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Published: July 14th 2009
I suppose I should have been more specific yesterday when I wished for cooler weather here in the Lake District , because today it poured rain, the first rain we’ve seen since we got to the UK over a week ago. We went down for breakfast (my first full English breakfast, vegetarian style) and then set out for the shops since we had a couple of hours to kill before our tour. We stopped in Boots so I could get some more band aids (lots of walking = lots of new blisters) and by the time we left the shop it was coming down pretty hard We walked back to our B&B to wait for our tour van to pick us up at noon, and then headed out for a half-day tour of the Lake District.
Our first stop was Wray Castle, which was the home of Dr. Dormer of Liverpool for 37 years and more recently used as a navel training facility. The castle isn’t open for tours so we just stopped long enough to take photos of the outside.
Our next stop was Beatrix Potter’s Hill Top Farm. The house was closed today so we couldn’t see
the inside, but we were able to see her garden and visit the gift shop. It was a bit surprising that the house would be closed on a Friday. Bad timing, but at least we got to see the outside.
We stopped next in a little village called Hawkshead and wandered around for a bit. We visited the Hawkshead Grammar School, which William Worsworth attended between 1779-1787. Wordsworth carved his name Into one of the desks inside (as did what appears to be every single boy who ever attended the school). We wandered around the rest of the village and then continued our tour through Tarn Hows, where we saw Belted Galloway cows (black with a white stripe around their middles) nd Herdwick sheep. The sheep are really interesting….they are born black, then about a year later their heads turn white. About a year after that their bodies turn a chocolate brown color, and then another year later they turn into a light brown color which then turns into a gray color that will become lighter and lighter as they age until they are almost white.
Our last stop was to Conniston Water where we took a boat
cruise on the lake. It was still raining so it was a bit hard to see anything. We heard the story about Donald Campbell who tried to break his own speed record with his Bluebird boat in 1967. He was killed instantly when the boat flipped at 328mph. The boat and his body lay underwater for over 30 years until divers finally went down to recover it (for fear that amateur divers would go down and take away pieces of the wreckage). The boat has been rebuilt and will be on permanent display soon.
On the way back we passed through Yewsdale Valley and then were dropped off in Bowness, the town next to Windermere. The town is quite a bit bigger, with a movie theater and Beatrix Potter Experience and some more shops. We walked around for a bit and then stopped at a place called Sutherlands for dinner. I had a three cheese bake with pasta and courgettes (zucchini) with chips and a pint of Carlsberg beer.
After dinner we walked back to Windermere (about 15 minutes away) and our B&B. The sun is shining again after a day full of rain. Tomorrow we head to
Glasgow, where apparently the largest outbreak of swine flu is located. The media has been working overtime spreading the fear of outbreak here… they say that soon there could be 100,000 new cases a month. If it weren’t for the TV I wouldn’t even notice… everyone here seems to going about their business as usual. Is the fear being spread like that everywhere else in the world as well?
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Michael
non-member comment
Awwww, bless! The duck on the stone wall looks so sad :( Did you feel like falling asleep after managing an English Breakfast? I don't know how people manage to eat them first thing in the morning regularly. Must have given you plenty energy for a days exploring. Wray castle looks amazing!