Carlisle to Pitlochry

Carlisle to Pitlochry

Not much to say today... spent most of the time on the road. Beautiful day and beautiful scenery... and freeways nearly all the way!

So I was up early and on the road again, because it was Sunday and I wanted to  go to Mass. Google is my second best friend whilst I'm on the road, and I found a Church called St Edmunds  in West Carlisle which had a Mass at 9.30am.

St Edmund's Carlisle West UK

St Edmund's Carlisle West UK

Once again I noticed the  contrast in the size and grandeur of this  lovely little Church with the massive Cathedrals and even Parish Churches that are now associated with the  Anglican tradition.
Once again it was a very welcoming community and it made it worth the effort to get there.

So I had thoughts about maybe having a coffee somewhere in Carlisle, but Sunday morning at 10.30m is obviously not the optimum time in this town. I did a quick lap around the city centre, but it was all very dead looking, so I decided to just hit the road and see where it took me.

Hitting the road meant continuing on the M6 which is the main drag between the North and the South..  here's a pic from later on in Pitlochry which shows how the Scottish and the British see it..

Simple really....!!!

I was just going to go into one of those soul-less wayside stops on the M6, but I saw the signpost to Lockerbie and of course, the brain goes tick-tick-ding and I headed off there... much to the chagrin of Gaby Garmin!

Drove into town hoping to see a memorial of something related to the airline disaster that happened over the town. But couldn't find anything... there was a signpost to the memorial garden, but I couldn't find it. So I just took a few pics of the main building in town, and the main street..

Look at the pretend sheep!

Main street of Lockerbie - buzzing on a Sunday morning!

There was one coffee shop open but it was absolutely chockers, so I moved on... and had my coffee at a road side stop! Boring!!!!

There were quite a few towns of interest along the way, that triggered things in my brain...

Dunblane - where there was the school massacre
Perth - enough said!
Stirling - my local council is called the City of Stirling
Blairgowrie- memories of childhood holidays at Sorrento
Dunkeld - (Brian, was it your Dad born there?)

To name just a few.... I'm sure I missed a few others....

Anyway, I arrived safely at Pitlochry and did a lap of the town as I looked for a suitable place to stay.  I must admit I am preferring a hotel to a B&B at the moment. I  think a hotel gives you a certain anonymity that just allows you to use the facilities but then you can escape back to your room. Sometimes I feel in a B&B you have to hang around and be sociable... And I have something very important to do every night - this blog!!!

So I chose the hotel called Scotland's hotel - very appropriate...!!

My "digs" for the night

It was about 3.30pm by now and the lady at reception said the room wasn't quite ready, could I come back in an hour or so...??? So I rugged up and went for a walk through Pitlochry...

I meant to say the weather was perfectly splendid today, until I got  about 20 kms outside Pitlochry and the road descended into the valley, and all of a sudden the mist rolled in and it became very cold and gloomy - much like I expected Scotland to be. The scenery was absolutely beautiful on the way up and you could see and feel the gentle rolling hills of England transform into bigger and more rugged mountains. The further north I went, the more craggy the scenery became, but still full of green fields and sheep and cows and a very pastoral setting. But those mountains were looming in the background.

So I took a few pics of Pitlochry on a gloomy and cold Sunday afternoon..

Main street Pitlochry

Main street Pitlochry

Little stream that runs through the town

And here's the  railway station for my train minded family..

Pitlochry station

And as usual I found someone who was happy to take my pic...

Pitlochry

Pitlochry

Pitlochry

One other little thing that happened since I wrote this last night...

My single room in the hotel was a bit small and pokey, but hey, a bed is a bed... anyway, I found out my toilet wouldn't flush properly, so I went down and told them and they  upgraded me to a double room. Much more spacious and I slept like a baby!!! First time I've ever asked to change rooms, but I can't live without my toilet!!!

Is that TMI  (too much information)???

All part of the story of the journey!