The day starts with a visit to the hairdresser. Not a typical holiday activity, but I just had to get it short again, it was annoying the hell out of me. It is cold and the sky is overcast, but at least it’s not raining. We almost get blown away by the wind on the quais of the Mersey river, while we walk from the Museum of Liverpool to the Royal Albert dock.
We wander around town, it’s a beautiful mix of old and new buildings, both impressively sized. We start our drive north on the M6 highway around eleven and stop for a half foot Subway sandwich by the road side.
Since we’re now members of English Heritage, we use the app to find the next interesting thing to see. Stott Park Bobbin Mill at the edge of Lake District NP is more or less on the way, a 19th century bobbin mill, still completely funtional. The tour takes us around the mill while the guide makes a bobbin right in front of your eyes.
It’s still pretty early so we decide to take a detour to visit Furness Abbey. A lot of it is still standing, it must have been impressive in its time. We walk around the site, the red stone is soft and a lot of the detailed masonry work has faded away but even so it’s beautiful to see. When we walk out, it’s still pretty early, so we make another detour and set off to find Hardknott Roman Fort. We were expecting a remote site, but even so we’re a bit taken by surprise when the road becomes very narrow, very curvy and very steep. The fort should be located near Hardknott pass, but when we finally make it up there (ascents of 30%!) we don’t see anything.
There’s almost no room to stop anyway and we don’t want to get down from this pass in the dark, so we drive on to the next pass, which will take us to the hotel. It’s a nerve wracking ride, but the views are stunning!
Febe writes 