Maryport, an eighteenth centaury town with a Roman fort and that is really all we knew about it. We try and choose places that are not so much on the beaten track for part of our tours and since neither of us had really ever heard of Maryport other than in connection with Hadrian's wall we thought that we would give it a shot.
The first intriguing thing was the location of the campsite, this is the first time that we have stayed on a harbour complete with grass, electric, water, toilet block and even washing machine and dryer.
As you can probably imagine, inspite of the blue skies it was cold and windy most of the time, In fact we didn't really warm up until the late May bank holiday when suddenly the temperature rose into the 30's but more about that later, At this point I was still wearing jumpers and gloves.
The view from the campsite, that is Scotland in the distance.
For a small town I found a good choice of coffee shops/cafes within 10 minutes walk or so from the site . Hiding in one of these from time to time gave me chance to warm up although I suspect the real reason for feeling cold is more to do with my recent weight loss than anything else.
The walk to town took us through the harbour ( we had the commercial harbour on one side and the marina on the other) past the aquarium and up the hill. I would have stopped at the Maritime museum but it was closed, We visited the Roman museum but failed to take any photos.
Past the monument to lives lost on the Aquilia, piles of nets, statues and mosaics
and onwards up into town where the old cinema is being converted into an arts centre (looking very good)
An abandoned hotel appears to be growing its own garden
There's always something that reminds me of my former life, I suspect this one is more decorative that practical these days.
at night we settled down to the sound of the boats swaying in the wind
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