Next, we headed to Carlisle to see if the castle was worth stopping for (it is historically, we were told last night). We found these guys enjoying the view along the way, too:
The castle wasn’t that great from what we could see on the roadside, so we drove on since we still had a way to go:
Next stop was Gretna Green. We had to stop there! This is where all the 16-20 year old couples from England got married without their parents’ permission.
After this we stopped for coffee and cake (terrible scone! but the cheesecake was really good) at a little caravan park/restaurant on the side of a lake:
Crossmichael’s church was interesting enough to make us want to have a photo-stop. The town was cute too, with its mostly white-washed terrace houses:
We drove onwards in he direction of Ayr, following A713, which is the tourist route from New Galloway onwards:
We finally arrived in Ayr and had some (pretty awful, but necessary!) coffee at Morrisons, a grocery supermarket with cafe. The High Street was only 5 minutes walk away, but we didn’t find it until we drove out of town. We did manage to get to the sea-front, though by this time I was over it all and just wanted to hop in the car and get to Glasgow, so we could eat and sleep somewhere:
By the time we got in to Glasgow (though it was only another 40 miles or so, it seemed longer!) it was starting to get dark:
First thing was to find accommodation for the night, and then eat something. The first B&B out of the Lonely Planet was full, so I asked at a few hotel in the area but they were all full too (well, one offered a suite for 250 GBP and they’d throw in the breakfast, but we passed on that). The 4th place told us to check the Premier Inn, but we found a place on the way there. The Newton Hotel had an opening special of 60 GBP for a double room, including breakfast (but no parking, that was extra and full anyway). It looks like an old Georgian House on the outside, but has been converted and fully modernised. Anyway, we took it though we couldn’t be bothered lugging our suitcases back here, since we’d found a park up the road. We went and had dinner at Karma Sutra restaurant around the corner. It was really good (though not cheap – cost us about $30 a head).
We planned the next day over dinner, and decided to do a night-walk around town and then head north after breakfast, unless there was something we absolutely had to photograph. There were some beautiful buildings, but I think we can live without seeing them in daylight:
