Day 6

Well, I hope to have this post this time. Yesterday I worked so hard on it and put in photos and waited..and waited...you get the picture and after about 1/2 hr. it said it couldn't connect. Bummed I was, after all else that went wrong yesterday. But, oh well, today is a new day, right?

Today we saw 2 castles. I was in the height of my glory! The first we saw was Barnard Castle. It was a ruin and I liked it best. We could wander at will and imagine what it must have looked like. It was so neat! We almost didn't have to pay to get in: we went in and wandered and on the way out, found the ticket booth so went in and paid. I wish I could post a bunch of photos of this one!

Then we went on to Raby Castle. It is a real "working" castle. People live there. The same family has owned it for generations. Actually, the same family owned Barnard too and tore it down to make Raby. How sad!! The people who live there weren't "on display" but their photos were displayed many places which kind of distracted from the authenticity of the place. Not a lot of it was open but what was open was very impressive--even down to the dog that one of the previous owners had stuffed at its demise cause she loved it so much. It has some quiet interesting gardens and they are beautiful. Wish I could see them in the Summer when all the flowers are out. Springtime was magnificent too though.

Back to our B&B which is a farm setting with a really old house. It was built in 1750-something, i believe. The lady who runs it was very nice and friendly (almost everyone seems to be friendly!) and tolerant of us. We were allowed to use the parlour which D&A did but we old folks went off to bed. We were exhausted but happy. OH, it was very cute: the next morning, I ordered breakfast but asked for a hard boiled egg (the menu just said "boiled egg") and when she brought it, she was very apologetic and kind of embarrassed because she didn't know what to do with a hard boiled egg. The scenery is just fantastic!!