PenmanFest - otherwise known as the Helen World Tour [3]

Read the latest from Helen Hardegen's travels...

Week 3 Part 1

3 September

It's Tuesday, it must be Edinburgh! I had lovely chat over breakfast with a girl from Slovakia who has been backpacking around England and Scotland then I caught the bus into the city centre, feeling this to be a much cheaper option than trying to park the car.

The bus stopped conveniently on Princes Street and I walked across the park to the Old Town after taking photos of the Walter Scott Memorial. With a big breakfast of bacon, eggs, etc sitting heavily on me, the thought of climbing the two hundred and whatever steps was not a nice one.

Of course it was all uphill to the Castle anyway. Placing medieval fortresses on top of hills may have seemed a good idea at the time but makes tourists climb lots of steps and slopes.

I was somewhat disappointed by Edinburgh Castle. There are so many 19th and 20th century parts of it that the original medieval structure is almost impossible to find. Apart from St/Queen Margaret's 12th century chapel (pifflers can work out which title is the overriding one there! <g>) and some excavations of King David's fortifications inside the current walls, there is not much in the way of "old stuff" to see. And even at 10am it was pretty difficult to avoid the hoards of guided tours.

The Crown Jewels of Scotland exhibition was incredibly touristy and only the Stone of Scone was really worth seeing. And then I'm not sure if it is the really real Stone, rather favouring the Hamish MacBeth version myself. I'm not sure if North America has had the Hamish MacBeth series starring Robert Carlyle, but if it ever arrives, it is really worth watching even if only to see Wee Jock.

So with the mood to find really old things on me, I walked down the Royal Mile to St Giles Cathedral - no good, mostly 19th century though they do have some heartbreaking pictures of the medieval entrance before it was demolished a hundred years or so ago.

Where next? I decided to see what the Museum of Scotland held and finally found some very interesting things. They have a lovely collection tracing back to prehistory and including Pictish Stones, a lot of early Celtish stonework and some brilliant Medieval and Renaissance timberwork. The Beaton panels fit the latter category and are stunning and amazingly well preserved.

After a lengthy detour in the Museum Shop (oops!) I 'took tea' at the café and enjoyed drinking Earl Grey while absorbing the ambience and inspecting my purchases. A quick look at the city map showed that the National Library of Scotland was nearby so I had a look at their exhibiton of children's books which was beautifully themed and contained some wonderful editions of old favourites. They had T H White's 'Sword in the Stone' open at a page featuring Archimedes, one of my favourite literary owls which was excellent.

Nothing about Dorothy Dunnett anywhere to be seen so I wandered back up (amazing how many ups there are in Edinburgh) to the Royal Mile in search of the Writer's Museum advertised in the tourist material. I found it after a detour into Gladstone's Land, a reconstructed 17th century house (well several houses and shops really) but was disappointed to find that they were only interested in Walter Scott, R L Stevenson and Robbie Burns. <sigh>

So to lift my spirits I thought I should go shopping on Prince's Street. I popped into Jenner's, the Edinburgh equivalent of Harrods, and bought some emery boards that cost 0.99p, probably the cheapest item in the shop and still probably double what they would have cost anywhere else. A wander around a bookshop discovered some more items I had to have, then it was back to Portobello on the bus around mid-afternoon.

My feet said it was time for a break so I decided an afternoon rest was on the agenda and curled up to finish 'Moving Toy Shop', a fun Edmund Crispin 1940s detective story, set in Oxford.

Some healthy food for dinner for a change, tuna and pasta salad and now an early night before I leave tomorrow for the drive down to Hexham and Hadrian 's Wall - more Lymond connections there of course.

4 September

Today started with breakfast with a girl from Iceland: the B&B I was staying at was surely international if nothing else.

Today was my last day in Scotland and to be my first driving around England. I'm writing this from my B&B in the wilds of Northumbria, somewhere in the Pennines and out of reach of all mobile phone networks. I'm going to head out once it is dark with my torch and try to find a hedgehog!

The border country on the Scottish side was more beautiful than I expect, many rolling hills and dales and pretty fields of varying colours from green to gold. Lots of stands of trees of all sorts and a pretty softness to the scenery.

I stopped at the border to take the obligatory photographs of the border markers and to consider the fun I have had in Scotland over the last ten days. It is really a most amazing country. Things that will stick in my mind are the carpets in bathrooms, the bright sunshine (hah, didn't expect that! <g>) and the friendliness of the people.

Northumbria, at first glance, was totally different. Stark high moors mark the English side of the border, with the road sloping downwards for miles. A road sign indicated that the road I wanted to use to get to Hexham was closed for maintenance, so a quick glance at my road map book showed that I could use a B road instead. This was fun though it wasn't possible to drive fast on it. It went through some very pretty towns like Bellingham and traversed Redesdale, reminding me of the Wars of Roses story of Robin of Redesdale.

I soon reached Wall territory and sidetracked to have a look at the excavated remains of the Roman Fort at Chesters. This was very interesting and certainly old enough even for me.

There was a brilliant museum of roman stones and other artefacts found at the site and the fort, praetorium and bathhouse were very well laid out. There was only a small section of Hadrian's Wall showing, just near where Chester's bridge would have crossed the nearby river. On the other side of the river there is a much bigger section of wall, just making itself look like any other stone farm wall, only wider. This part also shows where Brunton Turret stood. And it was great fun to have to climb a stile to get in and out of the paddock, ooops, field!

On to Hexham where the tourist information centre is right next to the town carpark, how clever! I booked my B&B with them, then walked up the hill to the lovely town centre which has a 14th century gaol, a market place and Hexham Abbey.

When starting the day I had expected Melrose to be the highlight, but Jedburgh was better and both were overshadowed by Hexham Abbey.

Tomorrow I'm going to Raby Castle, Durham and then on to stay the night with my friend Thelma from Pifflelist.

Tonight, now that it is nearly dark, I'm going out on a hedgehog hunt with my torch.

5 September

No hedgehogs, elusive creatures they are, but I had a lovely night at the Oakey Dene farm B&B near Allendale. No mobile network of any variety worked there - must be in the wilds of Northumbria's Pennines.

This morning I headed out over the dales to Alston for petrol and then over the moors to Castle Barnard. This is a very pretty market town and has an old market cross which was really the site of the old butter market. There is a Richard IIII memorial garden near the 12th century church commemorating him as a benefactor of the town and the church.

I walked along the High Street and down Scar Top to the castle which is now an impressive ruin. It is well laid with inner, middle and outer keeps. There is an oriel window where the Great Chamber stood over the Great Hall which has a bore carved into the stone. The window and carving date back to 15th century and are believed to have been installed by R3.

The castle originally belonged to the Balliol family and then later became part of the Neville's Warwick inheritance.

Next it was on to Raby Castle which is still inhabited and only open on Wednesdays and Sundays, oh well there are plenty of other places to see. I took some photos of the castle from the road including one of the deer which inhabit the park.

Finding my way into Durham was not too bad. Car parks were well signposted so I parked and climbed up to the Cathedral and Castle (really the Bishop's Residence). There was a nice indoor market on the way and a pretty market square. The Cathedral is quite overpoweringly huge. Very awesome! It seems to have escaped being 'renovated' during the 19th century and the stonework looks wonderfully old.

There was a lot to see and some of the surrounding buildings like the cloisters and the almshouse were almost as interesting as the Cathedral itself.

I found my instructions for heading to Thelma's and set off south on the A1. The instructions were perfect, as good as the ones the AA do on the internet and I had no problem finding my way to Norton where I stopped to check out the duckpond and the High Street.

Week 3 Part 2

September 6

After a lazy breakfast we headed off to Whitby by the scenic coastal route, well scenic after a while anyway.

After a lunch of local flavour with cheddar and pickle sandwich followed by fruit cake and wensleydale cheese (yes, the two do go together very well!) we felt sufficiently recovered from shopping to climb the 199 steps up to the abbey. We declined to tour the abbey ruins themselves as I was feeling a little bit abbeyed out but instead just stood and enjoyed the view for a few minutes (no, we weren't having to get our breath back <g>). It was interesting to hear a tour guide explaining the sights to a group of foreign school children: there were lots of foreign words with smatterings we could understand thrown in like fish
and chip shop and Dracula.

On the way back down the hill we realised that we had overstayed our parking time but fortunately there was no parking ticket when we returned to the car. Thelma had arranged to catch the train back home so that I could drive straight on to York so we said hurried goodbyes in the carpark with promises to catch up again on email.

I drove south to Scarborough then turned inland. After a few miles the rain started to fall which cleaned all the squashed bugs off the windscreen if nothing else. I detoured for a quick look at Stamford Bridge, the site of the important 1066 battle prior to Hastings, then headed for York.

September 7

The day dawned fine and even a bit sunny again. After a lovely breakfast chatting with a nice couple from Shetland who have relatives in Fremantle, I set off on the longish drive to Upwell in the fens on the border between Norfolk and Cambridgeshire.

I decided to take a quick drive through the Peak District since I had time and detoured off the M1 toward Chesterfield. There was a sign on the offramp advising of a 'Car Boot Sale' so I thought I'd take a look and found it in a field close by. Car Boot sales are the equivalent of the Swap Meets we have in Australia. I found three books I was interested in: the first in a series by Kate Elliott, a Sheri S Tepper book and a First Edition Diana Wynne Jones. Total cost 3 pounds including an owl figurine to add to my collection.

Chesterfield was a traffic nightmare heading towards midday on a Saturday so I struggled through it onto the road out to Bakewell. Then I did a loop and came back through Matlock, Alfreton and back onto the M1. I headed across country again at Nottingham taking the ring road to the south of the city and through Melton Mowbray and Oakford to the A1 and then branching off to Cambridge.

In Cambridge I collected Bevis, another piffle friend who was also coming to meet the Reverend Alan Jesson of the parishes of Upwell and Outwell for the first time. But first I had a quick look around Cambridge including the market square which had some interesting things for sale. Some of the old buildings are full of character and the gardens around the river Cam are very beautiful. As it was a warm, sunny Saturday afternoon, the town centre was cram packed with people wandering around.

The drive up to Upwell was my first introduction to the landscape of the fens which are flat and below sea level. There is a complicated series of water channels to remove water from the land leaving it dry for crop farming.

On arriving at Upwell, I checked in the Five Bells pub (which looks just like an English pub should look). From the hotel carpark there is a great view of the Church of St Peter which is just next door. In fact the route from Alan's Rectory to the Church must take him right past the pub door.

A time for dinner was confirmed with Alan, leaving just enough time for a quick shower and change beforehand. The Five Bells has recently changed hands and the new staff were very willing and keen to help. Dinner was lively and full of discussion of various books and authors as well as teaching me a lot about modern day life in the fens.

September 8

The next morning saw us in the church for the 9am communion service - at least we would have been perfectly on time if we hadn't discovered that all the pub doors were locked and that the woman running it couldn't find the keys.

There is little remaining of Fotherighay Castle but there is a nice old church is in good condition. It was definitely not as exciting in detail as Alan's churches though.

Back to Cambridge for lunch with Simon Kershaw, another email friend and Dorothy Sayers fan. Lunch had been arranged for The Eagle pub in central Cambridge and tackling the interesting ring road arrangement and finding the right carpark was a testing experience. The rain had got much heavier and so it was a rather damp Cambridge this time.

With my Plougman's Lunch I tried a pint of Old Speckled Hen, a lovely Ale. There was a huge piece of Stilton cheese with my lunch and I couldn't eat it all so wrapped the leftover hunk in a serviette and took it with me (remember the Stilton!) Simon was very entertaining and we talked of computers, colleges in Cambridge and Oxford, including the "Fair Isle" one, over lunch. Then Simon had to go back to work (poor man!) while we headed across country westward, through unscenic Luton, Dunstable and places like that, ending up with peak hour traffic in Oxford - not the nicest driving I've done. The rain showed no sign of stopping the whole afternoon but at least it wasn't spoiling any interesting sights.

After dropping Bevis in a very wet Oxford, I headed off toward Evesham to find a B&B for the night. But it was getting dark very quickly and still wet and miserable so I stopped just short of Moreton-in-Marsh in the beginning of the Cotswolds with the hope that the scenery would look better in the morning.

The B&B I found was owned by a lovely couple including an author whose name was David Cox. He mentioned that he had written a book which had sold very well in US and had bought this lovely place to run as a B&B. When I asked his wife about it the next morning she found a copy to check the title which was "Benjie, a Dog and his Man". Could this be the book the Benjie movie was taken from I wonder? I'll have to look it up when I get home.