http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Cumbria/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Europe , United Kingdom , England , Cumbria en-us Mon, 28 Dec 2009 11:49:45 +0000 Mon, 28 Dec 2009 11:49:45 +0000 Sunday July 29 2007 Glasgow to Carlisle615am Get the wake up call. Having taken my shower the night before I proceed to condense my two suitcases into one since Globus will only ldquoTake carerdquo of one. Wersquore suppose to leave our suitcases outside our hotel room door when we go down to breakfast at 7am.730am I am dressed and everything is repacked. I go down stairs and jo http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Cumbria/Carlisle/blog-445906.html When I got off the train at Kendal coming from Edinburgh the station was closed and so I pushed the button on an information box and this guy told me where the nearest hotel is. Went there and the receptionist was very helpful trying to get me to the hostel or a cheaper hotel but nothing was available so I stayed at that place nice bed and breakfast and had a wonderful full breakfast the next http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Cumbria/Lake-Windermere/blog-432632.html Scotland over time to continue my August tour of the UK and to be even handed decided to stay in Englands this weekend and head up to the Lake District in Cumbria with Dee who I travelled with in Turkey and Paul and RachDanny and Eva who we met on our Turkish boat cruise. I love the way a couple of days with people when travelling leads to ongoing friendships and trips elsewhere in the world.De http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Cumbria/Lake-District/blog-431044.html 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 wersquove 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 Boot http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Cumbria/Bowness-on-Windermere/blog-418562.html This morning after breakfast we caught a taxi to Waverly Station for our train to Windermere Lake District. The train didnrsquot have internet access so I am falling even further behind on my blog updates and emails at least I can save them to my computer to update later.. As far as BBs go here internet access can be pretty sporadic. Your best best is to carry your computer to a local cof http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Cumbria/Lake-Windermere/blog-417497.html Another glorious day in the Lake District with the prospect of temperatures near 30 degrees again.There have been reports of people passing out on the London underground and we can see whyWe want to repay Bruce and Anice for hosting us before we head off tomorrow across the border so lunch is planned for a pub they know well in the countryside.Although the nights have been warm after the hot day http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Cumbria/Kendal/blog-415664.html Tuesday 30th JuneA drive around the Lakes DistrictAfter yesterdays energising 7 mile walk we thought we would restrict ourselves to some shorter walks and also take in a couple of lakes further on from where we had got to yesterday.We were a little later rising and after breakfast took RR out onto the road and headed back toewards the lakes.Our first stopwhere we would spend most of the daywas K http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Cumbria/Keswick/blog-415025.html Monday 29th JuneA walk in the Lake DistrictWe couldnrsquot have planned our arrival in Kendal better as Bruce was today going to be one of the guides on a National Park walk and he asked if we would like to join in which we did not hesitate in saying yes to.The walk which was to be over easy tracks would take approx 5 hours and cover around 7 miles taking in 2 of the lakes in the area around La http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Cumbria/Grasmere/blog-415024.html Sunday 28th JuneFarewell SettleHello KendalOur two weeks and one day in Settle comes to an end today and we are moving north to the Lakes District and Kendal which is about 30 miles away.Our stay here has been very relaxing and we have achieved all the things we wanted to by way of either walks or drives to outer lying places to see attractions.The weather improved for us as the time went on and http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Cumbria/Kendal/blog-415022.html Friday 26th JuneIn Hog Heaven on the rails between Settle and CarlisleWe seemed to have saved some of the trips that we had thought about taking during our time in Settle way before we left home on this adventure.And today we would be immersing ourselves in part of railway history in England as we rode the historic and very scenic line between Settle and Carlisle.Whilst we wouldnrsquot be ridin http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Cumbria/Carlisle/blog-413862.html Yeah Our prayers have been answered. The sun is really outOur lovely day begins with a traditional English breakfast again. This time with black pudding Mmm.. acquired taste but glad I got to try it. Took Des' advice to drive to Derwent Water and then loop back to Windermere. Explore some waterfall and many windy road. A real test to my manual driving skills. At one point I almost roll b http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Cumbria/Lake-Windermere/blog-411910.html Headed to Keswick after our yummy brekkie. Very excited to check out our Keswick Rickerby Grange BB esp after the little joke by the lady at the Visitors' Centre. As we entered the driveway we saw a rather burly man on a ladder tending to his garden. That must be Des Carol the mistress of the house showed us around the house Lovely She was very kind to share tips on where to explore i http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Cumbria/Keswick/blog-411895.html Yay the internet is working this morning so we have been able to load the first three days of our travel blog. We are really impressed with how easy it is to load and how straightforward it is to include photosThe weather is a bit better today. Still overcast first thing but at least it is not raining anymore First stop this morning was Stagshaw Garden a National Trust property in Ambleside. http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Cumbria/Lake-District/blog-404167.html Oh dear still wet this morning The plan was to take some great photos of the lakes during this visit but they look very drab and uninteresting in these weather conditions We decided that we would head to Cockermouth to visit Wordsworthrsquos birthplace. However the house where he was born doesnrsquot open until 11.00am so we needed to fill in some time. We decided to drive over to the co http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Cumbria/Lake-District/blog-404031.html We really enjoyed our stay at Lowther House 13 Inkerman Terrace Whitehaven. We had a good sized room and a huge ensuite bathroom. And this morning we discovered that the shower was to die for We both enjoyed very long showers without feeling guilty about it. We were extremely well fed at breakfast finally having to pass on the croissants after we had already consumed cereal full English brea http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Cumbria/Lake-District/blog-403784.html With Bernie fully recovered from whatever it was that had him feeling crook last night we headed off to the Lakes District this morning after breakfast. On the way we decided that we should give the TomTom voice a name rather than continuing to call her TomTom. An iconic Australian womanrsquos name we thought. Berniersquos first suggestion was Priscilla but I thought that the lsquoQueen of http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Cumbria/Hardknott-Pass/blog-403781.html coming soon http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Cumbria/Lake-District/blog-400047.html Today i woke up way too late but at least I wasnt hung at all Woke up around 11 and got in trouble because we were supposed to be out by 1030 and missed breakfast as well I wasnt too happy cause its not like we were staying for free Your really not allowed to sleep in which i think is ridiculous...and no breakfast I bought stuff to eat so i wasnt happy...they said that it was the law that p http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Cumbria/Ambleside/blog-400036.html I got up at normal time today. Only this time i had to worry about packing up all my crap I did all my laundry the night before in the sink to dry so i was pretty much ready to go Packed up all my stuff and Simon had to take me for some more Black pudding at the Shamrock so i would be ready for my journey to the Lake District. I called the hostel at Ambleside and made a reso for the night so i http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Cumbria/Ambleside/blog-399811.html We set off today to drive around the Lakes District and the first thing that comes to mind is crazy narrow roads If you have driven around Gaston Gorge in Sydney Jenolan Caves or Myall Lakes you still wonrsquot get an exact picture of what these roads are like. These roads make them look like 4 laned highways Nuts is all I can say. Many times we had to flip in our side mirrors to be able to http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Cumbria/Lake-District/blog-398141.html