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Published: July 15th 2008
Kendal, England, home of the world famous Kendal Mint Cake and gateway to the Lake district.
Lynne and I depart Leominster (Lemsta) on Monday, 30th and head to the north via train. We board the train and pass the station I had previously visited at Ludlow. We both get a pretty good chuckle as the train stops at the station.
Our next destination is Kendal. We had heard from other travels that the Lake District was a “must see” while visiting the UK. Our first stop in the Lake District is Kendal. Kendal is another market town that was originally put on the map as a large market for the wool industry. Although the town still has ties to the wool industry, tourism has become a major focus for the town. It serves as a launching point for people heading into the lush Lake District. It is home to the Kendal Castle. Although the castle is in a state of ruins today, it was built in the 1200’s and served as a home for the Parr Family. Catherine Parr was King Henry VIII’s sixth and final wife. Lynne and I had made the gentle climb up the hill to
Odd Fellow's Hall
I ought to fit right in here.check out this historical site. The high ground of the castle offered us a remarkable view of the city and distant fells (hills) which marked the beginning of the Lake District.
Kendal is also home to the famous mint cake. I will add that the Romney cake company provided mint cakes for the 1953 Mount Everest expedition where Sir Edmond Hillary and his Sherpa, Tenzing Norgay became the first to successfully summit the world’s roof top. Mint cakes are not cakes at all. There are several varieties of these sugary peppermint delights and the chocolate covered version would resemble a York Peppermint Patty.
On Tuesday (1 July), we checked out the town and stopped by the local McDonald’s to take advantage of the FREE Wi-Fi service and made our last update. We spend about four hours on the internet while we had access. I will add again that internet in the UK is proving to be very expensive as will be the case in Europe as well. We will be taking advantage of free Wi-Fi service even if it requires us to have an occasional meal in a McDonalds.
On Wednesday (2 July), we jumped on the bus
and heading right into the heart of the Lake District. We by-passed the more popular towns of Windermere and Ambleside in favor of a small town called Grasmere. Grasmere was the home of the poet William Wordsworth. We immediately see why he chose this fantastic place to inspire him to create his literary masterpieces. Grasmere has two hostels within a half mile of each other.
On Wednesday night, we stayed in the Thorney How hostel. Nothing spectacular about the facility, but Virginia was a fine example of someone who enjoys what she does. She made our stay most pleasurable.
On Thursday (3 July), we stayed in the Butharlyp hostel. This is an old Victorian style mansion converted into a hostel. This was the most unique hostel we have found so far and enjoyed our stay. Richard went out of his way to assist us and provided us a map of a local hiking (walking) trail.
After checking out of Thorney How, we had a few hours to kill before we could check into Butharlyp. We decided the time was right for a short hike into the fells (hills) of the Lake District. Our chosen route would
be to the Easedale Tarn. A tarn is a small mountain lake formed by a glacier. Ancient glaciers majestically carved the entire Lake District to create a truly spectacular sight. Easedale Tarn is just one of the many by-products of this magical event.
The hike would be approximately 6 miles in distance and be over 900 feet in elevation gain. The trail begins by walking the road to the public footpath. After crossing a small footbridge, we head into the fields and pastures to begin the real hike up the trail. I will add that many of the hikes throughout the Lake District take you through private property. Land owners allow people to cross their lands, but expect people to respect their land and animals. We pass though several gates and some of these are called kiss gates. A kiss gate is designed to allow people to pass without letting livestock out. It is pretty simple. You enter the gate area with the gate in the closed position. After entering the “V” shaped gate area, you pivot the gate and step around it. The swinging gate then returns to its original position from spring tension. A quick look at
the photo should help you visualize this.
Individual plots of land are divided by very elaborate rock walls. The walls are most impressive due to the extensive effort to build them with precision. We enter a pasture and pass by a herd of cattle. I step within a few feet of a massive bull, but have no fear because he is just carrying out about his business of making cow patties. Larry, I can assure you this is one cow I did not attempt to milk. We continue along the pastures for a while before we begin a gradual assent up the mountains. The trail gets steeper as we pass the waterfall and continues at this pace for a pretty good distance. Lynne does a great job on the climb and her confidence continues to grow. She begins navigating the climb on her own as I grin to see her enjoying the hike. As the trail levels off, we notice sheep everywhere. As we round a corner and begin the next climb, a sheep is right in the middle of the trail and looking down at us. It is almost as if he wanted us to pay a toll
to pass. I snap a quick photo and he moves on. We summit the hills and find a spectacular mountain lake surrounded by yet more hills. We sit and have a nice picnic lunch before heading down the mountain.
We return to the hostel just as it begins to rain. Great timing, but we still need to make the hike into town to eat dinner. The rain is sporadic but we enjoy the walk to and from town. After a full day, we retire for the evening for some well deserved rest.
On Friday (4 July), we head out to Scotland. Our train requires 3 transfers to get us to Glasgow’s Prestwick Airport. We rent a car at the Airport because we will be traveling to New Cumnock and public transportation would have been a challenge. We would also be staying in our first real hotel since we began our journey.
On Saturday (5 July) we head into New Cumnock. This is the birthplace of my Grandfather. Our timing is not the greatest because it is a weekend, but we proceed into town anyway. Our first stop is the cemetery. We searched high and low in the
old cemetery and found absolutely no evidence of any McGinn’s in the cemetery. I was beginning to grow concerned that we were in the right place. When we were heading back to the car, we met some wonderful folks who gave us directions to the other cemetery in this village. Once we began our search we found a grave marker immediately. We searched the entire cemetery and found evidence of the McGinn and Brown family throughout the grounds. I took many images to refer back to later, but our search proved to be invaluable. We even found gravesites of two of my grandfather’s brothers. Unfortunately, we didn’t find his parents.
We then headed over to the library and had a great discussion with the librarian. She informed us that the town hall had family records, but would not be open until Tuesday. She gave me several addresses I could right to and let me use the local phonebook. Wow, the areas were crawling with McGinns, but we did not have time to begin an extensive search for distant relatives. I did write down many addresses of McGinns and will write them when we finish this journey of ours. Although
Pearson
Check out the sticker in the window I didn’t make personal contact with relatives, I know how to begin the search and leave Scotland knowing I walked the same turf my grandfather did when he was growing up.
Our next destination was France and we would test out our first flight on Ryan Air. Ryan is a discount airline that sells flights for dirt cheap. There are a few catches though. If you check a bag, they charge you 24 dollars and you are limited to 15 kg. There are a few other hidden charges, but it still proved to very cost effective.
On Sunday (6 July), we headed out to Paris, France. Stay tuned for our first update from France.
As you can tell, these posts are a wee bit behind schedule. I am finding that posting detailed updates is proving to be more time consuming than I originally thought. Please be patient, I should be catching up in the immediate future. I’m hoping the photos will paint a much more interesting picture than I could write about. Hope you enjoy them.
I would also like to take this opportunity to wish our good friend Stefanie a very Happy (belated) Birthday. We
didn’t look at our calendar book until after the fact. Sorry about that, but I’m sure you had a wonderful day anyway.
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Alan and Denise
non-member comment
I was starting to worry
Wow! Great to hear from you both and see all the pics. I was starting to worry. Glad all is well!