ENGLAND 2000
Day 7
Cotherstone, Durham, England
Wednesday
May 10, 2000
The weather was not my main concern this morning...
oh my aching back!
Consequently, this is where I spent May 10, 2000 -- our 14th wedding anniversary! Yep! Right here at the cottage! I woke up this morning with a terrible backache - from all that "footslogging" I guess over the last few days...(and no, Don, it was NOT your fault - I loved every minute with you and Jean!) so rather than aggravate it any more, I decided to send my darling husband out with my dear friend for the day to enjoy the sights themselves.
They chose to visit nearby Raby Castle and Barnard Castle. Unfortunately, Paul does not "do" photography much, so the pictures I've included in this page are not mine, but some I've found on the internet - just so you can visualize where they went today!
While I rested up for a while, keeping very still and letting my aching back do a bit of healing, my good friend and husband were out gallavanting around the Durham countryside - and first on their list of sights was Raby Castle. It was ok with me...really it was...I wasn't the least bit jealous of them...hey, who wants to go traipsing around Raby Castle anyway? Especially for someone with a very painful spinal column! They must have gone inside Raby Castle too, and yes, I think I do remember Paul and Margaret telling me they did the standard tour there. How nice for them!!!!
After they spent a while in this lovely but ornate country home, they decided that they would attempt to "do" two castles in one day, since the invalid was back at the cottage and would not slow them down! So back they drove to Barnard Castle (the town) and at the edge of town is the actual Barnard Castle itself. Now this is not an inhabited castle, like Raby is, but more of a ruined castle, with tour facilities inside - just enough to make a few bob off the tourists! Paul and Margaret, no doubt, had a lovely time in there walking around this ruined castle and it was really a shame I couldn't be there with them --- you know, to slow them down a bit!!! So they could linger over the good stuff...like I always do when I AM there! (smile). Well, I can only imagine how nice it was here at Barnard Castle, and since I do have a good imagination, yes, it was almost as good as being there for me...looking at these pictures I found at FreeFoto (in case anyone wants to browse that wonderful photography site for themselves).
And before we leave Paul and Margaret to their touring, here is a shot of the High Street of Barnard Castle which is a very nice market town.
Well, I did what I had to do... I stayed home and licked my wounds, so to speak ... I didn't have such an uneventful day either. I found, among the videos that Peter and Ann had under the tv, the video of the story of Hannah Hauxwell, which I'd seen years before. So I put it in and had a good time watching it again! I also found another video that looked interesting - about a bunch of funny people camping in England in May - I think it was called "The Nuts of May".
I did finally manage to get our dirty clothes together and take them all down to the wash room located at the end of the cottages... While there, I had my camera and I took some pictures around the place -- the animals, the cottages, etc -- some of which you've seen here. Also, Peter had come by the night before and told us that today the filter men were coming by to change the water filters and we had to be without water for a period of time...it turned out to be almost all day, and when they were gone, I did the laundry.
Paul and Margaret seemed to have a really nice day out, and I was very happy to see them back again at the end of the day, around 4:30, all ready for a nice dinner out, and that luscious looking CAKE that Margaret got for us!
We changed the laundry (which, by the way, takes forever to do in the UK! - I think just the wash cycle took a good 90 minutes and the dry-cycle, which could not be done at the same time as they both used the same plug outlet, took longer than forever!) These are some of the things we smile about when we get back home, and these are the events which make our trips so memorable... if everything went smoothly, it wouldn't be so much fun!!!
We got cleaned up and off we all went together to neighboring Romaldkirk to a little pub there - I think it was called the Rose and Crown. It was almost empty, being a Wednesday evening. Paul and Margaret both got British Sirloin, and I had the infamous Steak & Kidney Pie! All dinners were delicious beyond description! Margaret had a glass of ale (her very first in England) since she wasn't driving, and Paul and I just had the usual water! I believe I had tea before I left as well. We skipped "pudding" at the pub because that anniversary cake was calling our names back at the cottage!
I showed Margaret and Paul the Hannah Hauxwell movie and the Nuts in May movie and they watched both of them with me...We had cake, and tea, and really did have a good 14th Wedding Anniversary after all.
I had a day off my feet, Margaret and Paul got to see two castles, and we had our first pub supper! All in all, a very good day -- I think I'm ready to get back into the swing of things tomorrow!
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