomodation, with my wife's sister, and to get some sleep.
We arrived safely, I said hello, then crashed and was asleep within ten minutes of arrival. A few hours later I surfaced, and had to double check I had actually greeted my sister-in-law.
A small walk to help clear residual grogginess, and to loosen off joints stiff from consecutive days driving, allowed me to snap this picture:
It shows the village church, and the old bridge. The bridge dates back to the mid sixteen-hundreds and was built to assist those west of the river in crossing to church. Not the one we see in the picture, that wasn't built until the 1870's.
Today the old bridge is fenced off and unusable, a modern bridge is half a mile downstream and provides easy access to the train station.
I thought I'd done a post about Stow, but a check back reveals me to have been mistaken. For such a small place there is, as with much of Britain, a fair amount of history which can be written about. I'll maybe attend to that at some point.
Tomorrow and Sunday we are rested from travelling to spend time with family. Tomorrow I'm going up the road to Edinburgh - only a 40 minute trip - to help our older daughter collect some bookcases for her flat, and to spend some time with her. So watchout for pics of Auld Reekie in customary dreich weather.
