Well after a busy few days with visiting family in Oxford and looking at new cars we had a good nights sleep before heading up to Northumberland for a few days. A close neighbour had waxed lyrical about the area and suddenly we thought we would visit as we had a few days spare.
So we were up reasonably early and packed the car and sorted out the house and bins before leaving at around 11.00 for an approx five hour drive. So round the famous M25 to the A1M and then headed North and shocked at the amount of trucks using this road. The trouble was a lot of the trucks have speed governors and so when they try to overtake it can take 2.5 years before they make it past and so you can age really fast sitting behind and wating for the road to clear.
Part the way up the Tom Tom Sat Nav said leave the AIM and take the following side road which got us concerned and then we found that the A1M had major road works causing several miles of tailback which Tom Tom very carefully guided us around.
We drove for about two hours and stopped at a Starbucks for a cup of tea and our sandwiches and swapped driver and so Jennifer took over and unfortunately had the worst of the weather and with very few opportunities to stop and change she had to drive for 2.5 hours, more than planned. We finally made a stop about 30 minutes from our Hotel and by this time the rain had stopped, thank heavens.
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We had booked to stay at the Hilton Garden Inn Hotel in Sunderland which had received good views and as we had decided that we did not need to visit Newcastle and just needed a good bed for the night. We arrived about 5 pm and settled in to our room but a beer was desperately needed and so shortly afterwards we went to the bar and then finally on to the restaurant and the food was really good. Jennifer had the grilled chicken with sweet potato fries and Noel the Sunderland fish and chips which was also excellent.
The Hotel is right next door to the Stadium of Light where Sunderland FC play and they seem to being doing well as currently Number one in the Championship.
So a quiet evening in the room after a busy day and hoping for the weather to improve after todays rain.
