Sept 16 and 17 Lakes District to Edinburgh

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Day 9 and 10 - From the Lakes District, England to Edinburgh, Scotland

Please excuse any spelling errors thruout the Blogs - this tiny keyboard and small screen are a bit challenging. Not sure when I'll get to post again; our Edinburgh hotel wants L15.00 for internet access, and the nearby “cafe” is totally packed with people; it's a small, slim storefront, with several computer stations, no food, and I don't think they have wireless for “outside” laptops. I found a MacDonald's but it doesn't seem to have wifi like some of them do.

These two days aren't full of activity, but the Lakes District is very pretty - I could see spending a week or so there and enjoying the scenery and poking around the small towns, and following the path of Beatrix Potter. Tuesday was a bit drizzly, but we weren't out much anyway. Our hotel had been changed to one in Grasmere instead of Bowness-on-Windermere, so we were kind of out in the middle of nowhere again. Fortunately both dinners were included, and they were very good; also the bkfts.

We spent an hour and a half or so poking around in Ambleside, mostly shopping, once again being dropped off on our own, with a vague instruction that the toilets were back toward the center of town. I'm becoming known as the bathroom lady, who finds them and points them out for others (altho I'm not always the first to find them). I found a bookstore that was having a nice sale, could have really loaded up, but even tho I'm not buying much, I'm running out of room. As seems almost usual, very picturesque architecture.

We proceeded on to Windermere, where we were to have boat cruise on the lake, followed by a short steam train ride. In town, there a “World of Beatrix Potter” exhibit that sounded cute, but it was uphill (and rather rainy), so three of us opted for a nice pub lunch and just relaxed until time for the boat. It's a long, fairly thin lake, with quite a few houses along it a ways back up the hill that look like spendy summer places (TD confirmed that was what many of them are). There are a great many sailboats docked along the lake; it must be a madhouse on the occasional sunny weekend day. The boat was a doubledecker with a roof, so it was quite pleasant. The train was comfortable, quite a short ride. It would have been a better use of our time to see one of the local manors, or the Beatrix Potter sites, or many other choices.

Then we bussed back to our hotel and had time to walk across the street (actually a narrow country highway) to Dove Cottage. The poet William Wordsworth lived there for several years until moving up the road a ways to a larger place, for his 5-child family. The cottage is bleak - interesting to see what was a fairly good lifestyle way back then (turn of the 1800's). There was a small Turner exhibit in a very new building, built in the stacked stone style, but a different shape. The local community of Grasmere is tiny, with a few cute shops. In the morning, we had gone there to go to the local church where the Wordsworths are buried. We are getting quite a bit of regional and literary history as we go along.

Today, Wednesday, we drove thru Cumbria and crossed the border for the ritual stop at Gretna Green. It's famous for being a place where younger people could elope to and get married more easily than they could in England. It's a total tourist trap - altho cute shops. I bought a “Beam me up, Scottie” t-shirt, with a little cartoon of a guy in a kilt (L9.99 - even t-shirts are expensive here). I'm going to wear it tomorrow to St. Andrews. (If you've wandered into my blog without knowing me, I'm a big fan of the original Star Trek series - the llap part of my screen name stands for “Live Long and Prosper”).

Hundreds, or thousands, of sheep (not all at once, smallish flocks) in the meadows along the road, occasionally cattle, included the Belted Galloways (oreo cows). It's mostly rolling hills, not quite as scenic as the ones in the Lake District, or southern England. Some forest plantations, some harvested recently. The sun was trying to poke through a few times, but it was generally overcast. When we got to Edinburgh, we headed straight to the Botanic Gardens, primarily for lunch and to kill time until we could check into our hotel it seemed. It's an excellent garden - must be spectacular in July or so. Lots of different areas of different types of plants, and a few still flowering. But again, not really time to do both - have lunch and see the attraction.

Some folks were sure our hotel would be an improvement since it's a Hilton - it's not an improvement for me - we're across the street from the main Hilton, where the restaurant and bar are, and my room is much smaller and can't even be described as quaint. I do have a really high ceiling. I have a small desk, one chair, and a twin bed. And it's definitely a single. Only one bath towel, one glass, one coffee cup, etc. Glad I don't have to do laundry - I've found it helpful to roll up my laundry in a towel, after wringing, and then put all my weight on the roll on my knees - helps it dry faster when I hang it up. The last place did have a heated towel rack, which was a good place to hang things to dry. The lift only holds 2 people at a time, and even after using it, I had to go down some stairs and up some stairs to get to my room. The hall stairway is pretty, but no public areas to sit in.

There was an optional dinner tonight with a Scottish cabaret (haggis and bagpipes) - four course meal and entertainment that is reportedly wonderful, but I passed on that. At first I was regretting that because it doesn't look like much nearby this hotel, but I ventured out and about and it wasn't too far to get to Prince's St. for a view of the castle, and lots of shops and food places. However, I found an Indian restaurant just on the corner and gave it a try. Very nice inside, with pretty Churchill china (kind of like rose medallion). I had lamb tikka with tandoori sauce and rice, and it was pretty good (haven't had that before). With a large beer and tip it was about L16.50 (as opposed to the L42.00 or so for the optional). I know everyone tomorrow will tell me I really missed a fun evening, but I can hear bagpipes at home (and I can't eat enough to enjoy four courses).

As far as the arrangements and organization are concerned, this Insight Vacations tour has been disappointing. There have been better choices along the way for things that we didn't get to see. And attention to “creature comforts” has been sadly lacking. Some of our folks have been on other Insight tours, and they are probably the most disappointed ones; this one apparently is letting them down.

We are seeing a lot of beautiful countryside and sites and I guess getting a taste of what's here to see and do, enough to make us want to come back, because there's so much more to see and do. I may have said this already - fortunately I'm good at looking out for myself (but that can make it frustrating when we have such a short time to see or do something and have to hurry back to the bus - or when I really am in need of getting back on the bus and it's not back at the meeting place yet). Usually the bus drops us off, then goes somewhere else to park for a while and comes back to get us - so we can be left stranded with no place to sit and nothing to do (except shop or snack standing up).

Tomorrow is another day!

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