Saturday, 22 June 2024

I'm New to Northumberland........

 

One week after my fall and some bruising has come out on my foot and it's quite a bit easier to walk on. Thankfully I managed to convince Hubby I was fine to leave so he could meet up with his old school friends which had been planned some time ago. 

Sunday Daughter sent a message and Son popped over both giving their love this father's day. Daughter is performing all day in Kings Lynn and I hope it's not as wet there as it was here. While on our second cuppa conversation between father and Son moved to finding Daughter a replacement car (all three have been looking for a long time) and as luck would have it Son then found one that not only looked ideal but it was in one of our local dealers. Last mouthful of tea and off they went. Unfortunately it wasn't on the forecourt as it had only just come in and still in their prep area which isn't open on a Sunday, so Hubby put it on reserve and booked to view as soon as we get back together with Daughter who is away again till then too. 

Monday 8am we set off, heading north. One stop at Rutland Water for a cuppa and loo and the weather was warm and sunny enough to comfortably sit outside (which was lucky as the little tea shop didn't have inside seating. 
We had a varied journey of clear runs, traffic jams, road works and at least three heavy downpours to drive through. We reached Seahouses at 3pm. FriendsL&K were already there. We had a good catchup in the bar and eventually friendsL&M arrived. We had booked to have dinner at the hotel and it was all good. 
Hubby and I decided to have a little walk after dinner. This is the view from our hotel bar and restaurant areas as it's opposite just across the road. 
Only disappointment was discovering my misunderstanding of checkout day. I was told 17-23rd so assumed we checked out on Sunday 23rd, however we have paid for 23rd and therefore checkout 10.30am 24th! We could rearrange next week's coffee morning but Hubby has also booked to view a car with Daughter Monday afternoon and our new boiler is being delivered Monday too, plus next Tuesday also has important stuff booked. So we will head home a day earlier than the others.  

Tuesday after a good night's sleep and very good breakfast we sat for a while in the lounge and debated what to do as it was raining. We decided to have an easy day after all the driving done the day before. So after the rain stopped we walked into Seahouses main high street to see what they had. I managed the short walk there (about 20 mins at my slow pace) and we stopped in a tea shop when I really needed to. After our break we set off again looking for information about the local boat trips. Hubby could see I was struggling so told the others he was walking me back to the hotel while they went down to the harbour. Back in the bar/lounge they told us there was only 4½ hour boat trips at £45pp. So they had checked with the coastguard and have the tide times and planning on driving over the causeway. 
Our evening meal was in a local Italian restaurant we had seen earlier, we all enjoyed everything we ordered. FriendsL&K had walked and Hubby drove the rest of us, I couldn't have walked it again. 

Wednesday we had breakfast and friendLW said she had been ill all night but felt a lot better now. As planned we drove across to The Holy Island of Lindisfarne.
This is us crossing the causeway about 11:30am. 
FriendsL&M came in our car and so did their wheelchair which M wasn't using so I did as my foot had suffered from doing too much the day before. FriendLL had her disabled parking badge so we parked for free, then visiting the museum and priory I got in on the concession and Hubby was free as my carer. 
The Museum was interesting and fully wheelchair accessible as was this church. I love stained glass windows. 
Pushing me over the grass areas within the priory ruins was a little more challenging. 
We had a pub lunch and then another walk/push around. We headed to the castle, however when they all saw the downhill road and then the steep rise up as the castle is on top of the hill it was decided not worth the effort for FriendM's healing knee replacement and Hubby pushing me. So we chose to head back towards the carpark stopping at another cafe for a cuppa and cake ready for heading back about 4:30 pm when the tide had cleared the causeway again. 
Once back they all went to their rooms to rest and I stayed in the lounge reading. Hubby joined me soon after and then we heard FriendsL&K were not coming down again as LW was unwell again. So four of us had dinner in the hotel again. It was turning out to be a bit of a geriatric trip and I could see that Hubby couldn't relax. 

Thursday and although we were both very nearly awake we had to leap out of bed about 7:20am when the fire alarm went off. Hubby got clothes on first and while I was dressing he opened our door just as the alarm stopped and heard it was now under control, panic over but no going back to bed after that. Obviously the thought of needing to evacuate when I'm hobbling worried him and that helped Hubby decide and he told me he thought we should go home, I agreed. So we packed then went down for breakfast and to tell the others. 
We all gathered in the lounge after breakfast and said our goodbyes and we left with them at the window ready to wave as our car went by. 

When we fancied a stop we followed a brown sign which actually took us further off route than expected but we did find Ripon Walled Garden which supports the Help For Heroes charity and had this amazing knitted tank! Hope you can zoom in and see it's all knitted! Tea and cake was good too. 
We didn't make anymore stops and listened to the England v Denmark game on the radio and arrived home at half time. After that it felt like a normal Thursday at home and even did our usual online quiz. 

Friday I'm back to sitting with my legs up and resigned to the fact this healing is going to take time. 

We both liked what we did see and all the countryside we drove through so Northumberland is still new to me but I'm sure we will go back and try again. 
See you (probably still sitting here) next week.
.

2 comments:

Michelle said...

Sorry you couldn't enjoy your holiday. I seem to remember Clo's foot taking ages to heal when she wrenched it.

Daughter's car sounds positive!

MumB / @mumbosh said...

Glad I didn't just cancel and tried, but too much too soon eh?
Yes fingers crossed for the car.