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Published: June 24th 2010
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The drive up to the Lake District was initially very lovely, with fine weather and clear roads. However we ended up driving into worse and worse conditions the closer we got to Keswick, this culminated in driving through a heavy snow storm at about 10 mph! When we got to within a few miles of town we finally drove out of the snow and arrived in the newly white town of Keswick just after dark. We settled in to our lovely B&B and then headed to town for our staple Pub dinner. The pub we went to “The Dog and Gun” was awesome, very bright and friendly and full of dogs! Everyone in Keswick seems to have a dog and taking them out to the local is no problem at all… very cool.
The next morning we headed into town to have a look around in the daylight and were somehow lured into a Mountain Warehouse and spent lots of money on stuff we suddenly discovered we ‘had to’ have. Hahaha, it was great and we left much more prepared for the serious snow! We wandered around town, were almost mobbed by greedy ducks at the Lakeshore and decided not
to go to the Pencil museum. We kind of wanted too but just couldn’t quite shake off the dorkiness of the whole thing! The much cooler ‘James Bond’ museum was regrettably shut, due to damage caused by flooding - there’s irony there somewhere.
We had a lovely afternoon tea at a very quirky little boutique shop/café/bakery called ‘Number XVII Coffee Shop’ the whole place was packed full of random stuff. Very much to a theme of a ladies parlour/kitchen, there were wines, and cakes and pastries and endless dolls, nik-naks and very different kitchen utensils and the like. Everything had a pleasant period feel, helped along by the wondrous smell of fresh scones and coffee and tea brewing! As cool and quirky a place you could not find! Kristi had freshly baked fruit mince pie and thinks it is the best she has ever tasted!
The next morning we woke early and climbed up a wooded hill called Castlehead to a great view point which afforded absolutely stunning views over Derwent Water. I could spend quite a while describing the breathtaking views but its probably easier if you just look at the pictures. Really, really fabulous stuff.
We
drove off to explore some of the fabled lakes, basically just to drive around and appreciate what is officially classified ‘as an area of outstanding natural beauty’.. well… it's true. From the endless glassy lakes, the snow capped peaks and the dainty little villages and stone walls dotted amongst the countryside - the Lake District is magic. We drove a non-hurried route all the way to Windermere where we had a bit of a look around and an outstanding café lunch at Aunt Daisy’s Lakeland Kitchen - we really were spoilt for great food on the majority of the trip! On our casual drive back we visited Grasmere, for the sole purpose of trying some of the ‘original gingerbread’ that’s right - Sarah Nelson’s original recipe of 1850. It was great stuff, almost like a brownie… yummy yummy yummy. It’s really cool to visit some of these sorts of places that produced such a staple for us today… mmmmm gingerbread. The gingerbread is still made in Sarah Nelson’s original house, and is more or less the same item you would have got 160 years ago, and the people selling it are dressed appropriately too, over all a pretty fun experience
:-)
As we drifted back towards Keswick we were distracted by signs for a stone circle. I know what you are thinking ‘could it really beat stone henge’? Well, actually it kind of could!! It was very cool, right at the top of a huge hill (Most of which we walked, because the car wasn’t able to negotiate the slippery slope - boooo!) and unlike stone henge it felt like you were in the middle of nowhere and had more of a mystical feel to it, especially at sunset. Was much better when annoying German man finally got out of the very centre too! This was also the site of my very first, and possibly last, snow angel - outstanding. We had a another lovely meal in Keswick before returning to the B&B to ponder how on earth we were going to fit all our shopping into an already very full car :-)
The next day we regrettably had to head back to London town, the drive was quick and uneventful as it often is when you don’t really want to leave somewhere, however this was tempered by plans for a glorious Christmas dinner at our place with
Carl and Tori!! Woohoo!
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