Hooves and I are excited to be heading North again so we’re packing our bags. Correction! I am packing our bags…he is supervising from the comfort of MY bed. Oh, it’s all right for some…
Anyway, tomorrow we are heading north again. We are going up to Seahouses on the wild and beautiful Northumberland coast. It really is the most stunning area, and fortunately it’s still a pretty closely-guarded secret. Vast expanses of sandy beach give way to ancient castles and pretty little villages with quaint stone harbours. We went this time last year, and the moment we left I resolved to return as we had the very best time. We loved it.
However this trip is slightly different to last year as I have realised that Hoover finds a long car journey quite tiring. Probably something to do with the fact that the silly pup ‘car-surfs’ 
for the duration of the journey. He steadfastly refuses to sit down, even though he is big enough to still see out when he does. Perhaps he’s not keen on my driving? Well as I don’t fancy the idea of him driving, and I don’t want him to arrive exhausted, we are making a pit stop on both the northbound and the southbound journey.
On the way up we are diverting a tad to Lincoln. We have found what looks like a wonderful country house hotel that accommodates dogs, so we have two nights booked at The Washingborough Hall Hotel (Washy Hall). It looks lush so we thought we’d have a couple of nights, which gives us a day to pop into Lincoln, just four miles away from the hotel, for a look round. We have done some online investigation and have found a doggy-friendly pub for 
lunch (pub), which has since been recommended to us. But we have also found a doggy-friendly coffee shop in case we don’t have room for lunch after a full English at the hotel.
Once we get to Seahouses we’ll be checking into our lovely fisherman’s cottage on the harbour wall (Harbourside Cottage) for the week, after which we’ll be heading back down south. This time we thought we’d divert to The Peak District for our pit stop. We looked at booking a hotel for a couple of nights but due to the popularity of the Christmas fair at Chatsworth House, which is on that very weekend, the hotels were very busy. So we found a cottage we liked the look of in Eyam, (Pine Door) which looks right up our street….we have booked it for three nights. Well, why not? We have never been to The Peak District, and it has been on our list for a long time, so three nights will give us a couple of days to get a good taste of the area, and we can have a proper holiday here in the future. There is a dog friendly tearoom in the village just a few doors away, and a village pub just across the green from the cottage, so I think we’re going to be just fine.
Then it’s back home….just in time to get ready for Christmas!!!
