B&B’s – Valerie's Voice

The Innkeepers

(I’m still saddened by the news about the vandalism that felled Sycamore Gap’s 300-year-old iconic tree…but it’s time to take up the old British adage, “keep calm and carry on“.)

After traveling 24 hours on two planes, a bus, and a train, we finally reached our destination to Carlisle, England. The last leg of this long day was walking several blocks, pulling our suitcases, to the place where we had reservations for our first night in England.

The train station in Glasgow, Scotland. (We flew into Glasgow, Scotland and took a train to England for our hiking expedition.)

We were delighted to come upon our charming B&B, situated on a corner with vibrant and overflowing window boxes, and a welcoming front door. We could finally relax.

We were happy to finally arrive at Warwick Lodge B&B.

The innkeeper, Caron, showed us to our lovely rooms, decorated with antiques and all the luxuries to make our overnight stay comfortable. As I looked around the room I innocently, but seriously, asked her to tell me about the old confessional in our room. She looked at me quizzically and then burst out laughing – a genuine laugh! It was not a confessional, but a large armoire (a wardrobe…our thoughts turned to Narnia). And then we all had a good belly laugh. Unfortunately (and I can’t believe it), I did not take a picture of this armoire that looked very much like a confessional!

Beautiful, overflowing, vibrant flower pots and baskets at the Warwick Lodge B&B, Carlisle England.

I doubt she’ll forget us, and I’ll bet she will giggle every time she shows her future guests this room with the confessional!

A passing hiker (from Minnesota!) took a photo of the four of us on Hadrian’s Path.

Then there was Les…a colorful character…the innkeeper at the Old Repeater Station. He may forget us, but we will not forget him.

The Old Repeater Station B&B. A repeater station was involved with telecommunications of some sort.

It was late afternoon on our third day of hiking when we turned off the trail for the last mile of our day’s journey to an inn standing alone in the English countryside. When we arrived, we walked through the front door and called out hello. We were met with a hardy greeting by Les, the innkeeper, who was sipping scotch with a friend – and he continued sipping scotch into the evening.

Through the gate to the front door of the inn.

Les was gregarious, playful, humorous, and a bit tipsy. We affectionately called him…the drunken innkeeper. He made our stay interesting and did provide everything we needed. We knew we were going to be settled in this inn for the remainder of the evening, since there was nowhere else to go! We had pre-ordered dinner and Les dutifully cooked our dinners in his kitchen, by himself, and my salmon was delicious. There was another couple from England staying at the inn with us, and we all enjoyed each other’s company that evening.

Les was up early the next morning to make us our breakfasts that we had ordered the night before. After we checked out, he showed us a shortcut back to the Hadrian’s Wall path and bid us farewell. We enjoyed our stay at the Old Repeater Station.

These two innkeepers…Caron and Les… kept coming up in our conversations for the rest of our time in Scotland. What fun!

Sheep, Boots and Inns

We saw thousands of sheep on our recent trip to Great Britain.

Sheep, sheep…I took lots of photos of sheep!

Thousands.

Pastoral setting…sheep, and trees, and green pasture, and blue sky, and Hadrian’s Wall…

I’m thankful they were sheep and not goats. I like sheep – goats, not so much.

Not only were the sheep in fields along the highways and byways, but we walked right next to them in their pastures as we hiked along Hadrian’s Wall in northern England. The sheep didn’t seem to mind us hikers. They tolerated our presence and our antics towards them.

Docile sheep looking at my fellow travelers.

But the sheep also didn’t care about where they did their business as we had to carefully (and constantly) step around all the sheep droppings. They chewed their cuds as they watched us make our way through all their poo, maybe with smiles on their faces. I still think they’re cute.

The four of us at the beginning of our hiking adventure.

Our first steps on the first morning – walking on the road to get to the trail.

Sheep on one side, Wall on the other, expansive views of beautiful English landscapes surround us.

Only two times did we miscalculate our steps, and needed to stop and clean out poop from the cervices of our hiking boots.

There were also stone steps in a few places.

We were prepared for what is typical Scottish weather, cool and rainy, on our four-day trek along Hadrian’s Wall. Instead, we had unusually warm, humid and sunny weather. Although we were hot and sweaty as we hiked, it was preferred to the cold and rain.

The white acorn was the trail marker for Hadrian’s Wall.

The terrain was more rugged than we anticipated, but it also made for interesting scenery and amazing vistas. We walked a total of 34 miles in four days. We were hiking from inn to inn.

Hadrian’s Wall…following it up and down…

At the end of the day, we hiked off road to an inn where there were rooms reserved for us, and our luggage was waiting for us.

The Battlesteads B&B…located in an International DarkSky Place.

As we hiked, we only had to carry our backpacks with water, our lunch and a rain jacket (which we didn’t need).

All the inns provided for our needs of a place to sleep, dinner options, breakfast the next morning, and packed lunches for the trail.

Twice Brewed Inn, in the town of Once Brewed! Love the names!

Pastoral scenes, beautiful and expansive vistas, Hadrian’s wall, sheep, various cattle, personal and lively conversations, and occasional fellow pilgrims on the trail provided our entertainment.

Walking along the trail…sometimes we could see Hadrian’s Wall, sometimes not. It’s old. It was built in 122 AD, by the Romans in Britain, as a former defensive fortification, during the reign of the Roman Emperor Hadrian.

And we had a marvelous time!

We sometimes had to watch out for cow pies too!

This cow watched as we walked off trail, by a farm, on our way to an inn for the night.

Memorable Hikes – Söll, Austria 2018

When we checked into our wonderful B&B in the farming community near Söll, Austria we were visiting with the friendly woman at the front desk and asking her about hikes in the area. She suggested hiking to Alpengasthaus Stallhäusl which would take about an hour. That sounded good to us…

She gave us directions and told us the signs to follow so, after lunch, off we went. Fortunately we wore our hats and we brought some water because it was sunny and hot.

The hike started on the lane behind the B&B. We walked passed a riding stable and a barn where Haflinger horses are bred. We walked past cows with bells clanging around their necks grazing in the fields, and past chickens cackling near their cute coop with flowers blooming in it’s own little flower box. Then we started our ascent…we kept climbing and climbing and climbing, for a hour and 30 minutes, climbing up the mountain.

Even this chicken coop had flower boxes!

We did not expect this – the woman forgot to tell us this part – but the vistas were amazing, and we were hiking in the alps! We knew we were on the right trail by the signs.

The signs didn’t use distance for a gauge but used the number of minutes to the each destination…35 minutes to here, 5 minutes to there…it’s an interesting way of letting one know where you are.

Finally we made it to the top after stopping several times along the way to look out at the amazing views (and to catch our breath). We passed beautiful chapel tucked into the hillside (who goes there???)

We were hot and tired and thirsty when we arrived at our destination, the Alpengasthaus Stallhäusl. We sat outside on their sun terrace and ordered something cool to drink and said “Prost” (Cheers!) to toast our accomplishment, and cool down before hiking back to our B&B.

We decided to walk back on the road, complete with hairpin turns (that we wanted to roll down to make our journey shorter). Going down is not always so easy…but walking on pavement makes a big difference. It took less time to walk back to the B&B.

It was probably good we didn’t know ahead of time what kind of hike we were embarking on or we may not have chosen to do it…but we’re really glad we did!

Happy Trails

Our biking get away this year took us to Iowa and the High Trestle Trail.

We were pleasantly surprised by this well-kept, smooth and wide bike trail lined with native plants and trees that led us to, and over, the High Trestle Bridge. The high and funky bridge across the Des Moines River was a sight to see, especially at night. The bridge is a half-mile long and 130 ft. above the Des Moines River.

Thistle along the trail…such a pretty pink.

We rode our bikes on the trail to the bridge in the afternoon. After dinner we walked the trail to see the bridge lit up with a beautiful shade of bright blue. There were other folks out there on this beautiful summer solstice evening, both biking and walking. It is a biking/pedestrian bridge, in place where an old railroad bridge used stand. The original trestle train bridge was built in 1912 and reconstructed in 1971. It became a pedestrian bridge in 2003.

The trail the next day was a nice surprise too. We drove to Big Creek State Park and started pedaling on the smooth, but hilly trail along Big Creek, then along Saylorville Lake. Up and down we went and in some places it was like a roller coaster…pedal up and then coast down a hill and half way up the next hill, then pedal a bit more to the top and then coast down again…whee…

Saylorville Dam in background – a mile long.

Again we were surprised when we saw how big the dam was. We rode the mile across the length of the dam and back again, for the fun of it.

On our last day our ride took us through what we expected from the beginning when we headed to Iowa, and that was the beautiful, but flat cornfields of Iowa.

Two farmers in Iowa, sitting outside on a hot day.

We discovered there are hundreds of miles of bike trials in this area so we’ll go back. The B&B we stayed at was delightful…a log house with many wonderful features, and at night…a view of the beautiful, blue bridge.