8/11 Windermere to Edinburgh

First stop after clearing out from our digs was to Kendall, where there is a famous farm shop and cafe.  We had cooked breakfast there and investigated some of the local products being put together, before heading onwards.

We had decided to go to Carlisle, where there was a tourist info centre near to Hadrian's wall.  We were hoping that we could see a bit of the wall close to town.  Unfortunately Carlisle are intent on getting tourists lost and confused.  They have parking signs saying "disc parking" (who knows what that means or if we can park there? ) and brown signs indicating the way to the tourist info centre which direct you to a car park you are not allowed to park in (except on weekends) which is nowhere near the tourist information office!!!

The car parking is not available to us, and the tourist info is not near to Cecil St, or the council offices!! (or in the direction that this sign is pointing) 

Eventually we left Trev in the car in a space we were not sure we could park in, and walked rapidly in bitingly cold wind to the tourist info office to find out that we needed to drive out of town some way.

This gave us a great chance to find a castle hidden down a narrow laneway (navigation devices :)) before finally finding the closed Birdoswald Roman fort which stands beside part of the wall which is still standing. We had a bit of a look a the section of wall and the walking path which runs beside it, before heading back along the road to check out the regular roman ruins about 1/2mile from each other along the wall. (watch towers etc) .

Finally we stopped at about 2pm to check out the Lanercost Priory and had lunch in their overpriced but yummy cafe (including playing dress ups in the gift shop)

 before walking around what we could of the ruins and investigating the local church (part of the old one) which is open to the public. The church has a second level of cloister above the worship level which looks amazing, and is a smaller version of the original buildings.  You can see the ruins of the larger building through the paned windows, but we couldn't get in there. (also not open today)

you can see the ruins beyond the window.

I always feel that maybe I am being watched in these places

Finally as the rain started to fall again we realised the time, adjusted our plans so that we headed directly to Edinburgh (hitting peak hour traffic as we made it into the city centre).  We caught a glimpse of the castle as we drove in, finally finding our new home for the next 3 days (a ground floor unit with 2 bedrooms and roomy kitchen)  and walking to find the recommended local chinese food for our dinner.  Locals were buying chips with curry sauce as their most popular choice!!!

We have booked to go and see Edinburgh castle tomorrow.