Washed and brushed

After a yesterday's excitement (our flights are booked!), the troops spent this morning washing and polishing our car, so we can sell it (anyone interested in an Audi A2 with a tow bar, do drop me a line!). The plan is to buy another car in Finland when we get there...

The troops also hoovered out the Danish/Northumberland beach which had been sitting in the boot for a while, despite our best efforts. The car is now cleaner and shinier than it's ever been...so this afternoon we took it out for a spin to Belsay, to meet some friends for a picnic. It was gloriously sunny: here's the view in the quarry garden.

I can thoroughly recommend visiting on a Sunday afternoon - it was really peaceful. Everyone seemed to disappear off home at about 4pm, leaving us with the place to ourselves. And best of all, the ice cream shop at the castle does mini milks!

Cycle trip!

It's amazing what you can fit on the back of an Audi A2. Not content with towing the folding caravan, we've now got a bike rack that goes on the towbar (we've had bikes on the roof, but sadly that's too tall for the ferry over to Denmark this summer).

We rode in Sunderland today, along the river from the National Glass Centre, which is part of the C2C. It's not a bad path - apart from the odd scattering of broken glass - which takes you past some weird and wonderful remnants of industrial architecture. We liked the giant hamster wheel:

There's some interesting stuff to look at (and a very interesting smell), but it's not as nice as the route along Newcastle's quayside. Apart from anything else, I'd feel safe trundling along the Quayside on my own, and probably wouldn't along the more deserted stretches of the Wear.