London, Scotland, Ireland, and Paris2022

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Today we got up at our Elim Bank Guest House and went downstairs for breakfast. Because it’s a small breakfast room you sign up for your breakfast time. Ours was 8:00-8:50. We had several choices but I wanted the yogurt parfaits because the owner made her own fruit compote for the yogurt. It was delicious.

This is one of the most delightful places we have stayed. It’s a 169 year old Victorian era home with 7 guest rooms. The young couple that own it live on the premises and do all their own cleaning, cooking, and preparing for guests. It’s in the heart of Windermere and Bowness-on-Windermere (called The Lake District). It’s such a cute area.

Today we had a private tour around the lake region, particularly the areas owned add frequented by Beatrix Potter. Beatrix Potter was a forward thinker and a planner. She amassed vast acreage of land and sheep which set left to the National Trust to be protected against any development.

We visited Hill House. Her first home and her favorite. I loved that it had window seats in every window and beautiful views outside. Her books and drawings were in every room, as well as old family photos. We learned (in a text from Kris Hinrichs) that today was Beatrix’s birthday!! She was born July 28, 1866.

We visited her husbands office ( now a gallery) in Hawkshead, another quaint town. We also went to Wray Castle (not really a castle though it looked like one). This is where Beatrix visited the Lake District for the first time when she was 16. We also went to Moss Eccles Tarn where Beatrix spent time painting and her husband liked to fish.

I was so glad we hired a tour because I would not have wanted to drive in those twisty, narrow roads! The scenery was beautiful!!

Once we got back to town we had a quick lunch as Shealyn had a manicure appointment and I needed to make arrangements to get us to the main train line at Oxenholme. Our train from Windermere to Oxenholme had been cancelled, so we hired a taxi to get us there. Hopefully we make it to London as planned tomorrow!!

We went to the movies again tonight to see a UK film called The Return of the Railway Children. We had seen the previews and was afraid it wouldn’t make it to the USA. It was a great movie!

After diner we retired to our room and started packing for the trip to London tomorrow morning. This trip is winding down and if all goes as planned we will be on a plane back to the USA on Saturday!!

It was rainy most of the day so some pictures, taken out the car windows, will have rain spots on them.

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