Thropton Day 3 -- Saturday June 22, 2013

This morning the weather looks a little iffy.  The other two couples who were here yesterday are now gone and only one new couple have arrived for breakfast.  Nice enough, but not overly friendly and since we all eat at the same table, the conversation does not flow as nicely as yesterday.  This is our first time at a communal table in a B & B and we really like it.  It really helps you to meet people from other areas.

The other couple took off right after breakfast and we dawdled a little over coffer.  Pauline and David (our hosts) brought their coffee in and we chatted for another hour. 

They had lots of suggestion of what to see and do.  They are giving us the National Park Pass again today so we have the option to go to Wellington Castle if we would like.  We're more inclined, however, to drive up and thru the hills of Northumberland National Park itself to see the area.



Turns out to be a great option for us!  The rain comes and goes.  Often the sun will be out, then the clouds roll over a little and we get a sun shower or two.  There are hundreds and thousands of sheep on the hill sides and rarely any people.  The road is very narrow--as they all are--but with so few cars on the road, it's a non issue.

The only one problem is that the area is shared by England and NATO forces for target practice!  The Ministry of Defence in the United Kingdom owns much of the land in the national park as the Otterburn Training Area. Some areas of this training area are off-limits, but others can be accessed only at certain times or with permission. The training area accounts for 23% of the Northumberland National Park.  So whenever we would see a red flag, we were sure not to go down those roads!  No problem for me!

This place is the PERFECT vacation spot!  So relaxing and calming that you can't help but feel at peace.  I'll take this over any city or tourist sight any day!




After a four hour drive thru the countryside, we decide to head to the coast to see what that was like.  We picked out a relative large coast town (based on the size of the letters on the map!) and headed there.  That was a disappointment.  It appears a lot of their coastline communities have been hit by the recession with lots of closures and for sale signs rather then a busting coastal community that we are familiar with. In the USA, coastline property is very valuable either by houses or businesses.  Here, it appears no personal property gets developed.  It's either little towns or big commercial ventures (like power plants!).

We start heading back to Thropton and plan to find someplace to eat on the way.  Found a very nice restaurant/pub and had seafood meals.  This was the best Fish and Chips I've had in England, actually.

As we arrived home a quick heavy shower came and passed.  As we gathered our things to come back inside a beautiful rainbow occurred!  Ed's been looking for that since we came here!