There was a big accident on the M6, resulting in the whole motorway being blocked in both directions. This being England and not Australia, there's always another raod to take, however given that it's the main road between well, London and Scotland, that means there was a lot of traffic clogging up the roads. It had gone from 3 lanes in each direction to one each. As a result, that lovely little 35 minute journey stretched out to 4 hours. It's times like that that I wish I was a bloke - I saw quite a few of them jump out of their cars and pee behind the hedges, and by the time I finally got to Carlisle, things were a little desperate!
I decided that I wouldn't go straight to the cathedral and castle, but to continue on up the road another 10 miles, and come back to Carlisle afterwards. Why continue on? Well, I discovered that I was only 10 miles from Scotland! What's a girl to do? Naturally, I went. I was only there for about twenty minutes, but the fact that I drove to another country was exciting enough for now. I went to Gretna Green, which is full of marriage houses. Back in the day the English decided that you could only marry if you were under 21 years of age, if your parents consented. This law didn't apply in Scotland, so there were lots of runaway marriages. Gretna Green was the closest town to the English border, so it became the place to get married when your parents wouldn't allow it. The marriage houses are still there, and are still in use. I feel that I should clarify - although I went to Gretna Green, I didn't get married.
Once again, I couldn't park anywhere, so I took this photo from the driveway of a hotel. I couldn't park anywhere near the "Welcome to Scotland" sign either, but I really did go there!
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