Saturday morning we were packed and ready to roll. Convertible top down, tiny car boot packed with as much doggie stuff as human stuff. And we were off to the races.
We had a good 10 hours worth of driving to get to the AirBnb outside Ashford in Kent and doing it in one day just wasn’t going to cut it. The plan was to get as far as Durham the first day – about 5 hours driving. As a bonus, we know people in the area so we wanted to stop and say hello.
The drive south was blissfully uneventful. We stopped in Berwick-upon-Tweed for lunch at a lovely coffee shop that was both dog and gluten free friendly. We then wandered around the town in the glorious sunshine before hopping back in the convertible and heading off.
A quick stop at Bamburgh Castle gave us a chance to stretch our legs and decide that we needed to come back and spend some time. (For the Last Kingdom fans, this was where Uhtred son of Uhtred was fighting for.)
We managed to get to Headly on the Hill around dinner time where we sat with friends in the beer garden of the pub, enjoying local libations and delicious pizza while Casey wrestled with Nova, their year old Cocker pup. It was a fabulous visit and one will we do again.
Then to the hotel which provided the local pub for the area that had live music on Saturday nights. And our room was right over the pub. Yay! But it wasn’t such a big deal. Casey did great – no motion sickness, and generally well behaved. (She still doesn’t like being accosted by drunk middle-aged women in pubs no matter how adorable they think she is but we forgive her for that.)
Sunday morning we woke to weather that was a bit grey and disappointing. Turns out the rest of the travel day would be the same. The highlight of the day was our coffee stop in Durham itself where we wandered around the old town. I stopped into the cathedral during service – just in time to recite the Nicene Creed! – and decided that another visit was definitely warranted. The sun eventually broke through and we got the top down but there aren’t a lot of lovely sights to see along the A1(M) which we were traveling for more than 100 miles.
We stopped for lunch in Grantham (probably unrelated to the Earl in Downton Abbey) which had one of the most depressing city centres I have ever seen. (Yes, worse than Union Street!) We had lunch in another dog and gluten free friendly cafe where none of the staff seemed even remotely interested in actually working. The whole place was so sad.
And the rest of the trip was no better. A crash on the M11 meant we sat in the screaming sunshine so long that we needed to put the roof up. Our 5 hour drive took more than 7 hours but we finally arrived at our AirBnb around 7pm but it was plenty of time to meet the hosts and let Casey have some play time with Daisy the Naughty Beagle (their words). A cold bottle of Pinot Grigio in the fridge was most welcome! We had made a quick stop at a local Coop for supplies and it wasn’t long before we had steaks on the grill and mashed potatoes in the microwave for our gourmet Sunday night dinner. Now the real holiday can begin!
Data for the travel days:
- Hours in the car: 12 total
- Miles driven: More than 600
- Toll paid to cross the Darlington Bridge: £2.50
- Number of stink eyes from Casey in the backseat because she was bored to tears: 10000000
The Cannon Family's travel blog 