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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 photos!
The 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. The rhododendrons in the gardens are still quite spectacular although a little bit past their best. The views down over Lake Windermere were fabulous especially since the sun has actually started to shine.
From the gardens we drove to another NT property, Townend House at Troutbeck only a few minutes away from Ambleside. Townend is a remote stone farmhouse with a slate roof, mullioned windows and round chimneys that was built in the 1620s. Unfortunately we had not read the fine print in the NT guide and we didn’t realize that entries to the house are limited to fifteen people only for each of the 11.00am and 12.00noon guided tours. We arrived too late to get a peg for the noon tour so we settled for
some photos of the exterior of the house and the gardens.
I have reached the conclusion that visiting NT properties in the Lake District requires organizational skills beyond even mine!! The properties all open at different times, on some days and not others and there are all sorts of restrictions on numbers of visitors due to the age and fragility of some of the sites. I suggested to Bernie that a spreadsheet would be required if we ever visit again, but he tells me we probably need a Gant chart to get the timelines right!!??
Our next stop was Hill Top, Beatrix Potter’s house at Near Sawrey. We knew that the house would not be open today, but decided to visit anyway to see the gardens. The gardens here were more of a cottage garden look with lots of annuals creating a mass of colour. It was not hard to imagine Peter Rabbit sneaking into the walled vegetable garden!!
We shared a cheese and onion sandwich with pickle at the pub in Near Sawrey before taking the lakeside road to venture down to Esthwaite Water where there were lots of people enjoying a glorious afternoon fishing and
boating on the lake.
We thought that we would drive to Far Sawrey and take the road beside Lake Windermere down to Newby Bridge. However, after about 100 yards on the road that we thought was it we chickened out and turned back to the B5285. One because we were not entirely sure that we were on the right road and secondly because the un-numbered road we had chosen was ridiculously steep and narrow!
Back in Near Sawrey we took the lakeside road again, this time taking the turn off for Newby Bridge so that we could start wending our way back towards Stalybridge. From Newby Bridge we had an entirely uneventful journey until we were on the outskirts of Greater Manchester. At this point Bernie slightly misinterpreted Edna’s instructions and we ended up exiting the motorway well before we intended. Not a problem for Edna who simply recalculated our route to guide us through the backstreets of Salford and Swinton and eventually back onto the M60!! I love Edna as there is no way I would have been able to achieve this same feat if I had been responsible for the navigating!!
Our next small problem
was that we were in the wrong lane to make the transition at the M60/M62 confluence!! Again, it wasn’t a problem for Edna who simply took us back to the preceding roundabout to turn us around and let Bernie have another go at the intersection - this time choosing the correct lane to end up on the M60 rather than the M62!! All went smoothly from here and we still pulled into Kath and Albert’s driveway by the time that we said we would!
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Wayne
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Sandwich
No Honeymoon tonight after the cheese and onion sandwich with pickle. I bet!!