After a fabulous sleep in a king-sized bed, Luke and I awoke ready to enjoy the wonders of the Lake District and to catch the bus to Windermere to meet Luke’s parents, Lea and Pete, at the Windermere train station.
The smiles are a lie. It was freezing and I was deeply regretted not bringing my coat.
We caught the open-topped bus from Ambleside to Windermere and had a wander around Booths while we waited. It is a large and fancy supermarket where everything looks perfect and fresh and the labels are all very English and cute, it’s a bit like walking around an art gallery. Also there are no decent supermarkets in Ambleside so we picked out a few things to buy later before we caught the bus back.
Close to the time the train arrived, we went to the station, which is right next door to the supermarket. Precisely on time, the train pulled in.
I had several potential plans for the afternoon and we settled on the following:
Brunch at a cute cafe.Full English!We saw a huge dog in the street.
Then up to Orrest Head, one of the best bang-for-buck walks in the area and it starts right by the train station.
A lovely leafy walk.Not too many stairs.Beautiful green views along the way.The view from the top was fantastic but is hard to show in a photo, so here’s one of us instead:-) On the way down we found the Gruffalo! We also saw some fat native bumblebees and robins bobbing around the undergrowth.
Then a tour of Booths to buy supplies..
Examining the beer selection.
Then onto the bus to Ambleside!
Followed by relaxing in our lovely apartment, eating cheese, drinking wine and sharing travel stories.
Our flat is up those steps.
In the evening we took a short walked to bridge house, which had already featured in the blog at least once, many years ago. It is the most photographed building in the Lake District and used to house a family with six children. It was built across the beck to avoid land taxes.
We had a drink outside one of the pubs then bought some pizzas from the little local supermarket to heat up at home. We were all in bed by 10!
I’d like to say we looked this happy when we woke up in the morning in our tiny shoebox hotel room, but neither of us got enough sleep and so we struggled out of bed and over to Euston station. Along with an average breakfast sandwich, I had what I hope was the worst coffee of my life, because if anything worse is ahead of me I might avoid coffee forever.
I like how people with bags on wheels take up twice the space of one person and they always seem to walk right in the middle of any walkway.Our train was, and I am not exaggerating, 16 carriages long and we were in furthest one.
The train was on time and we enjoyed watching the scenery roll past and catching up with each other’s lives since we were last together.
We spotted lots of bluebells from the train, so lovely!
We got into Windermere on time just before lunch and dropped our bags at the information centre so we could go for a walk around town and use up the time before check in.
We had some coffee while chasing up the address details for our accommodation in Keswick then went for a walk down towards Bowness.
They spelled my name wrong!It’s been a real trend for people to crochet letterbox decorations for the coronation.
We found a beautiful pub for lunch.
Then walked to a little lookout through some quiet woods.
Lovely weather!
Eventually we got our bags out of storage and caught the bus to Ambleside. Our Airbnb was right in the centre of town in a little alleyway called ‘The Slack’.
By the time we got into the apartment we were more exhausted than we’d been in a long, long time. After almost falling asleep a number of times we decided to go out for groceries and then to the nearest pub.
View from our front step.
We walked into the Ambleside Inn and everyone was watching football so we asked who was playing and who we should barrack for (Liverpool against Leeds, the crowd was fairly split on who to support). We bought a drink each and went into the upstairs bit. We ended up talking to a local guy who told us basically his life story and all about the area. He and his friend gave us a recommendation for a pub on the last leg of our LD trip (the Kirkstile Inn) and I showed him my fell pony photos. We ended up hugging him goodbye and he wished us a lovely holiday. Delightful!
Finally we fell into bed for a long and dreamless sleep, the best we’d had in several nights!
Alright. I’m sorting my thoughts out for this post because literally (and I do not mean figuratively) from the moment I said goodbye to Danny, Peter and Ash at the airport in Santiago, my day went from bad to worse to ‘I can’t believe this is happening’.
First, we had fun at the airport and Danny made me pull this face while I ate cake.
In my defence, I was quite tired. Little did I know how tired I was soon to become.
The gates we were leaving from were adjacent so I hugged everyone goodbye, not feeling too sad because I’d be seeing them all again in a month or so in Belfast.
I turned towards my gate, took a step closer and heard the steward say that the flight was to be delayed by five hours because they were (I am quoting him directly) ‘trying to find a plane’. TRYING TO FIND A PLANE.
I guess they weren’t trying to find THE plane, which would imply that they had lost an entire plane, but no one really explained what was going on. With the thought that perhaps a plane wouldn’t be found, not even down the back of the couch or in the pocket of that winter coat from two years ago, I could feel my heart rate rise.
I tried to get back into the VIP lounge that we had accessed with Danny’s membership, but they said no and also it was now filled to the brim.
Fortunately I found a comfy seat near some lovely Englishmen who had also been doing one of the Camino trails and we had a chat and I think they felt sorry for me as a solo traveller and took me under their wing, keeping me updated with alerts, emails and notifications they received.
At about 9:30pm we moved to the gate and boarded just after 10. For a late night flight everyone was very chatty and relaxed.
Too relaxed. Yuck.
We got to Stansted just before midnight. I raced to the immigration line, thinking that being ahead might help me get an earlier bus into London. Luke had arrived in the evening and made his way to the hotel where we were supposed to meet.
Sue, Luke’s aunt (and my aunt too, now that we’re married… aunt in law? That seems weird for someone who is very close to me in age) had sent me many lovely messages and said I could go to their place (they live near Stansted airport but on the opposite side to London) but I had booked Luke and I on an 8:30 train to Windermere the next day and I didn’t want to risk missing the train.
I decided to buy a ticket on the ‘Stansted to London’ bus (the airport link train had bus replacements, so either way I was taking a bus) and bought my ticket before I picked up my checked bag as there was no queue and it was on the way to the carousel.
The bus ticket was for a set time so I ran to the bag carousel to get my backpack … and waited. And waited. And waited. No bag. I had an AirTag on my bag but the last known location was Santiago, which wasn’t helpful.
Eventually ‘Santiago’ disappeared from the carousel screen and I, the only person left standing there, figured I needed to talk to a Ryanair staff member. I was starting to panic about losing my bag so I went out through the ‘nothing to declare’ doors to the information counter and was told I had to go back through security into the baggage hall as that was where the lost baggage desk was. Sigh.
I had to go on a stressful back alley mission and move a large and very official-looking yellow barrier to let myself into a closed part of the terminal. Walking around secret sections of an airport late at night is not fun and I kept expecting everyone I passed to yell at me for being there. I went down some long corridors into the staff section and to a little security screening room. Fortunately they were very understanding and kind, looked at all my papers and let me through.
I was expecting more complications, but before I even got to the lost luggage desk I found my bag lying in a pile of other suitcases at the opposite end of the hall to my allotted carousel, which was lucky because I was about to cry from the stress of it all.
Out of the terminal there were dozens of bus stops and when I arrived at the one written on my ticket there was no one there but the bus driver, who looked like he was about to leave. I frantically looked about for a way to get through the barrier until he managed to convey to me through gesture from inside the bus that he wasn’t leaving. When I examined the bus more closely I realised it was empty.
The bus left at 12:30am and the ride went quietly. I watched videos online to pass the time. As there was no traffic on the roads we made good time to Liverpool Street, and it was about 1:30am when I jumped into a cab.
Finally, at 2am, six hours after I expected to get there, I arrived at the hotel where Luke was sleeping. The front desk attendant showed me up to the room and a bleary-eyed Luke was standing there, ready to give me a big hug.
Sorry about this delayed update! The joy of seeing luke and the general stress of the flight combined with a dire lack of sleep really put a dampener on my desire to write.
Next: Luke and the Lake District! two of my favourite things:-).
Chapter two of the holiday is drawing to a close. Spain and Portugal have been very enjoyable – in fact I’d go so far as to say it’s been my best trip to both countries. Going with someone who not only speaks the language but has lived here really makes a difference. My own familiarity with the culture has improved and I am impressed that I managed to do a grocery shop by myself.
Last night we finished up with Eurovision at 1am and, as always happened before a travel day, I had a terrible sleep. It’s not such a bad thing though as Luke will also be dead tired after his flight from Korea.
We cleaned the apartment then left at midday. In Australia having a check out time after 10am feels like luxury but here it’s quite common. Our flights (Danny, Peter and Ash are flying back via Dublin with a different airline) are only five minutes apart and leave at almost 5pm so we stopped at a sunny cafe for a bit of lunch.
We caught a taxi to the airport and I now know what it’s like to do 80kph over speed bumps. The driver was a nice old guy but his disregard for speed limits and parking guidelines was a quintessentially Spanish experience.
We had a slice of cake in the airport while we waited for the check in counters to open. It’s a local delicacy made with almond flour.
Tarta de SantiagoExpert portioning by Danny.
After checking in separately we headed to the VIP lounge. Danny has membership and we could pay a bit extra to be guests. We made an effort to get our money’s worth and enjoyed the very comfortable lounges.
The focus today has been recovering from last night’s bar and club hopping. It was a good night out but ended up being bigger than I expected.
Drinks in several squares.There was an astonishingly loud funfair happening in a park.
We started off with drinks around town and spent a while at this place where musicians arrived and started jamming at the bar.
We took a wander around the old town and stopped at a few places, eventually getting to Bloom, where a Eurovision party was happening the following night.
Unfortunately, we only got there at 4am and it closed at 4:45. I got outside quicker than Danny, Peter and Ash. I sat for a few minutes and then ended up texting them to say I was heading home. I don’t remember the last time I was out so late and I almost felt like I was going to keel over.
I made it to bed and didn’t hear the others get in a bit later. After sleeping in until 1pm I really had no idea how I’d adjust back to normal waking hours on return to regular holiday hours.
I took a trip back to the mall in the afternoon for food and some new underwear (thrilling stuff) after having a salad in the food court. After such a big night I did wander around in a bit of a daze and I was glad to get back to the apartment and find that we’d be watching Eurovision in the apartment.
I made pizzas, we drank wine, brought blankets to the couch and are now watching the votes come in. Personally I liked the Finnish entry best but it’s not looking good for them.
Tomorrow is the flight home and finally seeing Luke, hooray!
Here Comes The Planet 