Every restaurant or pub we have encountered has majorly advertised that it is dog-friendly. And yes, we’ve seen so many Brits accompanied by dogs on their walks, in the hotels, and in restaurants. This is the house-restaurant dog that haunted us at last night’s dinner. I think his name was something like Boba. And here are the canine offerings at The Mason Arms Pub (that we visited twice in one night) in Warkwortth. Another thing: there is a dearth of salads here in the UK. Most restaurants have maybe a side salad of sad greens, or a so-called Caesar salad (tourist salad) that is nothing like a real Caesar salad. However, the fish and chips just about anywhere are awesome. And they do chips (fries) well. The Hubs ordered lasagna and it came with a hefty side of chips. my fish and chips with a side ...
Backroads provides pretty nice road bikes: titanium frames, SRAM electronic shifting, and disc brakes. They’re well maintained of course but even so, each of us dropped a chain at some point. The most dramatic was Nusa’s, our guide. She must have kept pedaling after it slipped because it wound itself around a crank and into the worse chain mangle I’ve ever seen. She ended up walking a short spell back to our hotel (her co-guide didn’t see her distress-text), where we all marveled at the sight. As always, the cycling routes that Backroads devised were great – a mix of rollers, challenge climbs, and gorgeous scenery. The Scottish Highlands are truly beautiful and special. At the conclusion to the Backroads tour, we took a train to Newcastle, England where our self-guided tour (organized by Eurobike a...