North West England
So we’re packing up in Scotland and shipping out. Well driving actually. After filling up the tank at $2.24 a litre for diesel with 7% bio we said goodbye to Edinburgh and decided to head to Glasgow. It’s only 40 miles. Well Edinburgh might be the capital and where the parliament is but Glasgow is the industry, the high rises, the hub bub of a big noisy city. We drove out of there as fast as we could and headed south through the Lakes District and on to our next stop at St Annes on the west coast. The scenery on the way was far more appealing to the eye. Pleased we hadn’t planned to stay in Glasgow.
The beach side towns of Lytham, St Annes, Clifton & Blackpool are all side by side each other as you travel down the coast and couldn’t be more unalike. They range from Lytham, lovely up market leafy suburb on to Blackpool, full of its roller coaster, Ferris wheel, casinos, night clubs, fish & ship shops and every other type of shop you expect to see at a carnival – including fairy floss stalls.
We feel we’ve stepped back in time. Even our apartment is in a time warp with floral Axminster carpet, chintz curtains and frills on our pillows. There’s even a bone handled bread knife that has to be 100 years old in the kitchen draw.
Headed off to Marks & Spencer or M&S as they call themselves now, to stock up on groceries and found most the refrigerated section full of prepared meals – or TV dinners as we used to call them. Bit sad. Found groceries in general a bit cheaper than at home but the choices more limited – and of course no Vegemite to be seen.
Hopped up early next morning and headed out of town to just drive around the country side. Went to the local Booths to stock up on a few groceries before hand and found some Vegemite. Yeh! Guess what I’m having on my toast in the morning. Food prices here a reasonable. Australian wine is cheaper here than in Australia. Beer varieties are endless. They definitely have less brands on the shelves. I would say less American products. More local products – which is good.
Anyway enough of the housekeeping. Headed off to Clitheroe after being given some advice from our host about the local butcher there. And it was well worth the journey. What a beautiful town. I would say it is the quintessential English village – without all the touristy stuff. Lovely buildings, local shops AND it has a castle – albeit voted the most smallest castle – but it’s a castle.
Headed home a different way driving on “A” roads. Meaning narrow with hedges on both sides – didn’t slow the school buses and the trucks down though. Everyone drives here so fast. When out on the motorways or “M” roads the speed limit is 70 mph – that’s 112 kilometres per hour. We put the cruise control on 70 mph and get into the left lane – watching everyone drive past us like we are standing still. I would guarantee some cars go past us at over 200 kph.
Heading off to see Blackpool’s Illumination tonight where the streets are decorated with 711,000 kilograms of lighting.