We recently rode from Maryport to home near Newcastle over 5 days. We are both about 70 with.little cycling experience. Roughly 25 miles a day was good for  us, time to explore places like Cultrum Abbey and pubs for lunch. Two places we stayed were brilliant, the Queen's hotel in Silloth, and the. Hollies on the Wall at Gilsland, the others just ok. We started by cycling to Wylam station and took trains to Maryport, luckily the guards weren't  rigidly enforcingg the 2 bikes per train rule, we had 6 on at one point. The signs approaching Carlisle were not clear, we lost our route twice, but soon realised