CARTMEL

Another lovely day, even if it was somewhat grey and became quite drizzly.  Hubby had an opticians appointment so Garron and I went off on a partial Treasure Hunt to Cartmel, just about 10 minutes drive from home so that is great.

I had another one of those Treasure Trails I'd found.  I've only got the two so far.  The one for Cartmel was for a Treasure Hunt, the "treasure" being the secrety recipe for a sticky recipe - at the home of the Sticky Toffee Pudding obviously?!!!   Cartmel is known for his fine dining places, which we most certainly didn't have today.  Mind you as wonderful as they are they are somewhat beyond my pocket I'm afraid, although worth it for a very special treat occasionally.

On arrival I parked at the Racecourse as there are no races on today so the car park was open.  I went to pay parking and some poor older chap was there in a bit of stress as he couldn't fathom out how to work the machine and was having a lot of bother.  So I helped him.  I showed him what to do  (which is a miracle as I've had problems with these sort of machines myself).  We tried twice but it would appear that there was something wrong with the card that he was using, he began to panic as he didn't have any cash and I certainly didn't have £10 in cash (he had stayed overnight, so needed to pay for 24 hours.  Some woman came marching up and said let me try mine and promptly paid for her parking - no problem with the machine she said it's your card and just left - rather rude I thought, but perhaps she was in a hurry!!!

Anyway we tried another card for him and that worked (I at not time got any numbers from him at all) and that workd.  He was so delighted.  I just hope I don't get charged for all the attempts he said.  I relied you shouldn't do as it kept telling you that your card was declined, any problems you have evidence that you paid with a card so you should be fine.  He then kissed my hand and thanked me profusely.  I'm just so glad that I could help, these machines aren't easy, especially for anyone that isn't tech savvy and those people never appear to be catered for.  

The machine does need sorting out, as I went to pay cash for our visit, I was going to £4 for a slightly longer stay than anticipated but it threw one of my coins out, I could see the coin in the returns slot but couldn't get it so had to settle for lesser stay, which didn't really matter.

Eventually we set off, heading to Cartmel Coffee cafe in the square, solving 3 clues on the way.  Had a very nice coffee and continued on our quest.  

The next clues took me down a road I'd never been to in Cartmel before where we saw a Prison Lock-Up, you know just one room up and one down by the look of it.   As we walked on with our quest Garron suddenly stopped as he had seen TWO Aston Martins pared up.  He was delighted as, although he is not a driver he loves classic cars and has a particular fondness for Aston Martins.  

As we stopped to look someone came out of the house and was pleased in our interest. He was very very nice.  He gave permission for us to take  photos and actually even offered to open up one of the cars for Garron to sit in the driving seat - but sadly Garron declined due to his health, he'd have trouble getting out again and would be too nervous in case he touched something he shouldn't. I thought it was very very kind of him to offer though.  

We then continued on our quest, going into Cartmel Priory where Garron needed to sit as he was having a wobbly.  I took a few photos then as wel left he was having one of his bad wobblies,  Cartmel Coffee was now full so we went into The Kings Arms for lunch.  It was OK.  Somewhat basic pub grub, but OK for that.  It's practically next to Rogan and Co (a fine dining restaurant) so feels a bit incongruous due to that I guess, but Garron coould not walk any further.  

The staff were very kind and helpful and so he could balance himself up whilst we were there and we had a seat right by the window looking onto The River Eaa so very pleasant.  I had a ploughman, which was ENORMOUS, nice ham and cheese, a general pork pie and several types of tomato and salad with a few chutney choices.  Garron had a burger, which was OK.  

By the time we had finished Garron had settled up OK but left being tired, as always after these things, so we went straight back to the car (by now it was quite wet with that awful drizzle type rain).  As we got back to the car park we noticed some Llamas, there was someone giving a talk about them - I didn't know Cartmel had any.  

Anyway 10 minutes later we were home.  We will go back in a week or two to finish the quest, but just starting fro where we left off.  Hopefully this time getting to The Cavendish Arms as that is quite a nice place for lunch.