Saturday, 7 September 2019
It was a bit weird sleeping and waking up in a Best Western Express. The room looks like it could be in the United States so it feels like "home." Of course, you walk into the bathroom and you can tell you are in Europe. The toilets are a bit different as is the showers here.
Anyway, we got ready, went down for breakfast, and headed out for the Lake District of England. By the way...here is our car for the month. It is a Vauxhall Grandland X. I guess it is a Chevrolet, but nothing that they sell in the US.
Anyway, we got ready, went down for breakfast, and headed out for the Lake District of England. By the way...here is our car for the month. It is a Vauxhall Grandland X. I guess it is a Chevrolet, but nothing that they sell in the US.
We drove about 1.5 hours due to traffic heading into the lake district on a sunny Saturday. We arrived in Ambleside and parked the car. We are going to do a combined boat ride and 4 mile hike on Windemere Lake. We start in Ambleside, take a boat to Wray Castle, hike 4 miles to Ferry House, take a boat to Bowness, and take a final boat back to Ambleside to return to the car.
This is a photo of the first boat we rode on.
A view out the front as we ride across the lake.
We made it to Wray Castle dock in about 15 minutes and climbed up to the castle. This area is beautiful.
Here is a photo of the castle built in 1840. We didn't go in since we heard the outside is much better than what is inside.
We then started the 4.5 mile hike to our next boat ride. We came across this Monkey Puzzle tree. I had never seen or heard of it. It is actually really cool.
Monkey Puzzle tree
Check out some of the views we had during the hike.
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After 1.75 hours of walking, we made it to the Ferry House. We arrived as our boat pulled up...great timing. We boarded a similar boat that we rode on the first time and spent 15 minutes going to Bowness.
Here is my favorite boat we saw on the lake today.
When we arrived in Bowness it was time for a pint and a bite. Here I am on a mission trying to find such a place.
Ah ha. We foind Hole in T' Wall pub. According to this sign, it was a favorite pub of Charles Dickens.
And here is our first pint in England, a not so cold cask IPA. It wasn't cold, but it tasted pretty good.
After a pint and a sandwich, we headed back to the pier and got on our last boat for the day. This one was a lot larger and the ride took 45 minutes with a stop off at Brockhole.
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It was a nice boat ride / hike. We went back to the car and drove the 1 hour to our hotel for the night. Tonight we are staying in the Broughton Craggs Hotel. An 1858 residence converted into a hotel in 1975. We checked in, ate dinner in the dining room, and returned to the room. Tomorrow we have a 7 mile hike and I am tired, so I will now finish this blog at 10:30 PM and go to sleep. Until tomorrow...
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