Blogs from Keswick, Cumbria, England, United Kingdom, Europe

With the weekend came another top-notch fried breakfast, and although the ladies were gradually reducing their portion sizes, I didn’t want to offend Pauline so I ordered the full breakfast and cleared my plate once more. Today we were being joined by Chris and Vicky, and while I knew Vicky would be happy to join in a countryside trek, our experience of Snowdon meant that I would definitely avoid anything that involved steep hills. Pauline’s suggestion was a flat route around to the stone circle, which wasn’t any more than a few miles away from The Craglands, although a walk into Keswick and back first would add another few miles to the route. The morning was spent in and around the town, milling around the market and into the pub for a couple while Chris and ... read more

30 years. It’s a long time. Days before I was born, MTV was first broadcast. Days after, IBM released the very first personal computer. Imagine a world with no computers and no music videos. It’s almost unthinkable. That’s not to say that these monumental events have added unlimited perfection to our lives, after all would the world really miss the vision of Lady Gaga humping an inflatable dolphin? Probably not. More to the point, would anybody care about Lady Gaga’s bland generic hip-hop if it wasn’t for her controversial imagery and style that make full use of both the internet and the music video? Again, I really do wonder. Nevertheless, there is no doubt that these two events created much of the world as we know it now. In between these two massive occasions, though, was ... read more

Over 40 years old and Russ had never been to the Lake District! Amazing considering the travels we have done. That has now been rectified but it's a shame the weather couldn't have been a bit kinder to us. We began with a drive up to Hexham in Northumberland where Russ' cousin Ruth lives with her husband Peter and the two babies, Albert and Henrietta. It was wonderful to see them again. On the way we stopped off at Derwent Reservoir for a walk and a picnic lunch. It was nice to stretch our legs and the sun actually came out for a short while!! The weekend was a bit of a washout but we had a good time anyway. When Ruth's parents, Val and Carl, also visited, it was quite a houseful. We all went ... read more

****** Bath and the Midlands **** We woke refreshed and ready for exploration the next day and traveled up the road for about an hour until we came to Bath. This town is famous for its ancient Roman baths, basically hot springs that come up through the ground that the Romans built walls and buildings around. We paid about 15 pounds to get in and received a headset that gave us a running commentary of the history as we passed through each section, much like the London Tower a few days earlier. The Romans first discovered and started building around the baths in the year 40 AD. Over the next 3 centuries they built walls and temples around the baths and bathed not only for their relaxing effects but they also believed the hot baths were ... read more

After returning a little bit ill from a week in Mumbai for work, I gingerly boarded the packed train to Glasgow. Our first stop was Oxenholme before a change to Windermere. Given it was bank holiday it was running about 30mins late so we missed our connection and didn’t get to Windermere until near 11pm. We stayed at a very popular pub and muscled our way through the Friday night drunken crowd to check in. Luckily we didn’t hear much noise from the pub and club under us. After the first of many cooked breakfasts we headed out to get the hire car. The office was a little shed out the back of the working men’s social club. We soon zoomed off in a little Ford Festiva ... perfect for the narrow country lanes that lay ... read more

Hi All, The one thing that is driving me mad about blogging is that we don't always have access to the internet! Unfortunately a couple of blogs have arrived out of order - thought that I'd sent them but had only saved them . Anyway, here is the next installment. Caernarfon was ok, the B&B was comfortable but needed redecorating. We had a stroll around the city when we got there and decided to see the castle and ride the railway to the top of Mt. Snowdon the next day. We were up early and decided to do the train trip first as we had to drive up the mountain to meet the train. A dinky little cog railway took us up the mountain - fantastic views, the photos don't do them justice - absolutely FREEZING, ... read more