Tuesday. 12 May. Amsterdam

It’s been a terrific day today, on a small group tour (8) to Rotterdam, Delft and The Hague. Rotterdam is considered the modern city in Holland because it was pretty much totally destroyed in the war. It is also the main port and centre of business. We loved seeing the cube houses, designed to be like an urban roof with space on the ground. The Markethall is an office and residential building with a market hall underneath. Really interesting architecture but I wouldn’t fancy living in those cubes.

Our second stop was the Delft factory. It displayed the history of Delft as well as the manufacturing process. I had time for a cup of coffee out of a lovely Delft cup and saucer, but I had to give them back.

We then went to the centre of the city of Delft and had a good long stop with time for lunch. William of Orange was assassinated in Delft during the war with the Spanish. He is buried in the New Church (old though), which is the second tallest church in Holland. Delft was also the home of Johannes Vermeer. It is such a pretty place with canals around every corner. I took a lot of photos!

Last city was The Hague, where we saw the parliament building, which is being renovated at the moment. We also saw the Peace Palace, which houses the International Court of Justice, the principal judicial body of the United Nations. Andrew Carnegie, one of the richest Americans in history, donated the money for the building. He was a philanthropist who gave away 90% of his fortune to charities, foundations and universities.

We were dropped off by the waterfront, just behind the central station so I had a little look at the activity there.

 

Sunday 10 May. Manchester

A fine day for a drive and I was up and out early. My sleep was disturbed by an alarm going off somewhere in the area and the birds started at 4.30, as they did yesterday. However I’m not complaining about them because they’re lovely. They’d be lovelier still if they woke up at 7.00.

As I was leaving my room I found a little bag of snacks outside the door. The hotel keeper had said she would do this as I wasn’t staying for breakfast. The hotel is without  a chef and so can’t do meals at the moment and she is short of other staff too, poor thing. An hour do so down the road I stopped to sample the goodies and tried a chocolate croissant, from a packet, that bore no resemblance to a croissant. There was also a can and I was amazed to discover that it was a can of still water. The label said they use aluminium cans because they’re totally recyclable.

Most of my journey south was on the M6 as I had to return the car by 2.00 and couldn’t dilly dally on the slow, scenic roads. I called in to a “Services” stop expecting a dirty, unpleasant, Greasy Joe’s sort of place and was very pleased to find a clean, bright venue with all sorts of real food and even a “farm” shop. Had a good cup of coffee and a nice piece of rhubarb cake.

As I’d made good time on the road I was able to detour to Stockport before returning the car. Fortunately Stockport is very close to the airport. I wanted to see the mural that is made of plastic bottle caps. It was fantastic and I was able to go right up and have a good look at it. There are quite a few of these murals now but this was the first.

Am now tucked up in the Ibis Hotel, just across the road from the airport. It only took me 5 minutes to walk here from the terminal where the shuttle dropped me off. And what luxury, a lift instead of stairs. The downside is absolutely no atmosphere or coziness.

Saturday 9 May. Corbridge

My main task for the day was pretty straightforward - find a laundromat and do a load of washing. The one very close by was a commercial laundry but would do it for £25. I felt I could do better elsewhere! Couldn’t find any in Corbridge but Google offered one in Hexham, only a couple of miles away. When I got there it was closed so Google offered me another one in Hexham and tried to take me the wrong way down a one way street. This has happened a couple of times and I suspect there are lots of changes in these narrow streets. I eventually found the address but had to ask in a petrol station where it was. Turned out to be down a driveway, next to a car wash and not in a building.

I loaded my washing, paid by card and pressed start, then sat in the car and read my book for half an hour. When it was finished I moved it into the dryer and repeated the procedure. 15 minutes later it was almost dry so back I went and hung it on hangers in my room to finish off.

Today has been miserably cold. My weather app said 8 degrees but feels like 1. I’d have said even less when I was standing listening to a volunteer guide tell us all about Corbridge Roman Town. This town predates Hadrian and his wall. The Romans came here looking for lead and found it. It was a fort for a while and then after the wall was built became a town where the soldiers from the wall used to have a bit of R & R.

The ruins that we saw were huge granaries right beside the Roman road, where grain could be easily unloaded. The big open area was a forum with shops around the edges. You can see where the walls of the shops were. Another interesting spot was a deep chamber with stairs leading down. This was a vault where people could pay to keep their valuables safe.

The biggest find here was a wooden box with spare parts for soldiers uniforms. People knew from carvings and murals what Roman soldiers’ uniforms looked like but they didn’t know exactly how they were made. The contents of the box had rusted and virtually mummified the pieces within and from this archaeologists could work out all the parts of the uniforms.

I was still freezing cold when I got back into the car and headed for the nearest cafe and a bowl of pumpkin soup.

Friday 8 May. Corbridge

Today I travelled about 80 miles north, avoiding the motorway so that I could see the countryside. It takes a lot longer to get to your destination but is so much more interesting. My destination was Birdoswald Roman Fort, a part of Hadrian’s Wall.

It amazes me how much they can learn from ruins like these, and wandering through the fort gave me a very “Time Team” feeling. There is a big, square perimeter wall with a number of gates in it. The part that has mainly been excavated is the granaries, long storehouses with raised floors which could store up to a year’s supply of food.

I noticed that many of the visitors had walking poles and backpacks. There are walking paths all along the wall and I saw people disappearing into the distance as they walked through a field beside the wall. It looked like a pleasant walk here but some sections would be a nightmare, if not downright dangerous.

On my way to Corbridge I saw a sign to a Roman Army Museum so of course I turned off for a look. There were all sorts of examples of army paraphernalia but the thing I liked best was a film about Roman army life which included a lot of aerial footage of the wall. I was surprised at how much is left and amazed at the construction, in all kinds of terrain, of this 4.6 metre high wall. 

I have been so lucky with the weather and today was no exception. It started to rain just as I was getting my luggage out of the car and the heavens opened a couple of seconds after I stepped inside the door. Just made it!

Thursday 7 May. High Bentham

If Anne had been a passenger in my car today I’m convinced that she would have taken more than a thousand photos. However, being the driver, I was rather limited, especially as there are very few places where you can pull off the road to take a photo.

The first part of the drive took me back up to the moors and when I did hop out for a photo the wind was freezing. No wonder they all got tuberculosis. I thought I had opted for a fairly straightforward route but the lady in the GPS had other ideas and I soon lost count of the roundabouts and road changes. That was fine until she decided to stop talking and I had to follow the directions on the dashboard. I think I touched something on the steering wheel and turned her off.

When I eventually made it to Aysgarth Falls I had a restorative latte and googled how to turn her back on. Then I had a look at the upper and middle falls. It was a very pretty area with lots of wildflowers, including a fairly rare wood anemone.

On the road again and the lady was giving me directions once more. I stopped at the Wensleydale Creamery, home of Wensleydale cheese and much favored by Wallace and Grommet. In fact the show is credited with saving the company as it was struggling until people wanted to buy the cheese that Wallace likes. I sampled some nice cheese and the local ice cream.

Last stop along the way was the Ribblehead viaduct. It is 400 feet long with 24 arches.  Over 2000 navvies worked on its construction and more than 100 died from accidents and smallpox.

I finally reached my destination, the Black Bull Inn in High Bentham, somewhere around 4 o’clock. This is just a one night stop, a shame as it’s got the first decent sized shower I’ve seen so far.

8

Photos are out of order. Bad internet connection so.