London: Greenwich

Years ago I took my year fives on a very educational and carefully planned trip into the centre of Melbourne but unfortunately along the way we saw a possum in a tree and a Ferrari. Then on the way home two very drunk adults covered in tattoos were sitting right in the middle of our train carriage so all the learning was forgotten and there was no point having the students write a recap the next day because the museum wouldn’t even get a mention.

See if you can pick which event from this excursion was equivalent to a possum, Ferrari and drunken strangers all rolled into one.

We left home at 10:30 and headed to Greenwich, which meant taking the brand new (to us) Elizabeth line! Look at it in all its futuristic brutalist glory.

So shiny, clean and purple (all the tube lines have a colour, this one is purple so there was a bit of purple in the upholstery).

We stopped at Custom House and walked to the cable car. It takes passengers across the Thames to the O2 arena. It rises 90 metres and has great views.

Lea loved it and was keen to stay on it for several trips in a row.

I’d made the critical error of having two cups of tea before leaving the flat so I was dying for the loo when we got off at the other side. Luckily there was a cafe so we stopped for a coffee and pastry.

I’m no connoisseur, but the Portuguese tarts (pastel de nata) were the best we’d had yet. They seem to be very fashionable right now. Lea had a custard croissant that was also the best she’d had.

Unfortunately the cafe was also the place where Lea disgraced herself by admitting she had not brought the teaspoon I had SPECIFICALLY bought for her to use in cafes that don’t offer spoons (she likes eating her cappuccino foam first) and I shook my head and tut-tutted for at least a whole minute. I also said I’d shame her and write about it in the blog. I have kept my promise! TUT TUT!

Anyhow, after I made a big todo about nothing we went out to look at a big headless statue outside the cafe.

We caught the bus to Greenwich.

Front seat up the top! I wonder if we’ll see anything interesting along the route?

Later we read that apart from one person who was treated for smoke inhalation, no one was injured.

Anyhow…

First stop was this unusual sculpture.

‘Sculpture of a Dead Parrot’ (obviously not a parrot but a cockatoo) is a work by a local artist who is thought to have taken inspiration from Monty Python. It’s in the grounds of a hotel and there’s no plaque, I had to look up information online.

Next we walked to the Maritime Museum.

While everyone else browsed the general exhibition, I paid for a ticket to the astronomy photography competition.

It had several categories and entries from around the world.

It didn’t take long to see all the pictures so I went for a look around the general exhibition. They had a replica of a very interesting ship.

The Rawalpindi is one of four ships of the same class that brought immigrants to Australia. Its sister ship, the Himalaya, brought my mother and her family! The display had photos of cabins and ship life that I think Mum would’ve enjoyed seeing, so I took some photos.

After the Maritime Museum we decided on The Kings Arms for lunch, a pub that was almost across the road from the museum.

It was a very cosy and beautifully decorated pub and the food was terrific.

Luke and I both got the steak and ale pie but could have easily shared one. Pete very kindly had a slice of mine, which I would’ve sorely regretted eating if it had stayed on my plate.

Yes that is a quarter of a cabbage. Surprisingly tasty!

After lunch we headed to the Queens House.

You’d think, from my photos, there was almost no one in London.

The building was used by royalty at different times but also for housing soldiers, artists and was also used as a set for Bridgerton. It was currently housing an exhibition of paintings with a nautical theme.

The building itself was very interesting, with some lovely wallpaper (which seems to be a motif of this trip) featuring monkeys and pomegranates.

Also a notable staircase, the first of its kind built in England.

Lovely!

Next was a short walk up a steep hill to the Greenwich Observatory. We didn’t pay to go in but managed to find a spot where we could stand on the meridian line.

Somehow this got the biggest smiles of the day.

Back down the hill to the Old Royal Naval College, where Luke and I left Lea and Pete in the cafe while we went into the Painted Hall.

The Painted Hall is an enormous room with a painted ceiling and far more impressive and interesting than the Sistine Chapel… in my opinion, anyway!

It also has far fewer people jammed in. and padded benches visitors can lie on and mirrors for ease of viewing.

The painting is full of references to history, mythology and legend.

Christopher Wren designed the building and also St Paul’s Cathedral

There’s plenty more to do in Greenwich but it was getting towards 5pm so we walked the short way to the ferry and caught a boat back towards the city.

Lea and Pete went to have dinner with Mark, Luke and I went back to the apartment for a quick change and rest before heading to our evening’s entertainment.

Austentatious was an improvised comedy performance where audience members shouted out possible Jane Austin titles. The suggestions were ‘Pride Month and Prejudice’, ‘Bloodbath in Bath’ and the one that was chosen, ‘Perspiration’.

The story was so convoluted that I’m not going to attempt to retell it, but it was very funny and the audience loved it.

After dinner Luke had booked us a table at Berenjak, a restaurant his old workmate, Mark, had recommended.

How nice to turn up and find out it’s in the guide! Also to find it was worth booking a table, because people were turned away ahead of us at 9:45pm.

The cuisine was Persian street food and the flavours were fantastic.

A great way to end an action-packed day!

28May2023

Cumbria to Cambridge

by Miss Penny Black

Yesterday’s journey from Cragwood to Andrew’s house went relatively smoothly apart from one train connection being cancelled.

We caught the bus from Cragwood to Windermere on time but found the short train connection to Oxenholme, where our booked train tickets started, wasn’t running due to lack of staff. Luke tried to talk to the station manager behind the counter but he was on the phone and ignored us then went into his back office and shut the door.

Thankfully there was a taxi waiting outside so we jumped in and heard all about how incompetent the guy running the train station was. Apparently he leaves the station during his shifts to run personal errands and is really rude to customers all the time but there’s no one else to do the job so he just gets away with it.

We got to Oxenholme with time to spare and had some breakfast. I managed to drop a large chunk of my pie on my freshly laundered trousers.

We had to change at Preston then again at Birmingham but both other trains were on time.

Andrew met us at the station in his new (well, new to us) car. It has more buttons than any other car I’ve ever been in.

We went back to his new (to us) place in Fenstanton and said hi to his wife, Lila, and met his corgi, Winston!

After a cup of tea and tour of the house we walked to Fendrayton, the next village over and the site of a mini beer festival in the local pub.

I couldn’t help reflecting on the fact that we’d gone from the most rugged landscape in England to the most flat. Cambridgeshire is fens, land that has been largely reclaimed from wetlands. It makes cycling a dream but views aren’t precisely what you’d call inspiring.

The Three Tuns, ‘tuns’ being barrels that beer is stored in.

There were lots of people but a couple of free tables.

There were only two ciders on the list so that made life easy.

I had the sweet one first then the dry. It was so dry it verged on salty. Andrew and Luke both thought it was disgusting but I managed to drink half then changed to wine.

We sat for a while and listened to the band, who had at least two singers but neither could hold a tune. It wasn’t bad background music though and wasn’t too loud, which is the most important thing!

Back home along a new route thanks to my OS map app.

At least the landscape makes for easy post-pub journeys.

I woke up this morning to find the latest Betoota Advocate headline was about me!

26May2023

Windermere: Cragwood Estate

by Miss Penny Black

From Buttermere we needed to get to Cambridge, which is pretty much at the opposite end of the country.

This would mean a bus, a bus, three trains and possibly a bus, so we decided to split the journey over two days.

This option became even more enticing when we found a relatively reasonable room rate for Cragwood, a hotel that is part of the same group as Merewood, where Mum and I first stayed on our last big trip. It was one of the loveliest hotels I’ve ever had the pleasure of visiting, so finding out we could stay in the affiliated hotel, which is just over the road, was a no-brainer.

But first we had to catch the bus to Keswick.

A visit to the laundromat was in order. After four days without a washing machine we were in no state to swan about a fancy house pretending we belonged there.

Seven pounds just for a single load! Ouch. Still, it did mean visiting my favourite clematis, which grows right outside.

The washing and drying took about an hour so we had time afterwards for a quick visit to Mrs F’s cafe for a last bowl of soup.

Luke was treated to the full Mrs F’s experience, with the lady who owns the place talking non stop to us and an American couple from the moment we entered until the moment we left.

She even remembered me from my visits a month ago, which was lovely.

The cafe is decorated in the style of her nan’s house.

Now that we were relatively clean and presentable it was back to the bus interchange. We found a park bench as we’d missed the last bus by only a couple of minutes. Fortunately we made a new friend to keep us entertained. A boxador!

There’s friendly and then there’s ‘I’ll lie on your feet before we’ve even exchanged names’.

Then we made another friend on the bus.

The bank holiday traffic flowing the other way was a slow and steady stream – we were making our escape at the right time!

The bus stop was right outside Cragwood, which was handy. Not too far to carry my bag, which has grown heavier and heavier with new clothes, gifts, and even a chopping board that was given to me by the lady at the Booths cheese counter.

First stop was our room, which had a window seat that was bigger than my bed in our previous accommodation.

I think our bed was bigger than the room we slept in at the cottage. After a bath and getting into our newly-washed clothes, we headed out to look around.

The old part of the building had beautiful wood panelling.

The grounds were lovely, with a perfect striped lawn looking out over Windermere.

The gardens were full of rhododendrons in flower.

We got a drink from the bar and went to sit in the shade.

We had booked dinner at 7pm but when we walked in there were two women with two small children, both of whom were playing with phones that had the volume up. I don’t judge or care if people give children devices in restaurants to keep them settled, but having one, let alone two, with the volume up is so irritating that I asked if we could come back at 8pm. Fortunately they weren’t busy and didn’t mind.

We were glad we asked to change because we ended up enjoying a peaceful and delicious meal and talking to one of the waiters. He was from Valencia and had moved to the Lake District many years ago.

I had mackerel then chicken, Luke had pigeon then pork. We both had desserts and the only problem I had was the same one we’d had throughout the Lake District – not enough icecream with the sticky toffee pudding.

After dinner our waiter gave us a little sample of Kendal mint liquor, which tasted just like after dinner mints but in liquid form. Very nice but a lurid colour.

We took our last glass of wine out to the terrace.

Tomorrow is a long day of travel but I’m looking forward to seeing Andrew, his new house and his corgi, Winston!

22May2023

Keswick: Ashness Bridge, Walla Crag and Castlerigg Stone Circle.

by Miss Penny Black

After realising last night that we were, in fact, not leaving Keswick on the following day, we decided on a plan. We were going to catch the lake ferry to Ashness Bridge and walk back to town via Walla Crag, a walk none of us had done and which seemed reasonably straightforward.

The walk from our apartment to the landing was short and we bought tickets (a steal at £2.70 each) and I took some snaps of the very photogenic row boats.

The boat ride was short but scenic.

We alighted at the first landing and walked the step road climb to Ashness Bridge. I’ve been there twice before, also on overcast days, so if my photos look very familiar that’s why. Or you’ve seen this bridge on the cover of a box of Derwent pencils.

There were a few people around but these girls had decided to have their meal break right in front of the bridge and get in the way of everyone’s photos, which was kind of annoying.

Still, the time of day and light was much better this time. Here’s my very shady photo from 2018.

We were a bit less organised today and Mark, who said he wasn’t in charge, had the route marked out on his phone. We decided to take the path that didn’t look very steep.

Through this harmless-looking, and therefore misleading, gate.

But then it got STEEP!

It’s really hard to capture steepness in a photo, but I had to use my hands on the rocks, the surface was loose gravel and there were blackberry canes, nettles and roses everywhere, which made it all a bit challenging. Mark and Sue leapt to the top like mountain goats while everyone else got caught up behind me. To be honest, if I’d been on my own I probably wouldn’t have done it but, after a couple of uncertain moments, we got up higher where the path levelled out.

Maybe, instead of anaesthetic, in hospitals they could save money and just show people photos of amazing views because it seems to make me immediately forget all the suffering I’ve endured.

Feeling the serenity. We did actually manage to hear a cuckoo today too!

From up high we could see the fell we walked yesterday.

We saw a bird of prey and our eyes could see more detail than this terrible image shows. We think it might have been a honey buzzard.

An unusual stile design to get to Lady’s Rake above Walla Crag.

Lea loves it when I take photos of her unawares.

The back of Walla Crag is a wide moor space that is very open and covered in heather. My favourite sort of landscape, it sweeps up to some higher fells and I was dying a little inside knowing that it will have wait until next time but I guess it’ll always be there.

After a while admiring the view we headed down again.

Past a field with some fell ponies and down a long hill.

After a bit of a sit at the stone circle (which I have also photographed before… by now you may be wondering why I’m even bothering to rephotograph all these places.

When we got to the bus stop Mark and Sue decided to walk back the 30 minutes while the rest of us waited for the bus. Which, in the manner of buses everywhere, failed to arrive.

Oh well, Luke messaged Mark and they were at the pub along the way so we joined them at the…

After a drink and toilet stop we walked back to the apartment for a late lunch bite and rest before dinner.

Mark was the taxi for the evening and, as there were six of us, had to take us in two shifts to a pub in the village of Braithwaite. The pub was Mark and Sue’s recommendation.

Always nice to see the pour over the line.

Cheese sauce with garlic mushrooms on garlic bread – I’m including this photo to remind me to make this at home.

Pork belly, or ‘belly pork’ according to the waiter.

Unfortunately our lovely dinner was ruined by Luke and I sharing the news that we don’t separate coloured and white items in our laundry and I’m not sure the conversation really recovered.

Tomorrow we check out at 10 and have three hours to fill before we can check in at our Buttermere accommodation. The next place we are staying is much more remote than any of the previous so we need to pick up supplies, with cheese and wine at the top of the list!

21May2023

Sale Fell And An Afternoon Tea

by Miss Penny Black

Today was the day! My guided walk for everyone up Sale Fell then back to the lake station cafe for the afternoon tea I booked months ago. I’d been keeping my fingers crossed for good weather but it was sprinkling just a little when I woke up.

There was one thing to do first: the presenting of the gifts!

If you have family overseas you’ll know that any visitor from home will be asked to bring food items when they come to visit. Luke’s uncle Mark had requested a few of his favourites.

Next we headed to the bus stop and finally managed to be first on and grab the seats up the top and right at the front.

The slight mist of morning rain had stopped and the day was clearing a bit and warming up.

We set off uphill.

And up.

And up.

If I didn’t explain fully yesterday, Mark is Luke’s youngest uncle (Luke’s mother is the eldest of nine siblings) and only three years older than me. Mark moved to the UK in his twenties, met Sue and settled in Essex.

Mark and Sue come to the Lake District every October with a group of friends for walking holidays. They are both very fit, Mark just completed a 100km walk around the Isle of Wight (in one go, not over a week like I’d do it) and Sue runs marathons. The rest of us were a bit concerned that our pace would be a bit painful for them but they magnanimously slowed down.

Well, mostly.

The walk was a long way to the top but worth it.

Sale Fell is a nice gentle hill with an undulating crown. Good walking for inexperienced walkers and families. Great views and no sharp edges!

Right at the very top are views to Scotland and, extremely faintly if you really squinted, Ireland and the Isle of Man.

Here’s Mark’s photo of ‘Luke and Lea looking like they’re loving life on the lakeside links’. (Say it ten times fast!)

We met a nice older man at the top who told us he’d heard cuckoos on the way up, which we completely forgot to listen for on the way down.

The walk down was lovely.

We decided to stop at the Pheasant Inn for a drink since we were too early for our cafe booking.

It was lovely sitting in the sun and the garden had a lot more flowers out since I’d last visited. All the azaleas and rhododendrons are in full bloom at the moment. Mum, you would have loved it.

But forget about a mere drink, afternoon tea was on the horizon!

The tables I booked were in the train cafe.

Apart from being stiflingly hot, it was delightful.

We weren’t sure how the waiters would fit food onto the tiny tables, but through sleight of hand, and possibly some actual magic, they did it with ease.

The food selection included tiny Yorkshire puddings and roast beef, delicious sandwiches, cheesecake, profiteroles, salmon and avocado mousse, deep fried Camembert and more! Lea had, rather unwisely, claimed at the pub that she would be capable of eating everything put in front of her at the tea.