A short break in Cumbria

[cheerypeabrain]

I don't know quite what we were thinking when we booked this coach holiday....we were about 357 years too young for this type of holiday. BUT we'd never visited the area and I happened to have booked that particular week off when we received the offer.

We set out from Leicester at 0900 on Monday morning, THREE comfort breaks later we arrived at the Gilsland Spa Hotel, Cumbria at 1645....



The hotel is set in about 25 acres, about 1.5 miles from the village of Gilsland

The neighbours were suspicious....



The hotel was clean, warm with excellent kitchens and courteous, friendly staff. A roaring log fire in the bar with comfy sofas for us to snuggle on..

.

On the first day we went on an excursion to Hexham.

The old gaol



next year's Xmas card methinks...



around the town...





We went into Hexham Abbey, I took pictures but we couldn't use a flash so the pictures aren't great...the guide was very sweet and took us down into the crypt, parts of the building are over 1000 years old...I'll try and pinch some of OH's pics of that.

...we drove past bits of Hadrian's Wall but the driver didn't stop Road closures due to power lines being down meant that we couldn't get to the visitor centre.

Day 2 we decided to skip the coach trip (shopping in Carlisle) and went for a walk into Gilsland village and out the other side...took a few snaps.









er....praps we walked further than we thought...




The walk took us past these...



then the weather turned, I'm glad that I was wearing a woolly hat!



We went back to the hotel and had hot baths...then dinner, beer and bed.

We woke on Thursday morning to this....(view out of the bedroom window)



So we rushed out early to take lots of photos and to have a snowball fight.

the smokers' retreat





















On the Thursday afternoon the excursion was to the Metro Centre...shopping (OH stayed at the hotel)...it's too big but at least I've been. Got OH a bottle of Ballantines whisky from the Whisky shop.

We left on Friday morning at 10am after a huge breakfast and we were home by 1730. The holiday was good value (2-for-1 offer), everybody was lovely but we were too young to really enjoy it properly...maybe in another 60 years...

(Our fellow travelers were all in their 70s and 80s, many were very frail and that meant that they had difficulty getting on and off of the coach. They were all very nice people but had different ideas of what constitutes a good time. Tea Dances every evening before dinner, and the entertainment was primarily a chap playing an organ with singers, comedians etc...the music played being primarily from the 40s and 50s. I'm not complaining because they were just catering for 99.5% of their clientele)

[Deleted]

I love it, but I'm glad that you took the coach trip rather than me.

But, frankly, I can see some coach trips in my future.

[bjd]

It looks like a pretty area, cheery, but indeed, better you than me on a coach trip. It's okay to do what you did -- take advantage of the transport and the hotel and not participate in the shopping trips.

[mich64]

Incredible winter photos Cheery! Even though I am quite tired of winter, your photos show how beautiful going for a walk after a fresh fall can be. My favourite photo however is the one of the bulb plants that have broken through the winter cover, springs hope.

A wonderful break, I would have taken that deal too!

[cheerypeabrain]

The snow made the holiday really, we haven't had much snow here in the Midlands since the winter of 2010. Generally I'm not a huge fan because I'm always terrified I'll fall over...the hotel groundsmen cleared paths for the guests and kept them clear.

[onlyMark]

Lovely photos cheery. Good job you managed to get a walk in before the weather came.

When I was in my early twenties my brother and I decided to slip up to Cumbria for a camping/walking weekend in December. The weather forecast was good. We arrived Friday evening, pitched the tent and went to the pub. On our return my brother realised he'd not brought his sleeping bag. I had a blanket in the car though so he decided he'd tough it out.
We both spent a cold night and the night seemed to last on and on. Eventually I looked at my watch and it was 10:30am, and still mostly dark.
Something couldn't be right, I thought.
I unzipped the tent and was covered in snow. There must have been a couple of feet of it covering the tent.

We decided to spend the next night in a b and b, but, as this things happen, on driving uphill out of the campsite the car wheels slipped on the snow, suddenly got grip and blew up the back axle. We then spent the whole day waiting for the breakdown service to come and then having the car transported, with us, all the way back home again.
Not one of my best weekends away.

[cheerypeabrain]

Halcyon days

[mossie]

Back in the dark ages when I was being taught to be a night fighter navigator I became crewed up with the Polish pilot who was to whizz me about for the next four years or so.

He had a Lagonda Rapier, a 4 seat ragtop, which he would insist on driving with the hood down. On New Years Eve we went out to a pub in a nearby town with a couple of other people. After seeing in the New Year in the pub we came out to find there had been a heavy snow shower. So before we could drive off we had to remove an inch or two of snow from our seats! There was a nice bright moon by then and a few miles down the road some bright spark turned the lights off. "No worries", said my pilot, "we are night fighters and have been taught to see in the dark" So he just carried on, in fact because of the snow he could see perfectly well and just had to keep the car between the hedges.

[mich64]

Yes Cheery, I will be careful in the future as well, I will now remember I will fall over!

Last week I fell onto the road when I tried to climb over a snow bank (foolishly following the group) and it was a bit too tall for me. When I jumped off (the last of the group), forgetting that I am not 16 years old anymore, I stumbled forward and fell onto the road in front of lanes of traffic. My husband and family quickly picked me up and thankfully when examined, no broken bones, just bruises and embarrassment. Yes, we have had many discussions of how silly it was to scramble over the bank. The next game the bank was cleared away, I am fairly certain someone called the City reporting the silly lady climbing then falling over the bank onto the road.

I loved reading your stories Mark and Mossie.

[lugg]

So very pretty Cheery - we have only had a smattering here occasionally although of course its on the mountains in the distance , just not been up there yet.

[bixaorellana]

Just wonderful, Cheery, and the snow pictures are absolutely magical! I love the sheep picture because it's beautiful and your caption cracked me up. I see in one photo that you had your husband right where you wanted him.

I understand your point about all the potty breaks & the side excursions that were a little too tame, but do you think coach trips are still a good idea in terms of having all the transportation & hotel worked out in advance?

[cheerypeabrain]

I get your point Bixa, now that we have had time to think about it we reckon that we would take advantage of an offer like this again. Taking advantage of the transport to the area and the hotel but making our own plans for excursions. The problem with this one was that the hotel was very isolated, all that the nearest village had to offer was a pub and the bus service wasn't good. At this time of year these places offer bargain breaks just to fill the rooms.

Anyway, I wanna go somewhere WARM...

[bixaorellana]

Well, you know you're always welcome here!

Thanks for the answer. Sometimes I see offers that are tempting in terms of streamlining travel, but always wonder if they wouldn't be deadly in terms of either being herded around &/or too many activities or stops crowded into too little time.