day 18 - the journey home :-(

[vampyresheep]

our last day, a day of motorway travel, but we tried to make the most of it! :-)

Decided not to risk the JDW for breakfast, so I popped to Tesco for supplies while Rob had a lie in.

After packing up and checking out, we decided to go in search of the giant folly we saw from the motorway.  It was the Ashton Memorial, one of Britain's biggest follies, designed by Lord Ashton as a tribute to his wife.  An immense, grand neo-classical temple of a place, located on the summit of a beautifully landscaped park, with views over Morecambe Bay to the Lake District.
   

 

view of Lancaster, Morecambe Bay and the Lake District Mountains


 

   

There was also a very nice cafe, so the allure of bacon roll called to us!

 

Our lunchtime stop, mid way down the M6, was Little Moreton Hall, another NT property to cross off our list!  It was a stunning 16^th C Tudor manor house, looking really like something from a fairytale. Not a single wall or floor was straight and the courtyard was a wonderful jumble of buildings and bay windows, all decked out in black and white.

Really quite stunning.

   

   

 

ancient wallpaper
 

upstairs was even more crooked, with a haphazard arrangement of rooms, corridors and stairs.
     

to our surprise, there was even a third level.  A beautiful gallery, filled with light
   

some architectural details
     

   

back out into the grounds
   

   

cute grotesques carved into the entranceway
 

We had our picnic on the grounds outside and then continued our journey.
   

For our second stop, we couldn't face a Motorway Services, so I looked online for a suitable pub.  Found The Boatman, at Stoke Bruerne, near Northampton.  Its a beautiful thatched pub on the banks of the canal. 
   

   

   
Surprisingly, it wasn't actually very busy and the masses were at the more family orientated Marstons pub across the river.  Well there's no accounting for taste and more room for us!

Unfortunately it was too early for dinner, as the menu looked lovely.  However its good to know of this place for future reference, being as its rather near the Reenactors Market location.

 

Couldn't face cooking when we got home, so our final stop was the Fishery Pub at Aldenham.  A lovely quite pub near home, which we only seem to visit when we've come home from holiday!  Food not quite as good as we'd been accustomed to on holiday but a nice finish to the trip, complemented by a beautiful sunset over Aldenham Lake (nearly an hour earlier than the sunsets in Scotland!)

so that's it.  18 days, 13 bases, 8 Scottish Breakfasts,  .....*ahem* beers, 7 days of sunshine, just 1 day of rain, 2500 miles, 2000 photos!  That was quite some holiday! 
We coped with the constant packing/unpacking quite well, although we brought too much in the way of practical clothing, which wasn't worn.  Despite the high prices of petrol and food, we surprisingly spent* less than we'd budgeted for, mainly because there wasn't much one had to actually pay to see during the first week and we made good use of our national trust card whenever we could.
The east didn't really get a chance, sadly because of the duller weather and just that the west coast was so stunning.
The only slight regret, planning wise would have been to have spent less time on the journey home (ie from Rogart to Lancaster) and used those extra days in Gairloch and possibly Fort William area.
Definately want to go back to Gairloch sometime, the countryside around there is quite possibly the most beautiful place I've ever been to.  But next year, back to Leipzig - hotel booked already!

* although a large part of my budget did go on stuff like this :-)

Comments

[erming.livejournal.com]

Just finished reading about your trip and it sounds amazing. Lana (last person before Squirry I spent serious time with) did a trip around Scotland when she was in the UK (she is American) and said it was amazing. She also said she didn't know what a litre was, but figured it was small and very expensive (petrol wise)! Looks like a good haul of whisky and I'm surprised the proprieter of the whisky shop didn't kick you out for daring to mention Bells in his store!

[vampyresheep.livejournal.com]

haha, we did have to tread very carefully around the Bells issue! ;-) He managed to persuade us to go for the Gordon and Macphail single malt as an alternative - I got a sample and it was rather nice, so hopefully Rob's dad will think the same!

Petrol was a bit shocking. Rob did jokingly say that it would cost as much as the accommodation and he wasn't too far off in the end - I paid for hotels and he paid for fuel, not much left over of the balance owing to me as a consequence. :-( Still, it was worth it for the experience, even if I did grossly underestimate the mileage we'd cover (I'd calculated the route at only 1000 miles!)

thanks for your patience in reading it! :-)

[ghost-ofa-rose.livejournal.com]

I feel like I've been on holiday to Scotland too! Thanks for all your posts. It's been really wonderful to see all your pictures of he stunning scottish scenery. And I love the tudor house in this post. Must visit that someday!

[vampyresheep.livejournal.com]

thanks for reading it! I wanted to do a concise holiday report for my own memories, rather than set up a separate travel blog; but its great if other people have read it too! :-)

Little Moreton Hall was amazing. Funnily enough, we've come home to find a big advert for it on one of the tube stations in London!

[robot-mel.livejournal.com]

The tudor hall looks fantastic! Very much enjoyed all your write ups and photos. It made me really want to go back on a holiday to Scotland!

[vampyresheep.livejournal.com]

thanks! Glad you enjoyed! :-)

Little Moreton Hall was a great place to find. It really livened up what would have been an otherwise depressing motorway journey home.