County Durham Roadtrip: 21st-22nd May 2016

Slowed by a night of drinking and a dearth of sleep the night before, Astrid and I left Livingston late on Saturday morning, stopping to give her a wash, refuel and check tyre pressures before heading South-East.

At Cockburnspath I took my first deviation from the Googlemaps prescribed route - taking the Berwickshire Coastal route south to Berwick Upon Tweed. The route was very scenic and windy, along south-east Scotland's fabulously rugged clifftops, and I arrived in Berwick in good time for lunch, to surprising sunshine!

Astrid on the Berwickshire smugglers trail

Berwick Upon Tweed was a particular target of mine becauce, like Durham, it looked so pretty from the train. I was pleased to find that on foot it lived up to my expectations! Being a border town, Berick Upon Tweed was heavily fortified and evidence of its military history was omnipresent. It changed hands a number of time between Scotland and England. It was nice to have a historical twist to this pretty seaside town.

The old streets of Berwick Upon Tweed

The rail bridge from where I had first seen (and decided to visit) the town.

A beautiful church against a sky that looks like a painting!

Blossom confetti

After an unexpectedly fabulous lunch at Audela, a little cafe on Bridge Street, including an immense slight of pecan, salted caramel and ginger cake, Astrid and I hit the road again, and continued our journey south.

I arrived into Durham shortly after 4pm, and took the Park and Ride into town. This did save me the hassle (and no doubt greater expense) of driving in, but limited my stay to three hours as the Park and Ride shut at 7pm.

Durham is a beautiful city, especially so on a balmy spring afternoon. The town was packed with students and folk celebrating the warm weekend, but I headed up through the greenery on the eastern bank of the river Wear to the cathedral.

Durham Cathedral. The main tower was covered in scaffolding so this is just
part of the building...

The closk struck five as I was there. There was almost noone about, except a handful of  students literally hurrying about with books. It felt like I was on the set of the TV show Lewis - when they're walking around Oxford but there's almost nobody there. The Cathedral is massive and the architecture is amazing. Inside I found a small room (the cloister I think) with a wooden carving of a pregnant woman in the middle. In that room there was this amazing stillness, I've never felt such peace and stillness before. It was shattered when a family walked in, the father's phone ringing in his pocket. 

I had dinner at an Italian restaurant in town which I chose because it was the only independent eatery open after 5.30. It wasn't great, very busy, loud, with the waiters very rushed and as a result I was accidentally given chicken pasta. I wouldn't reccomend it. Whilst there I booked a hostel for the night, and then got the bus back to Astrid. Durham got a little more rowdy after five o clock, the streets filled with loud-voiced men in polo shorts and too much after-shave, and women in gaudy coloured tight dresses with orange legs and black eyebrows. Everyone was heading to or from a pub, and I felt smug in my trainers watching the ladies in their heels struggling with the steep cobbled streets (although that's not to say I haven't been there myself!)

Durham Market Square

Astrid's alarm was going off when I returned to the carpark but I couldn't see any disturbance, so we drove on to Langdon Beck, a tiny village in County Durham. It was a beautiful hour of driving to get there, ending at a lonely grey stone building, with only three other buildings in sight, including the church. The Youth Hostel manager was very friendly and helpful, and I had a dorm to myself as all the other guests had private rooms or were male! It was minutes before I was heading out again with camera in hand, to capture some atmospheric low lighting which turned into a pretty spectacular sunset. I found myself overwhelmed with the beauty of the day and all that I had experienced, I was so glad that I had taken this trip!

one of my favourite photos of the trip. 

One of our neighbours, about a kilometre from the hostel

The hostel itself

A photo that just says "summer evening" to me

The next morning I had a large breakfast of toast, a warm croissant, and a vegetarian English breakfast (yes, English!). Breakfast was served at 7.30 and I was back on the roadt by 8, this time for the short drive to High Force waterfall, the longest uninterrupted waterfall in the UK. The carpark wasn't yet attended and nor was the ticket station at the beginning of the walk, but I dropped some money into the honesty box and enjoyed a scenic walk to the waterfall, not meeting another human being the whole way. The waterfall was indeed impressive, but I didn't return to the carpark, instead joining a circular walk route to see Low Force waterfall (this one a series, at not such a great height) and trekking through a great many fields of sheep, hemmed by stone walls.

High Force from a distance

It interested me that most of the sheep ran away from me, one jumped into the air in shock and then ran away, bleating! One field I entered contained very friendly sheep though. Two lambs actually came to greet me and I got within two metres of them, and a ewe licked my hand and nudged my leg (I washed them thoroughly afterwards but she was cute!) in the same field I found a docked lambs tail, which was a bit gross, but interesting!

Lambs from up close. Note the lack of tails!

Finally it was time to head back north. The carpark attendant had arrived by the time I returned, and after charging me £2, he helpfully pointed out the most scenic route to Carlisle. I was practising driving with an atlas as opposed to GPS, and successfully followed a very interesting route through Alston, where I drove down the cobbled high street wincing all the way, through the thought-provokingly named Slaggyford, to join the A69 at Brampton. It was very scenic.

Astrid pulled over on our scenic drive so we could wait for a clear road

Next stop was Gretna, where I had a pleasant lunch at the Blacksmiths shop, and then on to Mabie forest, Dumfries, where my plan to go mountain biking was foiled by a lack of cycle hire. Instead I just took some photos, as it was every bit as beautiful as Durham, the Pennines, and Berwick had been in its own way! Eventually Astrid and I traipsed home.

The huge, beautiful woods. I love woodland in spring!

Close up of a mossy log surrounded by wildflowers

Overall the route was over 400 miles, and I took (on average) one photo per mile!

#Japan16 Hakone to Osaka

After the best night's sleep I'd had in a week, I went straight downstairs for an early morning dip in the Onsen. It was just as relaxing as I'd remembered, and again I had it to myself. I pinched another ice lolly on the way back to my room, admiring the view out over the valley from my balcony. The steam from the hot springs was rising up to merge into the clouds. It was beautiful.
I had breakfast arranged, and I had my own vegetarian breakfast of tofu, rice, pickles, omelette, beans, miso soup and steamed vegetables (cooked in a little heater on my table). It was all good excel for some weird mushrooms in my soup. I thought my soup was a bit fishy, but I know it is common to use fish stock in food over here. The mushroom I ate seemed to be the sauce of the fishiness though, and the texture was... Odd. I carefully finished my mouthful before inspecting another one. No, it was definitely some deformed sea creature! I felt quite unwell, but I finished everything except the soup, knowing my next meal was uncertain. I left the hostel, boycotting the funicular (now I knew the route) to enjoy an atmosphere walk through misty Goya. I took this time to appreciate that I was really in Japan, and it looked just as mysterious and beautiful as I'd hoped. The weather was cool and damp, perfect for hiking, but Osaka was calling, so I got on the train!

The offending 'mushroom'. Just looking at
it makes me feel queasy!

It was a long journey to Osaka, but on the way I befriended a young Chinese -American man, who waas telling me of his love for Akihabara (Tokyo), where he had bought a suitcase, and a suitcase worth of video games! He was studying to become a composer of music for video games, and we exchanged soundtracks, which made the journey much more pleasant, and we exchanged details before we parted company at Osaka station.

I didn't linger in the city but got a local train straight out to the suburb of Mono -o/Minoo/Minoh (depending on who you ask). There I bought a Japanese sweet, a green putty made of rice, with a core of sweet beancurd. The ladies at the cafe who had enticed me in were very friendly and also gave me a sort of gelatious bean sweet, and a cup of bean tea. Now that is exotic even for my kind of teas! I can't say I enjoyed it but it was interesting!

Bean cake, bean sweet, and bean tea. Yummy...

From the cafe I walked into Minoo park, a serene place tracking a clear, shallow river for nearly three kilometres. Signs warned me of wild monkeys, but sadly I didn't see any. The walk culminated in a beautiful red bridge over the river, begin which stood a tall waterfall. Three boys were filming each other boxing on the bridge, but they left after a while and I got some photos. Unfortunately the foliage was still a bit barren from winter, but it was nonetheless worth the trip.
By the time I got back to the city centre, dusk was falling. The buildings we passed looked spectacular in the lowlight with their rainbow signage, so I impulsively decided to take my camera for a wander around the Umeda area of the city.


Setting my camera down on any stable surfaces I could find, and playing with the shutter speed, I got some fantastic photos of neon Osaka. I stumbled into my new Hostel, Guesthouse Morizou, at 7.45. It was a tiny place, cosy and very cute, covered in handwritten notes secured with Washi tape saying things like "please mind your head! :)", and plastic figurines. The beds had curtains with friendship bracelet tie-backs, and the staff were very friendly, the girls even called me "kawaii"!

So much neon. And so many bikes!

 I ditched my bag there and messaged my new friend from the train. He was staying with a friend, and the three of us agreed to meet for dinner, so I hopped on the Japan Railways train to Namba station, where I came across several young people dancing in the street. Literally. It was like a scene from one of the Step Up movies - some cool break dancing street gang. I wanted to stop and watch, but didn't want to put them off, as I was a lot more conspicuous in Osaka than in Tokyo (Osaka is less touristy) and I had people to meet! I walked "Namba walk" which was a strange underground shopping and food arcade, and also an art gallery! At the other end was the station where my new friends were waiting, and we went to Dotomburi. Dotombori was recommended in my guidebook as one of the best places to eat in Osaka, a city renowned for its food, but we were limited by my vegetarianism. Finally we found a place with a number of meat free small dishes, and to my delight we ordered by vending machine! I entered all of my small change, selected the numbers of the items I wanted, and received three tickets, which I then presented to the waitress inside the restaurant.

My first vending machine dinner. Not sure how I missed the cat!

I had rice, Kimchi, and beansprouts. Although rice is rarely exceptional, the Kimchi was quite nice and the beansprouts and seaweed which came with it was absolutely delicious! After that we wandered down to see the famous Glici "running man". I thought he was a poster but it:s actually an enormous neon sign. Of course it:s neon - this is Osaka. Osaka was such a vibrant, happy city, I liked it much more than I expected. The guys dropped me at the nearest subway station and I made it back to my stop just in time for curfew. As I hurrid back to the hostel, someone came up behind me and made me jump. It was one of my room mates, a Korean girl who I had chatted briefly to as I unpacked.

She was lovely to talk to as we strolled back. She had discovered that he two Japanese girls in opur dorm were in Osaka for the same reason as her - to watch a Japan Idol concert live in Osaka Castle Park the next day! Unfortunately I didn:t have the spae time to join them, but we laughed at the thought. She asked what I:d had for dinner, and when I told her about my Kimchi, she explained that Japanese Kimchi is different to the original -  less salty, less spicy, and sweeter apparently. Personally I thought Japanese sounded better, but I wasn't going to tell her that! She also identified my strange breakfast sea creature as a clam!!