Scotland 2012, Day One

We would usually go to York at this time of year but as the site is closed, we looked for somewhere different and eventually decided on Melrose in the Scottish Borders.  We had been there several times in the past but had not visited since 2007 and that was only for one night, this time we would be there for five nights.

Day one, March 8th

Last time we went there a wrote about using my new GPS for navigation, well we stopped using that a long time ago, this time I used the GPS built into my mobile phone, it's amazing how technology has moved on.

Melrose 

Gibson Park, Caravan Club Site High Street

Melrose, Scotland, TD6 9RY

Gibson Park is a CC site right in the centre of Melrose, just opposite the rugby club, Melrose is in an excellent position not far off the A68 or A7 and the site is two mins walk to the shops and bars and has the usual good CC facilities.

We arrived about 13:30, set up the van and had a sandwich, then set off for a walk, it started to rain as soon as we left the campsite.  The rain was light at first, so we walked thorough the town and then set off for the river, to find the suspension bridge, we had missed every other time we had been. Anyway the rain got heavier and we took refuge in an Edinburgh Wool Mill shop, the good part of this was, we found mothers Day presents in there and the rain had stopped when we came out.

The bridge was not quite where I thought it was but we found it anyway and even though the light was very poor for photos, I still took some. Hopefully I would get some better photos of it before the end of the holiday.

  

We then finished our walk around the town and found the old railway station, the Melrose bypass road now seems to follow the route of the old railway. It looked strange to have the road running passed the train station. The Waverley Line, once ran from Edinburgh to Carlisle

By now it was very cold, so we headed to the pubs to do some research, Mick and Bren were joining us tomorrow and we should know which pubs to recommend.  The closest one was the Station Hotel, a very comfortable bar but the selection of beer was very poor and the one bitter they did have was not nice at all. Next it was the Ship Inn, strange name for a pub so far from the sea and their beer selection was even worse but it was popular.

The next bar was very different and they had three hand pulled beers to choose from, so the The George & Abbotsford Hotel was on the list for another visit.  Finally there was The Kings Arms and again they also had three hand pulled beers to choose from, so we now had two good places to drink.

Back at the van we had supper and a very early night.