York and The Lake Disrict

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Back from Paris, now off for some sights a bit closer to home, York and The Lake District. This marks the first trip in the caravan that keeps us away for a few days. The family stayed in the caravan while Nonni and Poppy were close by in B&Bs.

We started our trek in the town of York, an old walled city with plenty of history behind it. An introductory Ghost Walk got our bearings for the city and gave us some background from an eerie point of view. The story teller was interesting and one that connected each of his ghost stories to historical facts and even children's nursery rhymes like Georgie Porgie. After this we did our own touring around the walls of the city along with museum trips to learn about the Vikings and archeology.

On our next travel day we stopped by Castle Howard. We were very impressed with the castle as well as the grounds. We thought the grounds at Versailles were impressive with size but the grounds at Castle Howard added beauty to the size. Not only were they large but the variety of flowers and garden types blew us away.

The Lake District was our next stop in the village of Keswick. This quaint hiking town was bustling with activity from a yearly convention. The scenery was breath taking as we were surrounded by mountains with thin hiking trails visible from the bottom to top. We chose a relatively flat walk along one of the rivers that wound through the valley. It took us to an ancient stone circle on top of a little plateau that was again surrounded by a bowl of mountains. We also got to meet up with sheep, goats, and cows as the trail made its way through various pastures. I still haven't gotten use to the number of walking paths this country has and how they go through from one field to the next, property to property and the maintenance or use that they receive. The hike was six miles and Nonni kept the older two entertained with stories of deer, black panthers, fairies, etc. While Ben was the luckiest of all hitching a ride on either parents back via pack. The kids and I decided to get wet back at the campsite so went down to the lake and found an entrance the to river that came up behind our caravan. We worked our way back up the river checking out the plants and animals we came across on our way. This is an area we will definitely make our way back to another time. We had amazing weather during the entire trip, this was considered a British heat wave...between 79-84!!!

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Comments

[Kate & June]

Great Blog and photos!
We are vicariously enjoying your travels!