Reporting from the Lake District (being the fourth part of my two week holiday write up)

More photos up now, but here's a bit of video we did.

We were originally going to go for a proper cottage for our stay in the Lake District, but I'm so glad we settled on the apartment in Keswick we originally went for. It was nice, all the mod cons, SLAP in the centre of Keswick, but only a few minutes walk out into nice countryside... Keswick is a great town, quite busy with people and pubs and restaurants, but they all seem nice people, and they're definitely all nice pubs too. I got myself a new pair of walking boots, as the pair I'd borrowed fell apart somehow on the journey up here. Lady in the shoe shop was quite intimidating, insisted on measuring me, wanted to know what I wanted the boots for, berated me for saying shoes, [hmm seems I missed a bit here when writing this up, sorry!].

We took in a bit of Wordsworth, though not as much as we might have done, certainly not as much as pa-in-law would have liked. Rydal Mount was nice, that's the house he rented for the most successful period of his life and jolly nice it was too. It's a living working house supposedly, now owned by his family. Learned some new things on this trip, very educational, I heard that the Albatross bit in Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner was either written or suggested by Wordsworth. Coleridge had come up with some waffling spaced out nonsense that didn't go anywhere and Wordsworth said "what this poem needs is a facking great albatross in it". Could be an urban legend, I also heard that one of the central bits of Wordsworth's Daffodils poem, was actually written by his wife. Also, last interesting fact for the day, Wordsworth originally turned down the position of poet laureate, because he said he was a bit old and might not write any more poetry, so he was given a special exemption from actually writing any.

We did a couple of HHA properties on the trip, and both were great. As Clare works their, we're both members, so got in free to both Muncaster Castle and Levens Hall otherwise we might not have checked them out but both were interesting. Nice to see how the other half live, each house was still in occupation by the families that own them, though when your house is the size of a castle you can probably afford to open up a big old chunk of them to the public without noticing too much disruption. Muncaster was particularly good for the audio commentary done by the family who live there, gave it a bit of a personal touch, but then again Levens does brew it's own beer, so it's hard to choose between them...

The same day we went to Muncaster we did the Ravenglass and Eskdale miniature steam railway too, a smashing little trip through the countryside, slightly nicer views than our own Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch line, but a similar sort of thing.

There are so many great places to eat and drink Keswick, it's brilliant. My favourite pub was The Dog and Gun, but there are loads to choose from, I feel I must be able to revisit this post with more pub details when I remember them. I'd go back to Keswick again definitely.

2007 :: Comment / reply

Edinburgh (being the second part of our holiday)

Edinburgh is nice. "Our kind of city" the wife wrote on her postcards, and I agree. We got a speedy train there from Carlisle into Edinburgh Haymarket, this was the side of the city we were staying on. We could have been a bit closer to the action but HEY, this was a walking holiday, and we had a serviced apartment instead of a hotel, so we had a lounge and kitchen and all sorts of extra features.

The weather was pretty monstrous to start with. I think we got to our apartment without getting wet, but the rain really started just as we were about to head out again. One of my almost-highlights of the trip was seing a drain burst open in front of me just outside the apartment. I have a fascination with sewers, it was quite cool to see the sudden downpour prove to much for the Edinburgh underpipes and cause a drain lid to shoot up in the air and a fountain of liquid spray out in the road. This was cool for only as long as it took the smell to hit me, this was a waste spurting out at my feet, an actual fountain of human shit. It was grim, but luckily all the extra rain washed this filth away in the end. Man I wish I'd had my video camera handy at this point. You'll just have to imagine it.

We did some proper touristy things, including Mary King's Close, a shut off street under the Royal Mile:

Hidden beneath the Royal Mile lies Edinburgh's deepest secret: a warren of hidden 'closes' where real people lived, worked and died. For centuries they have lain forgotten and abandoned...

Thai fritters
Aromatic, spicy fritters of smoked tofu, peas, ginger, green chilli, lime, sesame and potato. Served with fresh mango chutney and a roast garlic tomato sauce. V
Galette of aduki and aubergine
Organic beer crepe layered with spiced aduki bean and aubergine, topped with juniper pickled cucumber . Served with chunky chips, homemade apple & tomato ketchup and crème fraiche and chives. [V]

2007 :: Comment / reply

Hello old friend

Been on holiday for the last two and a bit weeks, I didn't publicise this here so you didn't come and burgle my flat. Now we are back, and have to unpack and think about work tomorrow :-(

Did I miss much? Full report on Carlisle, the wedding, Edinburgh, Blackpool, Keswick, and York to come.

2007 :: Comment / reply