Up at the usual time this morning, around 6. We took our time getting ourselves together, because cooler rather than warmer weather has moved into the north, and we thought we would find a place for breakfast when we went out. However, it being Sunday, that wasn’t the easiest thing to do. Many local places are closed. About 10-ish we headed to Corbridge, and found a very central place to park the car, right next to the church. We found the Watling Café fairly close by, and went in for something to eat. I had a lovely breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon and toast. R had a bacon sandwich with salad. From there, we had a longer look around town, and this time we discovered the pharmacy where I first got attention for my original “chippy tummy” so many, many years ago. It’s a long story involving kaolin and morphine (yes, folks, morphine that is sold over the counter, at least it was then!) which tasted awfully, but absolutely did the trick. We also found a card/newspaper shop as well as a CO-OP grocery store, both open. We then headed to the address of our old restaurant, Panache, just another block or so further along the river. R had found a photo of it on-line from something like 2001, along with an address, and we wanted to see if we could find it. It has been totally renovated and turned into an Italian restaurant, and we’ve decided that we would have dinner there tonight! The menu looks good, and, again hopefully, we can find a convenient place to park!
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| Corbridge Churchyard |
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| In Watling Cafe |
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| R's bacon sandwich |
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| My breakfast! |
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| Our Restaurant! |
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| My first English Pharmacy! |
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| Site of the former Panache |
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| Beautiful house in town! |
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| Inside restaurant |
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| R's mussels |
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| My vegetable soup |
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| R's chicken |
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| My chicken with chips |
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| R's chicken with lots of veggies! |
We ran into a very strange situation. When we went to pay for breakfast, we found a notice that they would not accept any currency from the Bank of Scotland. It seems someone has produced some very high-quality counterfeit Bank of Scotland bills, which is really incredible when one looks at the features of the currency designed to prevent it: microprinting, watermarks, transparent panels, etc. etc. Fortunately, we had some Bank of England notes to pay the bill (or we could have used our credit card but we wanted coins for a future session at the laundromat in Newmarket) but, having used the ATMs in Scotland, we still have a fair-sized bankroll of Bank of Scotland bills. We think we will need to go to an English bank to get them exchanged but, alas, Monday is a Bank Holiday…so it looks like that will have to wait until Tuesday.
It being now well past 1, we decided that, rather than cruise out through the countryside for a few hours, we’d rather return to the worlds-tiniest-flat, watch a movie or two, take a nap, read a book and get ready for dinner! I purchased a book a few days ago written by Agatha Christie entitled Come, Tell Me How You Live written about her travels with her archaeologist husband, Sir Max Mallowan in Syria and Iraq. I had never realized that Lady Agatha was such a funny writer; the book is hilarious. But seriously, I definitely have to applaud her for her writing about their travels and excavations in the 1930’s when such travel luxuries as we take for granted were definitely unheard of! And I’m talking of such things as electricity and clean water, for starters! Let alone clean flea and bug-free beds! She was amazing!!
Heading off for a nap now; more after dinner!
m
xxx
I didn’t get a nap; too busy reading my Agatha Christie book, but we headed out for dinner about 5:30, arriving at Casa Rosso in Corbridge at 6. Parking, at least on Sunday evening, was fairly easy to find, and free, which was nice! For starters, I had their soup of the day, which was a delicious vegetable soup, and R had their local mussels in a cream sauce, which he said were excellent. For mains, we both had their chicken breasts. Mine was au poivre served with excellent chips, and R’s was bordelaise, onions, mushrooms, butter and demi glace sauce, served with a huge portion of veggies. Neither of us had any room at all left over for dessert, even though the dessert menu sounded terrific! Oh well! Maybe next time!
A short walk back to the car, and in just 10 minutes or so we were back to our flat and inside for the night! Packing up in the morning and heading for the “South” in earnest this time! Fortunately, our rental for the next week should be ready and waiting for us when we get there, provided it’s after lunch. We’ll be on the northern outskirts of Cambridge, in a small town called Wicken Fen. We’ll be able to spend some time with our friends, Philippa and Dan and their boys, Leo and Hugh this week, in between sightseeing, as the boys have this week off of school. They live near King’s Lynn, which is a distance north of Cambridge, in a very interesting part of the country. We’re very much looking forward to it!
So, more tomorrow!
m
xxx
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