Before traveling to the UK, we obsessed over the weather forecasts, figuring that there is no way we wouldn’t experience plenty of rain and/or wind. We came equipped with wet riding gear and the forecasts made it seem like our rain gear would be put to frequent use. But by some miracle, we experienced zero rain from the time we arrived, all through our Backroads tour, and through our Eurobike tour . . . until today. From our hotel this morning, we checked the rain forecast a zillion times (it’s different each time) and were pretty confident that we had a rain-free window from around 11am to 6pm to ride from Kelso to Innerleithen . We set out around 10:45 and within 20 minutes, we were in light mist that morphed into real rain that came and went for most of our 30 mile ride. We stopped at this church and stood under a protective tree for a while but soon realized we just needed to suck it up and go. ...
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 ...