Something I don't think I've ever done before: three countries in one day. A reasonably good split also: about 8 hours in Ireland, 10 in England and then 6 in Scotland.
If you order a taxi driver for 6.20am, so you can catch an 8am flight with plenty of time to check in, you really don't want him driving like an idiot and puncturing a tyre. Our Ryanair flight didn't arrive on time, thankfully, so we didn't have a deafening trumpet telling us that we had. After the first time, I'd prefer that the flights WERE delayed!
First stop of the day was at Ullswater. We might have hired a sailboat if there was one available; there wasn't, so we played some Connect 4 and went for a walk around the lake. Lots of overhead activity also, in the form of both modern and old-fashioned planes!
We stopped at an information centre, that told us the best places to check out Hadrian's Wall. This was a fortification across the entire width of England, designed to keep the nasty Celts out. We stopped at the Housesteads fort, which came with a guided tour in the form of a little show, featuring a Roman administrator and a Celtic lady entirely in character. Very well acted and worth seeing. The most well preserved building in the fort was, for some reason, the latrine.
The information centre also suggested somewhere to stay that sounded a bit more fun than Carlisle. We drove up to the village of Melrose, proclaiming a new king of Scotland on the way by way of rock-climbing. The YHA was a fantastic old building, with really helpful staff that managed to do what we hadn't done all week in Dublin - book us a bed in Edinburgh.
Dinner was at the local pub, and involved some great games of pool with a fantastic local character. This is what traveling is meant to be about.
Tags: travel
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