A Trip Of A Lifetime --Part 4

After leaving Scotland we were on the road again. We headed to the small town of Bamburgh where we accidentally found this stunning castle at the edge of town  right on the coast.

It was a lovely little place, we found a great pub to have lunch and we decided to have the roast pheasant as we had been seeing so many of them in the wild as we drove through the countryside. It was delicious.
We decided not to do the tour of the castle as at that we were a little castled out( if there is such a statement)
We wandered back to the car park and just across the way in a lovely grassy paddock were these beautiful Highland Cattle.

We had been keeping our eyes open all over Scotland to see these lovely cattle to no avail and as soon as we were back in England we spot them.
After leaving Bamburgh we  headed to Hexham and booked into The Queen's Arms Hotel.

The reason for choosing this area was that it is centrally located to sections of  Hadrian's Wall.
The Publican of the hotel sent us to a place called Steel Rigg.

A pretty walk along a pathway and we found  a section of the wall along with stunning views( sorry again about all the photos.

We all had a little wander along the wall, just to say we did it!

We were just blown away with the sheer beauty of this place.
The next morning we drove into the centre of Hexham, caught up on a bit of shopping and a coffee while we waited to be able to drive out to Housesteads the Ruins of an ancient Roman fort.

We also had a short walk to get to the site.

Of course we were lucky enough to find two Australian couples  from Queensland who kindly offered to take a group photo of us and we took one of them.

Hadrian's wall was such an amazing place, we thoroughly enjoyed our visit, soaking up  all the history and beauty of it.
We then headed to another place that I have wanted to see, Goathland in North Yorkshire.

.Goathland AKA Aidensfield  from the TV series Heartbeat of which I was an avid fan for many years,
Goathland is a pretty little village built around the traditional village green.

The Goathland Hotel was the Aidensfield Arms,

There was also Scripp's  Garage and Funeral Service,

We had a wander down to the Goathland Railway Station which also regularly featured on the show.

I had several reasons for wanting to visit Goathland, another was to take a photograph of the over bridge for my granddaughter who is a big Harry Potter fan and this bridge was used in one of the early Harry Potter movies.

The last reason was personal,  A friend lost something here and I was able to help find it,and I am so glad I went, I was just meant to be there..

We wandered back up into the street  for lunch and had a look around all the quaint shops with the old cars on display.

After leaving Goathland we came down from the moors( beautiful landscape),

We found our way to Thirsk where we had booked into The White Horse Hotel.

There were stunning views back towards the hills from the rooftop deck outside our room.

The next morning we headed off towards Nottingham, The boys went off to do an underground caves system  which they said was a little disappointing while we girls headed off to do some quality second hand op shopping.
After getting back together we went in search of a certain old pub for lunch but on the way came across Nottingham Castle which sadly wasn't open that month due to repairs.

A bit more walking and we found our pub, Ye Olde Trip To Jerusalem, reportedly the oldest Inn in England.

It was set back in against the wall of Nottingham Castle and some of the rooms inside had been carved into the natural rock wall behind. The meal was average but the feel of the place was great.

While having lunch we did a bit of googling regarding things to do in the area  and it came up with Wollaton Hall, a beautiful Elizabethan  Home and Deer park.

Wollaton Hall houses The Natural History Museum which we had a look through.

There were stunning animal displays throughout the building.
The rear of the building was also stunning,

We wandered the  beautiful grounds including this  ancient Camellia greenhouse, stated as the oldest metal glasshouse in the Uk and Europe.

We also found some new squirrel friends, one was especially friendly with us.

Roaming around the grounds and the adjoining golf club were deer, so wonderful to just see them wandering around.

After a lovely afternoon at Wollaton Hall we checked for a B&B and really struck it lucky and found
Bosworth hall Hotel and Spa in the town of Market Bosworth.
What an amazing place !

The Estate  dates back to 1589 and it was such a stunning place we decided to stay for 2 nights.
Some of the reception rooms were set up for a christening and a Hen's afternoon tea party.

The hallways  and staircase of the older section of the hall were just amazing,

We wandered the gardens,

We even took advantage of the big picture frame they have erected in the garden and got a group picture. A kind man passing by offered to take the photo and he turned out to be the Hotel  General Manager.

Brian and I wandered a little further afield and found St Peters' Church Of England church next door and as it was open had a peep inside.

We also found a lovely little pathway that led us to the old water tower that still supplies the Hall today.

The next morning we headed to the nearby town of Numeaton to use the Laundromat and met the friendliest  staff who offered to do our laundry and sent us off to check out the local street markets.

We had a lovely wander around and a coffee and returned to get our lovely clean Laundry.
We then decided to go to the Bosworth Battlefield located at Sutton Cheney.
This was the site of one of the last battles in The War Of The Roses and took place on 22nd August 1485. Henry V11 defeated Richard 111.

It was a lovely area, they had marked out a  great walking circuit with stunning views of a few kilometres and we set off.

We came across a  little railway station with a steam train just pulling out as we arrived.

We crossed the tracks and kept following the pathway,

After quite a long walk we ended up crossing a bridge and walking alongside a canal.

At this point we were a little lost, we decided to keep following the canal,hoping to eventually find our way. A couple of  canal boats came along and gave us directions, apparently we had missed our path route marker.

Eventually we came across this great  canal side eatery, crossed over the bridge and had a fantastic well earned lunch.

We were given directions back to where we began our adventure. What a wonderful few hours we had and we would never have found that canal had we not got lost.
Back at the Hall  we decided to have a few drinks and just have some great finger food for dinner(This is where I  discovered how much I love pink Rhubarb Gin), I have been searching the bottle shops  back here at home and have only just found it last week.

It was here we met three lovely girls who were having a girls weekend at the hall, Karen,Heather and Jackie, they were fun.Unfortunately I didn't get a pic of the 3 girls.

The next morning we headed off to Heathrow airport to drop off our hire van, The hire company then dropped us off at The Thistle Hotel near the airport where we would spend our last night in The UK.

The Thistle Hotel had the longest hallways I had ever seen.

After dropping off our luggage , we headed into Cross Station as I had just one more thing I needed to do before I left,I absolutely loved the light tunnel at the station,

The ceiling of Kings Cross Station was stunning,

The reason I went to Kings Cross was to get this photo of the Harry Potter  Platform 9 3/4 for our Granddaughter.

We had a  roam around the area, found this gorgeous display of geraniums,

Another pretty little canal area,

Then a train and bus trip back to our hotel. These trains were all open, right through.

After a great nights sleep, we all met up and awaited out airport bus to arrive.

We spent more time in the Emirates lounge area,

We boarded our plane and made ourselves comfortable.
I watched the plane  camera on my tv screen,

Before we knew it we were  touching down in Abu Dhabi just after dark after a 7 hour flight.

What a totally amazing,wonderful,stunning holiday we had in the UK, we loved every minute of every country and area  we explored, we had no where near enough time and there was so much we didn't see, but we also saw heaps. I definately will be back one day to fill in all the gaps.My one regret ,that as we were traveling in a group of six,  sadly there were people that I have met  either here in Australia or online that live in England and Ireland that I would dearly love to have caught up with or visited and  that I was unable to do so. Our time schedule also added extra pressure and we all  had to miss out on some things we would love to have done. All the more reason to return!
My next post will be  about the few days we spent in Abu Dahbi.
So until then,take care,
Cheers,
Jane and Brian.