We took the commuter train 09:47 from Leeds, thru Skipton to Settle and Carlisle. It is a great trip and while we didn't take many photos of the scenery we now have a genuine recommendation. At a very minumum the trip is a two day event over-nighting in Carlisle with lunch on the way up at Appleby. We had the best two days as we did no driving and just walked, looked and enjoyed the countryside.
Our lunch stop at Appleby was a delight. A short stroll from the Station down the steep hill into town, a bridge over the Eden river and into a bustling market square where (Saturday) the local purveyors of fruit, clothes, plants and stuff were all laid out on stalls with the resultant bustle and hum of village life. We ducked into a pretty local church, St Laurence, 
called the church of the three ladies, Lady Ann, her Mother and an ancient carved reclining figure of an unknown soul all being laid to rest there. We got chatting to a local couple who were doing things in the church. We were regaled with stories of Lady Ann Clifford who in the 1600's, after waiting until her 60's to gain her inheritance, went on a spending rampage restoring her family castles and villages so thoroughly (carving her statement "this building was restored in it's entirity by AP' into every building) that the villagers of Appleby still speak of her as if she was overseeing the life of her subjects. The couple we spoke to spattered their stories with phrases like "as long as Lady Ann approves" and such like. It was most charming. http://www.visitcumbria.com/anneclif.htm for more info.
As an aside, Appleby is renown for it's June horse fair where the town is host to almost every Romany family and horse owner in England and during the fair horses can be found everywhere, in the streets on the local roads, in the river, everywhere. http://www.visitcumbria.com/events/appleby-fair.htm gives more info and some wonderful photos.
We left the church to walk up to the Almshouses that Lady Ann commissioned and which are still being used today. They are small but beautifully preserved, are well maintained and are very desirable, if small, dwellings for the village's widowed and disadvantaged. You must look at the following site for great pics and info. http://www.visitcumbria.com/pen/appbhos.htmmbria.com/pen/appbhos.htm
From the Almshouses we walked up this street to the castle. Because of a dispute with English Heritage the current owners are prevented from improving public access to the castle and so all that can be seen is a notice on the castle gates erected by the owners bemoaning the bureaucracy. http://www.britishcastle.co.uk/index.php?pageId=ApplebyCastle_theCastle will give you a castle photo and if you select History, all the details of the castle's life and times.
Our walk then took us back across the river, past the old mill, now a potters workshop,
through some lane ways and fields to the http://www.royaloakappleby.co.uk/ Royal Oak for a wonderful (if slow) lunch, dessert and an ale, wine and water.
Relaxed to the point of being comatose we realised the last train to Cumbria was in 20 minutes and we were a 20 minute walk to the Station. The resultant uphill dash to the train was successful but required significant breath gathering and regrets of taking dessert at the Royal Oak.
The folk we met at Appleby, the town's shopkeepers, houses and markets all conspired to make us want to stay longer and Gail left dreaming of buying a beautiful home right in the town centre. But we find such towns and villages every time we go adventuring and the same applies.
Anyway, we caught the train in plenty of time and arrived into the Hallmark Hotel in Carlisle late in the afternoon, checked in, Greg had a nap and Gail and Noeline headed off to explore the Castle, and the town. As luck would have it Carlisle was having it's annual market fair. 
The stalls were mostly closed by that time Saturday, and were not open when we headed off next morning but we did return later on Sunday for a wander.
The castle and grounds are huge and spectacular and another visit will have to be made to cover that area. Our trip to Hadrian's wall was planned for tomorrow and Saturday was closing fast so the girls returned to the hotel for coffee and (stall bought) fudge, after which we retired to our rooms until breakfast Sunday morning.
The Citadel is the southern entrance to Carlisle and was just outside our hotel. Fullly restored it is currently the court and holding cells. http://www.visitcumbria.com/car/carcitdl.htm has great photos and history.
We discovered there is a little bus that runs from the front of The Citadel out to and all along Hadrian's Wall to Newcastle on the East coast. We hopped on the 09:15 and boodled through the countryside to the happily shouted commentary from the driver. 
Our destination target was Birdoswald, a Roman fort from where we could walk the wall and catch a return to Carlisle. http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/server.php?show=nav.13613
This part of the wall is far less rugged than the central part we visited last year but the scope is still evident, a 2 and a half meter high wall, a steep flanking defensive ditch, guard towers every 1/3 mile, a fort every 10 miles, stone and mortar construction, west to east right across the country, all built in 7 years from AD122 and manned and patrolled for 500 years until the fall of the Roman empire. 
(There is a whole academic discussion on the cause of the fall, some attribute it to the barbarian invasions, e.g. Hannibal broke the Roman defences from the French /Italian alps and smashed the command lines. Probably though it was a combination of economic management, distributed authority in the armed forces, strategic infighting, anyway the empire fell, Roman supremacy ended, the Angles and Saxons rose up and over took the land and the Dark Ages descended on England).
Sufficient to say the day out was a fantasy of historic detail and beautiful scenery, challenging walking, 
interesting bridges and many friendly sheep.
We caught the bus back to Carlisle after a half pint at the Bridge Inn in some little village where we shard the pub with a family wetting a new baby's head.
(There is a whole academic discussion on the cause of the fall, some attribute it to the barbarian invasions, e.g. Hannibal broke the Roman defences from the French /Italian alps and smashed the command lines. Probably though it was a combination of economic management, distributed authority in the armed forces, strategic infighting, anyway the empire fell, Roman supremacy ended, the Angles and Saxons rose up and over took the land and the Dark Ages descended on England).
Sufficient to say the day out was a fantasy of historic detail and beautiful scenery, challenging walking, 
interesting bridges and many friendly sheep.
We caught the bus back to Carlisle after a half pint at the Bridge Inn in some little village where we shard the pub with a family wetting a new baby's head. We returned to Carlisle in time for lunch and found a wonderful restaurant called the Gilded Lily. As the train we thought we were catching turned out not to be leaving, we managed a waddle back to a cafe for a coffee before heading home to Wetherby.
The train trip was direct to Leeds and we shared the carriage with walkers (ramblers as they are known) for the first half of the journey and with a team of very happy rugby players for the second half. The rugby players were well lubricated and in full song but, on the basis they were running a swear jar (a pound a word) the songs were littered with abbreviations and the banter was quite entertaining.
On arrival at Leeds we collected the car from the high-rise and headed home. As we had already taken Noeline to the highest pub in England the week before, we thought it only right we should drop in on England's oldest pub on our way home from Leeds. http://www.bingleyarms.co.uk/ This place was selling ale when the Vikings were invading and before England had kings, we are talking 953 AD. The web site is worth a look. The photo below is the girls sitting in the inglenook fireplace, up the chimney of which there are two priest holes, what for to hide priests in and as an added intrigue, the pub has a underground tunnel linking it to the local church.
That took us up to the evening of August 30 and we have just one more day for this months blog. We have previously covered Salts Mill and Saltaire http://www.saltairevillage.info/ in these pages so I will not repeat the history of this world heritage site but we did take Noeline to see it, to stroll the up-market retail, quietly browse the Hocking galleries and share a wonderful lunch at "don't tell titus" , the only pub in town. http://www.donttelltitus.co.uk/ .
So that dear, patient and dedicated readers, was August 09 from Wetherby.
Noeline leaves us on September 9 and we head off to Canada and New York for a couple of weeks. September's blog will probably be late but we are really looking forward to that adventure!
