13/09/2013 - Minimoon Day 4!

Another morning, another slap up breakfast!

We then headed back up to our room to pack up all our bits and bobs to head home from our lovely minimoon.

The party wasn't going to stop after leaving the hotel though! We had a visit to a Castle to enjoy!

This is the view from the Castle down to the church. Such a cute little walk!

We waiting with a rather batty woman for our tour guide to arrive, and study the history of the Castle.

That's some epic history! Which pretty much revolves around the Scottish and the English not being pals!

 We were greeted a couple of minutes late by the Manager who was to give us the tour. He was full of some very interesting information about the Castle's history.

We were not allowed to take pictures inside the Castle but got one or two outside.

900 year old castles sometimes need patching up a little!

That was our guide!

The castle was very beautiful and the tour very interesting. Sadly we couldn't stay for tea and cake as we needed to get on our merry way before the rush hour traffic set in.

Back we went to Manchester!

It was good to see the puddy tats! I had missed them both big much! Barney seemed quite pleased to see us!

See how he caught his ball? He's a clever puss!

Maia wasn't quite so welcoming...

She took up residence behind the sofa and would not come out for love nor money. Luckily for us, she didn't have to! We were staying there the night!

We headed off to the local, where Paul worked in his younger days, for a couple of drinks to extend our minimoon for an hour or two at least!

Lovely and refreshing! Especially after the rain we walked in to get there!

We stopped for supplies on the back to the house after a couple of drinks and then got settled in for the night.

The cats also seemed to get settled in!

Yes! Even Maia came out of hiding. For about 5 minutes!

She then went back under the sideboard and stayed there for a good long while. She eventually came out again, but not into the open!

"YOU COME NEAR ME, I WILL TAKE YOU DOWN! ...then run away behind the sofa again..."

12/09/2013 - Minimoon day 3!

We awoke to glorious sunshine and the sound of birds singing in the trees. I love the countryside!

We headed for breakfast, where I had crumpets with bacon and homemade ketchup, which were delicious, and then had a brew or two before deciding to head out and explore Appleby a little!

This is the front of our hotel. Rather grand, is it not?!

We decided to walk it into the village, as it was only a mile or two and such a lovely day!

A pretty view over the river. Seriously quaint stuff here!

We followed a little information sheet to see what there was to see, and then headed up to the Castle, hoping to get a tour. Unfortunately there wasn't one until 2pm, so we had some time to kill before walking to the tourist information centre to book

Doomgate. Not something I think you'd want as part of your address. Although now I type it, it could be quite cool!

Sadly they weren't running the castle tours today, but we booked onto one for the next day! So for the rest of the early afternoon we wandered around the village, checking out the cute views!

Extremely low level in the river!

A whole half pint!

We wandered back up to the hotel after a while, and then went for a stroll around the gardens at the hotel. We made a few friends and once again took in the view.

Just so pretty!

We went back indoor and Paul decided that we should take full advantage of the leisure suite at the hotel! By leisure suite. it had a rather dingy looking pool, a jacuzzi, and steam room (which didn't seem to work) and a sauna. We partook in a jacuzzi and sauna and relaxed as much as you can in a bathing suit surrounded by completely glass walls and strangers walking past!

Once back in our room, it was after 5pm so we cracked open a bottle of wine to toast our last night away!

Yes, we drank the wine out of champagne flutes. We had no option!

We headed down to the in-house bistro for dinner. Not quite as lavish as our first night's scran but equally delicious. We shared some picky bits as a starter and then I had a locally sourced Ploughmans while Paul had a pork and chorizo casserole. That was AMAZING. I was very jealous!

We both had puddings which were nice, then we headed back up to our room to finish our bottle of wine.

We were both quite tired and had lots to do tomorrow.

11/09/2013 - Minimoon Day 2!

We woke up at a fairly decent time. It's nice to not set an alarm, isn't it!

We headed downstairs for breakfast where Paul had the full english (of course) and I had pancakes with a blueberry compote. Delicious!

We then got changed and headed out into the big bad world and made for Penrith to do a little walking. This is all very well, except we got caught in traffic. Wonderful.

See how happy traffic made Paul!

This temporary traffic light took (and I'm not joking) about 10 minutes to let us have the right of way. We had a massive queue behind us. We were not amused.

We found a car park and then followed some instructions in a book we had to take us to the Penrith Beacon. You can find more information about it here.

It wasn't a long walk and it was slightly soggy but warm. We made it to the top none the less.

The views were a little marred by all the tall trees but we got a glimpse of the view over Penrith.

We also took a closer look at the Beacon and noticed a familiar name etched into the brickwork.

 T Hartley. That's my Dad. Rebel!

I took more pictures but on the leftover disposable cameras so I don't have those yet.

The route we were supposed to take back down from the beacon was closed as they were felling trees (hmph) so we had to come back down the way we came. The entrance to our little walk way was right next to a place which also had a familiar name...

Caroline Cottage?! It's MY HOUSE! MINE!

We still had lots of time on our hands so headed into Penrith for a look around. And a cream tea, of course! Sadly they didn't have clotted cream. Only squirty variety. But it will do!

 They also have a problem with rogue apostrophes. I was a bit of a grammar nut and took pictures of their little...mistakes...

BEAN'S?!?! CHIP'S?!?! CAKE'S?!?!

Still, they made up for it with this:

They put a tea cozy on their tea pots! SQUEEEE! We nearly bought one as they had one which was a cat but they were quite expensive. I'm regretting it now, though.

From there we had to go out in the rain. It was a minging day in Cumbria. We walked for a bit and saw some of the local sights but we decided that there was nothing for it but a beverage in a local ale tavern.

The one we picked has actually been in the news before as being haunted! Couldn't pass up an opportunity to see that, could we?! See the article here. (Sorry it's from the Daily Mail.)

Paul and his pint. No ghost.

My pint. Orange juice and lemonade. No ghost here either. Booooooo.

We headed back to our hotel after exhausting everything to do in Penrith. It's a very pretty place but lacking in...well...anything!

We went into the lounge area with a thought to playing a few games, however I had a bit of a headache, so settled for a cup of tea and Guess Who!

We decided to dine out this evening, as quite frankly the restaurant, while amazing, was a little pricy! We went to a local place called The Midland Hotel and ate there instead.

I can't remember exactly what we ate, but Paul took a picture of the specials boards so you can salivate over that!

The savoury cheesecake sounds amazing!

We headed a little further towards town and picked up a bottle of wine and then headed back to the hotel to chill some more. We did a lot of chilling!

Oh, and Paul made a friend.

Teehee!

10/09/2013 - ROAD TRIP!!!

I woke up REALLY disorientated this morning. I really had no clue where I was! I had a Maia trampling all over me, which is rare as it's usually Barney. Then I realised that I was at Paul's parents' house and we were going away today! YAY!

Paul's Mum decided to take today off to wave us off and she also kindly filled the car with petrol for our journey! Paul also contacted the hotel where we were going to stay and wangle us an upgrade! Great start to the morning!

I was organising the stuff we were going to take with us and decided to pack a few cameras.

These are ones that were left over from the wedding but hadn't been finished. Ok, some of them hadn't been started either! May as well use them to get some pictures taken though, right?! We had hoped that the local Sainsbury's would be able to develop one or two for us. Alas, no.

Wardrobe cat is judging you.

My cousin gave us these in our wedding card. I loved them. I think they're still at Paul's parents' house now actually, as I moved them somewhere safe so that the cats wouldn't lose them! Aren't they cute? I love elephants!

Paul had a quick shower before we headed out, so I gladly looked after his wedding ring. No excuses for losing it, Mr K!

Three rings for the elven kings under the sky...

Then off we went for our trip! We were heading up to Appleby-in-Westmoreland for a few days at Appleby Manor! We had found a pretty good deal online and hey - we love a good trip up to Cumbria, so why not?!

Got to take a selfie or two in the car. Because it's a ROAD TRIP!

WHOOP! We're going to the Lakes! :D :D Be prepared for pretty view - spam!

It took us about an hour and a half to get up to Appleby. We were still too early to check into the hotel, so we parked up and had a little stroll around the village. Then, bored of strolling, we went to the pub and had a cheeky drinklet.

Aw. Ain't we cute?!

My former surname is following me wherever I go! I can't escape Hartley!

From there we headed to our quaint hotel and got unpacked and settled in. We made reservations at the in-house restaurant for 7:30pm and then chilled out a little bit with a bottle of fizz. Because that's what we do!

We got ready and went for dinner but made the rule that we weren't going to take our phones with us. Telephones at dinner are awfully antisocial! Hence we didn't get any pictures of our food. Sorry about that.

We had a selection of canapés to start, followed by a butternut squash...soup I suppose it was, which was delicious.

For starter, Paul had scallops and I had roasted quail, then for main Paul had (copied from the website):

 Assiette of Fell Side Lamb
Roast rump, mini shepard's pie and confit shoulder of Cumbrian Lamb with celeriac puree, buttered peas & carrots and finished with a redcurrent jus.

I had:

Duo of Rare-Breed Pork
Slow-cooked belly and roast tenderloin accompanied with potato cake, creamed cabbage, apple compote, baby onions and cider jus.

These meals were fantastic. So delicious and tasty.

I was really full following dinner but as part of our upgrade they had given us a 4-course dinner, so had to have a pudding as it would be rude not to. Paul had lemon tart (which was lovely) and I had ice cream, which were 3 different flavours and very nice too!

We still had some wine left, so we headed into the conservatory to finish up. They have an amazing selection of whisky at the bar, so Paul sampled a couple of them. Not really my thing but I'm sure they were delicious!

We then headed back to our room and to bed. We were planning on a short hike the next day so needed to get some rest!