After lugging their belongings downstairs we all headed out to wander through town.
The lake was looking lovely in the sunshine.
The running festival was wrapping up and there were lots of people out enjoying the warm weather, although a few were definitely limping from the races.
We couldn’t find a place for dinner so decided on a few platters of cheese etc. Sue, Lea and I went to Booths for food while Mark, Pete and Luke went home.
Lea is coming to terms with me snapping photos all day. Sue is only just getting a taste of how annoying I am.
We came back and sat chatting for a while before assembling some food.
Truffle chips, my new favourite.
I’ve informed everyone of the plans for tomorrow (surprise, surprise, we’re walking up a hill) and now it’s just more wine and cheese before bed!
My phone setup at the moment makes it difficult to communicate directly with my parents, so I haven’t spoken to them directly since I left. My brother recorded Mum sending me a little message, which was very nice to watch!
Also apologies to all the people who get email notifications, I’ve uploaded a few old posts out of order so if yesterday’s updates were confusing, that’s why.
Today we left our cosy apartment in Ambleside and moved to Keswick. I phoned the owners of the property to see if we could be let in early to drop our bags off and she said it was fine.
Out the door with all the bags.
We caught the bus and Luke and I minded the bags so Lea and Pete could see the view from the top. We’ve taken the route before so we don’t mind not having the best seats.
Wedged in.
The bus was a bit delayed and we ended up taking longer than expected, but the walk from the bus stop to our new place wasn’t far.
The place is lovely and very central, with one bedroom and the living area at ground level then two bedrooms and a bathroom below. We access it from a little door in the car park out back but the front is a traditional Lakeland guesthouse.
Not quite as charming as the front… which I’ll take a photo of tomorrow since it’s dark now.
We went for a walk into town while the cleaning was being finished. We looked through a few shops and walked down to the lake.
A somewhat grey day and a somewhat wonky photo.
There were food vans and a start/finish line for a race all being set up, part of the Mountain Festival that is happening this weekend. There are fell races happening tomorrow (where people run over the fells) of between 5k and 50k. If I hadn’t booked us a pub for lunch tomorrow I’d seriously (not) consider joining in.
We stopped at The Wainwright for lunch.
Pickle Pete! (He was sharing Lea’s burger).
Afterwards we had a bit more of a wander through op shops and bought some lemon cake for our afternoon snack.
We had a bit of quiet time in the afternoon before going to Booths to stock up on breakfast food, crackers and alcohol.
We tried a sample of blue cheese at the cheese counter and ended up bringing several cheeses home.
Before we could contemplate cheese we had to have dinner (it feels like all we did today was eat) and after asking for a table in several restaurants, we ended up back at The Wainwright, where we all had the steak and ale pie.
Marvellous.
Our accommodation has a little patio so we finished off the evening with cheese and wine outdoors. The sky put on a lovely show for us.
The company and cheeses made up for the car park views.
A much more gentle goal for today’s walk; a low level walk from Ambleside to Grasmere via Rydal Water. I’d never done this walk before so I was keen to do it.
We headed out of town a little after 10am. The first part was road walking but we soon stepped off the main road and onto one of Cumbria’s many corpse roads, where bodies were transported from town to town.
Lots of cute herdwick sheep.Checking whether it’s true or not.
We took many photos of the landscape and livestock as we wandered along. The weather was cloudy but warm.
Over a stile and into the grounds of Rydal Hall, a manor house with some lovely garden features.
‘Grot House’ must have been named before people realised ‘grotto’ was more suitable.To get to the house we walked along this lovely path then under a bridge.The inside of the house was simple but lovely, with window seats for viewing the waterfall.
We had a little walk around their gardens and took a photo of the front of the main house.
We thought about pretending we were staying here but you lot would never believe it.
On our way out we saw the most magnificent carpet of wild garlic I have ever seen! Look at it!
It was very hard to photograph well but we gave it our best shot.
On to the 400 year old church just down the road.
The interior of the church was lovely in its simplicity.
There was a bowl and little slips of paper up the front on the little table. Visitors were invited to write a prayer or message to god and put it in the bowl. Luke pulled a couple out and had a look.
Did he fall asleep in church? Is this a threat?
Past the church and down to Rydal village, which is a very small collection of houses and a pub. It is very cute though!
Clematis is out everywhere at the moment. So pretty!
The next section of the wall was on the other side of the main road, over a bridge and then along the banks of Rydal Water.
The forest was a luminous green, with all the new leaves and fresh ferns.Thousands of bluebells along the path.Bluebells are irritatingly difficult to photograph effectively but so magical in person. This is a very famous boat shed that has has been photographed millions of times… I haven’t done it justice, but sometimes it looks like this:(Not my photo, obviously)
The walk along the water was lovely and we got to see some people doing something unexpected…
… getting in the water. Upon closer inspection we could see the kids had gum boots and there were a couple of adults with wetsuits. The water temperature today was 11 degrees.
Ducklings!
Then it was across country to the next body of water, Grasmere.
Another photo that completely fails to capture the millions of bluebells in front of us.
I won’t lie, much like this post, the route was longer than I expected. Maybe my mile to kilometre conversion was off but the walk did feel longer than I’d anticipated.
We stopped for a toilet break at the cafe next to the cottage where Wordsworth lived. This is a photo of his cottage, not the cafe.
Here’s a poem I liked from the visitors centre.
Next stop: lunch! Even though I walked everyone further than they’d probably have liked, food is so much more enjoyable when you’re tired (or at least, that’s what I keep telling them).
I managed to take a photo that looks like I’m stalking them.
No behaviour worthy of blackmail. Yet.
Lea and I shared a coronation chicken sandwich and then I ate half of Luke’s bowl of chips.
Almost as delicious but half as brightly coloured as my last curried chicken sandwich.
The people next to us had a dog that was a BORDOODLE! Border collie x poodle.
Here’s the dog I patted for about half an hour.
A mix I had not heard of until this year and one of my workmates got one. This one kept leaning on my leg and I found myself patting it without realising what I was doing. I am definitely missing Bonnie but I am 100% certain she is not missing us, going by the photos I am getting from the people she is staying with.
Daycare photo from a few days ago for reference.Luke is dubious.
Next we wandered around Grasmere and looked at all the cute buildings.
After doing a couple of circuits of town we decided on afternoon tea at the hotel above. Apart from Lea being served a pot of tea that contained a single teabag and getting a grumpy look from the waitress when I asked for more, the food as lovely and served in a very comfortable room with a view of the plebs walking past.
The only significant thing we did in Grasmere was buy some ‘famous’ Grasmere gingerbread.
This required queuing, which I am ideologically opposed to, but we eventually got into the tiny room and Lea bought a packet.
Last was a top-deck bus ride back to Ambleside!
This might be my longest post yet but I couldn’t bear not to share all these magnificent views. To finish, for those of you who know my dog, here’s a last photo of her at daycare with her adopted older brother, Chester.
Everyone was happy for me to lead the way today so I suggested a walk up Loughrigg Fell, which is one of the closest and smallest fells near Ambleside.
Setting out!
We were up and out just before 10am, all well-rested and full of energy. It’s so nice to have a kitchen and be able to have a small breakfast. The place we are staying at only has one teaspoon though so we have to take it in turns to use it… and no toilet roll holders, which is also kind of weird.
We walked across the park and over the bridge to the bottom of the hill.
Look at that sky!
Up a steep road then over a stile.
Many photos were taken.There were swathes of bluebells, which are hard to photograph but stunning in real life.Within half an hour we had made it up the first section to Todd Crag, which had beautiful views over Ambleside and Windermere.
The top of Loughrigg is undulating so we walked up and down a bit and even did a tiny bit of scrambling (walking but having to use your hands where it’s steep). We saw a deer and I saw a hawk.
Windermere in the distance. Some of the tarns had completely dried up but the larger ones remained. We took lots of breaks to enjoy the views.
We had a chat to a fellow who was enjoying a quiet walk while his wife was at her 75th school reunion in Ambleside. We later passed him and his wife in town and told her we hoped she’d had a lovely time!
After wandering on the southern half of the fell, and everyone feeling fine, I suggested we walk up the higher part of the fell to the north as I recalled there being good views of the Langdales from the other side.
This is the part of the day where I stopped taking so many photos because the path was distinctly more hilly and rocky than I’d recalled. Everyone else was extremely patient and put in a top effort and we got up the steep and gravelly slopes with a few rest stops.
We also saw the fighter jets again from this side! We’d seen a tiny moment of them from Ambleside yesterday but had a much better view today.
I don’t like slippery gravel at all, especially downhill, so I used the OS map app to navigate us down some grassy goat tracks on the far side and back to the main path. It was a bit hairy but I think, in the end, that it was a better way to go and no one complained at all. Champions!
Once we got down to the wide track it was an easy walk down back into Ambleside.
Next stop:
For some:
Perfect.
The sun was out, along with every man, woman, child and dog in town. After lunch we had a wander around town and a look in the Oxfam store.
I bought this book, I hope to use it to my advantage.
Then we discovered that Lea hadn’t tried Jaffa cakes so it was home for tea and biscuits!
(Or cake, depending on how you view them)
We learned our lesson from last night and booked a table booked at The Flying Fleece for dinner.
I had curry and everyone else had a gigantic Cumberland sausage and a mountain of mashed potato. A satisfying end to a big day!
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!
Here Comes The Planet 