The Lake District

We arrived in Windermere yesterday afternoon after changes at Birmingham International and Preston Stations.  There was First Class on both trains so we were fed complimentary food – it is certainly a saving on having to buy something to eat!

What inspired me to come here?  At Absisko Turiststation, there is a shop that sells a great variety of items.  When we were there it was run by an Irish woman, who now lives in Sweden with her Swedish husband and little boy.  I often think of her in the evening as I bought some Abisko Red Tea from the shop (rooibos with added flavours).  She had obtained some teabags into which you place loose tea and gave me some.  I think they are very nifty, and useful.  I had asked her where in the UK she would suggest for us to go.  She said without a doubt she would recommend the Lake District.  There is a train which goes to Windermere, so that is where we are stopping.

As we only had one day, two nights, here, I decided that an organised tour was probably the most efficient way to explore the Lake District.  I only decided the details last night, so we couldn’t book until after 8:30am this morning.  The flyer said that tours needed a minimum of four people, so I hoped that we wouldn’t have to move on to plan B.  I need not have worried – it turned out we were actually joining 11 others.  As the bus only held 16 we may have been in more danger of missing out because the tour was fully booked, not that it wasn’t running at all.

We had a great day.  The driver was very pleasant and his commentary was interesting and informative.  There were a few showers and it was by and large overcast, but we were actually reasonably lucky with the weather until the very end.

The Lake District is extremely beautiful.  However I am a little confused about where exactly I took all my photos!

Here are a couple of my ‘water’ photos

And this is the Castlerigg Stone Circle, well part of it anyway!

We went to Ambleside and past Rydal Water and Thirlmere.  We stopped in Grasmere, where we looked at the Wordsworth family graves and bought some gingerbread.  We also stopped at the Honister Pass, where slate mining still occurs.  We had a lunch break in Keswick.  Derwent Water, near Keswick, is absolutely beautiful.  When I was at school I had Lakeland pencils - 12 pencils in a metal tin.  However, I always envied those who had the 72 Derwent pencils; so much so that I bought myself a set a few years ago.  There is a pencil museum at Keswick but we decided visiting it wasn’t a priority.

Initially I was trying to work out what the ground cover in many areas was.  However Malcolm, the driver, said it was bracken, which apparently covers quite large areas and is now considered a weed.  On closer inspection it was quite obvious!  We saw a lot of Herdwick sheep and even though Belted Galloways originated in Scotland, we saw a couple of them.  It reminded me of home as a relative of mine in Gippsland had Belted Galloways.

Overall we had a very memorable day,

Tomorrow we are off to Glasgow,,,