Carlisle to Moffat
This morning we dropped our laundry off with a Polish woman who has a sort of laundry service she runs out of the back of a warehouse. She told us to come back in an hour so we stopped at Sainsbury for breakfast and visited the Carlisle Cathedral to see its beautiful painted ceiling with magnificent stained glass. The choir had amazing carved seats and an amazing painting on the back of the choir stalls with the story of Cuthbert on one side and the apostles on the other side. We rode by the Carlisle Castle and over the marked path where Hadrian’s Wall had been. Then we picked up our washed, dried and folded laundry from the Polish woman and gave her 5 pounds and headed north to Scotland.
We rode for quite a while on the main road as there were very few cars then moved to a bike path that ran parallel to the road.
Then we crossed the border into Scotland. It felt like quite an achievement. We had lunch in Lockerbie where a man who was mowing the grass at the church graveyard explained that the people from the plane crash were at the other graveyard, all in a very thick Scottish accent.
The weather is still beautiful as well as the scenery. We are riding through rolling hills dotted with sheep and cows with forests in the distance. We stayed at an Air BnB where we were greeted by a women with a plate of homemade cookies. We ate dinner in the narrowest hotel in Scotland and walked around the town after dinner. We spoke to two motorcyclist who were playing hooky from work because the weather was so glorious.
Carlisle
I was up at 3:30 for a couple of hours. People outside were so noisy, yelling and carrying on. Couldn’t close the window because this Ibis doesn’t have air conditioning, it only turns it on if the temperature outside is really hot.
This is the worst Ibis of all time.
Website said they had automated self-service laundry, they do not.
The room was hot.
The bathroom was small and had a step up that was painful when walking in the dark and stubbing your toe.
Extremely noisy
Uncomfortable bedding
Hard pillows
Okay, so now about the day.
Last night I looked up the hours for a local laundromat. We had washed one set of bike clothes by hand in the sink and hung them up last night as well. This morning they were dry, but we wanted to wash the rest. We rode about a mile over to the laundromat, and a very sweet lady in there said they only do full service, and it would take about 1.5 hours. She asked how much, and when we showed her she said, “small load, £5” and she would wash, dry, and fold. What a bargain. We went and picked up breakfast at Sainsbury (a mistake, took way too much time and wasn’t that good. Should have went to Tesco). We took turns eating breakfast at the Carlisle Cathedral. Had enjoyable conversations with other folks while waiting for Grace. A man told me the history of Vikings and Scotland, and their migration during famine years.
We rode past the Castle a couple of times.
The ride was nice, with continued good weather. And the paths are typically on old highways that parallel the new M interstates.
Moffat is a great little town.
Great ride today. Weather is still fantastic. We are spending the night at a wonderful B&B in the cute little Scottish town of Moffat. The people are great. Outgoing, personable, eager enough to share their stories about their day, and lots of smiles all around. The war memorial has a W. Ritchie engraved alongside others from the town who lost their lives in service during WW II. Had a fun chat with a couple of guys (Angus and Iian) who skipped off work and spent the day on their motorcycles flowing through the wilds of Scotland. Then a great dinner at the Star Hotel and pub.
The ride was nice, with continued good weather,
and the paths are typically on old highways that parallel the new M insterstaes. - Ian & Grace
