TICKET TO RIDE.

I bet you all thought I had emigrated or fled the country with no posts for a week, in fact my wife and I have been sampling the delights of North West England.We did a coach tour of the Lake District, Yorkshire Dales, Southport and Liverpool where we enjoyed some wonderful scenery in excellent company as everyone on the coach got on very well . We were based in Blackpool which I will say was not my Cup Of Tea so will say no more about that, but the rest was a real delight and here are a few images of the trip

HAVERTHWAITE TO LAKESIDE STEAM RAILWAY.

One of the excursions was to the to the town of Kendal where we had time to look around before we took the old Steam Train from Haverthwaite to Lakeside on Lake Windermere

HAVERTHWAITE STATION.

ALL ABOARD THE OLD CARRIAGES.

ARRIVING AT LAKESIDE.

On arriving at lakeside it was a short walk to the pier where we boarded the pleasure cruiser Tern for a cruise along the Lake to Bowness.

 PLEASURE CRUISER TERN.

LAKESIDE PROPERTY.

NEARING BOwNESS WITH SOME OF THE LARGE HILLS IN THE BACKGROUND.

Another excursion was on the famous Settle to Carlisle Railway, which we boarded at Carlisle and travelled through the Yorkshire Dales to Settle. This is sometimes pulled by Steam Train, but on this occasion a Diesel Loco was used. we went through some beautiful scenery and I took a lot of images, but a moving train and my compact with shutter lag I did not get any good shots(Should have taken my SLR). We then went to the market town of Skipton and my wife enjoyed some Retail Therapy.

Next morning after a hearty breakfast it was off on the next tour, which was a trip to the seaside town of Southport which turned out to be a real Gem, it was a great shame we only had just over one and a half hours here because it needed more time to explore further. We only had time to walk along the large semi covered shopping area with all its Shops, Bars and Restaurants, get a bite to eat before embarking for a tour of Liverpool. In hindsight we should have cancelled to tour and spent the remaining four hours here as we have been to Liverpool on other occasions.

 PART OF SOUTHPORTS LOVELY SHOPPING AREA.

So on to the tour of Liverpool which we have done before,but to our surprise as well as touring the city centre sights it took in a large area of the neighbourhood where The Beatles grew up. Through Sefton Park and along Penny Lane with sights of most of the buildings mentioned it the Song. Sadly a moving coach and compact did make for good photography. Finally it was a short stop at the Albert Dock before leaving for the journey back to Blackpool.

ONE OF LIVERPOOLS FINE ART DECO BUILDINGS.

THE LIVER BUILDING FROM ACROSS THE ALBERT DOCK.

SAW THIS LOVELY BRONZE OF THE SONS OF LIVERPOOL IN A SHOP WINDOW.

So next morning it was back aboard the coach for the eleven hour journey back to Cornwall with memories of a great trip and newly made friends. But it was nice to get a real Cup of Tea and crawl back into our own Bed.

I will try to catch up on all your posts over the next few days.