On the Road ...
Sunday 29th June
It is hard to believe that it has been only five days since we left London; we’ve seen so much of England’s beautiful towns and landscapes. We successfully negotiated our way out of the city and stopped in Cambridge (along with thousands of other tourists) for morning tea and a quick look-see at this very impressive university town. Dominic wished he had been able to study here rather than in Amiens! We continued north towards York stopping at “our” castle along the way. For those who are unaware, our ancestors owned Cave Castle at South Cave in Yorkshire (see pics). It is now a country club and so we didn’t see much more than the reception and bar area.
We had one night (at a conveniently located but overpriced B&B) and a day in York. Natalie was scared out of her wits at the York Dungeon. Live actors provided an eerie mood and we learnt a bit of gory history along the way. The Jorvik Viking experience was not as frightening but also a very interesting display outlining the Viking history of York. Our biggest feat was ascending the 267 steps to the top of the tower at York Minster: a great cardio workout with the spectacular view as the reward!
Our one hour drive from York to Settle in the Yorkshire Dales became three hours following a bad accident on the highway (made us aware of how careful we must be when driving). Rain had set in by the time we arrived at our B&B (once again overpriced). We have not been overly impressed with the standard of our two B&Bs but it probably reflects general costs in England. We had a lovely meal at the local pub, ‘The Golden Lion’ and were amazed to hear the words “no problems” in broad Australian from the barmaid when asked if we could have a table for three. She was a student from Melbourne on a working holiday. The following day we retraced Dominic’s footsteps from when he was a fifteen year old exchange student and did a walk to Malham Cove and Tarn. Great reminiscing for Dominic and a wonderful first experience of the Dales for Natalie and Alison.
We are now in the Lake District and have just returned from church at St Mary’s Windermere which is a quaint church offering a traditional Anglican service and a warm Christian welcome! Yesterday we did a short walk to Orrest Head which afforded us great views of Lake Windermere together with chilly, blustery breezes. We are planning to do some more walks and visit as many of the attractions as possible over the next few days- weather permitting. So far it has been changeable (one minute sunny and the next overcast, rainy and windy) which seems to be pretty normal for the Lake District. A lady at church told me that they had summer in May this year- We missed it by one month!
It is now Tuesday 1st July and in fact we did not miss summer. We have just had two lovely days and have completed two different but wonderful walks. The first was a fairly easy amble around the picturesque lake of Rydal Waters and yesterday was the more challenging climb up Cat Bells to be greeted with the magnificent panorama of Derwent Water. Natalie has coped admirably with the walking and outpaced her mother on the scramble up the mountain. Following the walk we stopped at Grasmere and I had a look at Wordsworth’s Dove Cottage (while Dominic looked after Natalie sleeping in the car). We are loving our time in the Lake District made all the nicer by our well equipped, cosy cottage at Troutbeck Bridge but like all our stops just wish we had longer to savour all the delights.
