Today was a day of hills and lakes and we got a real feel for the Lake District and are so glad we came here. Wonderful place for hikers. We start out by stopping at the Castlerigg Stones supposedly 4,000 to 5,000 years old and a thousand years older than Stonehenge.
Intriguing like Stonehenge, but smaller and more intimate. We touched the stones and we’re still here.
The stones may have been used as a “farmer’s almanac” with their shadows dictating when to plant certain crops. Nice peaks in the background.
A man and his sheepdog came by for a little exercise. First the dog tore across the grass then hunkered down and waited for the man to sling the ball. Dog caught it on one bounce and then raced up and dropped it near the man. While the man walked to “retrieve” the ball, the dog tore back down the grass to lie in wait.
Back in the van we drive on to Aira Force Falls. This gives us a bit of a walk through a forest
to the top of the dramatic falls
and then down to the bottom.
The roads today are picturesque and narrow. If two vehicles meet, they have to stop, then the larger one gets the right-of-way. And we had lots of twisty corners. The high point today was the beautiful hills.
And they were frequently topped with mist.
Our temperature reached 72 degrees and it was very pleasant. Sometimes we were in short sleeves but mostly I had on a light jacket and kept the rain jacket handy. Along the way our guide tells us lots of stories about the area. Today he tells us that red hair is expected to disappear by the year 2060 and that at one point 45 percent of people in Scotland had red hair. It’s still called Celtic hair. By lunchtime, we are in Windermere.
First we take a boat ride on the Windermere Lake, the largest in England
with several little islands
and some nice homes.
Then we look for lunch and decide to go to the Pasty Presto. We get one traditional Cornish pasty with beef, potatoes, turnips, and onions in puff pastry and one dessert pasty with apples and rhubarb.
We eat sitting on a wall along the street.
After lunch we drove to Grasmere where William Wordsworth once lived.
Another charming town, we check out the Daffodil Garden and the cemetery.
Woodsworth is buried with his wife and daughter under a yew tree he planted.
Then we go inside St. Oswald’s, the church Wordsworth attended.
The main nave and tower were constructed in 1250.
We stroll through town
and then have the best gingerbread, both spicy and chewy, at Sarah Nelson’s Grasmere Gingerbread Shop.
Sarah invented it in 1854 and the store is run today by 3rd generation owners. We’re back in Keswick by 5 pm then have dinner at a nearby restaurant
where Ross orders the steak and ale pie.
We also saw lots of hydrangeas today like these.
Tomorrow, more Lake District and back to Edinburgh.
Adventures with Sheila 