Wed, 04 Sep 2002

author Tim	location Carlisle, England
posted 17:58 BST	section Europe2002/Europe/UK/England/North England ( all photos )

Mountain Climbing ( )
We now have a few extra blisters and aching limbs courtesy of Peter and couple of his friends taking us for a walk up a 2000ft mountain (damn these Imperial measurements!) and back down again. This was about half an hour south of Carlisle, into the Lake District. The valleys were beautiful, and the lakes viewed from the top were icing on the cake.
A very nice way to blow a few hours, the view was fantastic in what continues to be extremely good weather. I'm beginning to suspect the story of bad pommy weather is all a myth. I'm sure I'll eat those words later.
One of Peter's friends David brought his two dogs Badger and Rocky, the latter being the only member of the expedition to rival me for unfitness, although at fifteen years old that isn't saying much for me.
We had a late lunch at a pub at one end of the lake, where Liz had chicken something, and I had a beef steak, mushroom pot-pie and veges. A great cheap pub meal.
[The next day, we started exploring North and Central England]

author Tim	location Carlisle, England
posted 17:48 BST 04/09/2002	section Europe2002/Europe/UK/England/North England ( all photos )

Around Carlisle, and a Pug ( )
Peter showed us a little of Carlisle city itself, including Tulley House, a museum of Carlisle's long and sordid history, and many other historical places. It's very strange seeing buildings advertising dates that show they were built before the First Fleet arrived in Australia. Of course, many are quite a bit older than that.
The other piece of news is that we have put a deposit on a car. It's a grey 1995 Peugeot 306, and if you're not interested in the details tune out now. It's an XRDT, with a turbo diesel 1.9, 5 speed, electric sunroof, power windows, power steering, nice stereo, alarm, immobiliser, 5 door hatch, only 23,000 miles (grr), and very nice to drive. I believe it is going to be named Percy. Percy the Pug. Sorry Mighty Mouse, we would have brought you if we could.
Now we're just waiting on the bank to get their act together (sound familiar?) before we can actually pay for it. Hopefully this will happen before the weekend, which would be roughly inline with our schedule - something I've just tided up and hopefully you have had a look at!

author Tim	location Carlisle, England
posted 16:34 BST	section Europe2002/Europe/UK/England/North England ( all photos )

Into phase three! ( )
(Continued from London 1)
I'm writing this from Peter's place - we've arrived safely, and, according to him, amazingly on-time. Apparently Virgin, although omni-present, are almost omni-inefficient.
On the train I updated the Itinerary page with our future plans - please peruse it at your leisure, and then be completely un-suprised when we do something completely different!

(customised)