Tag: UK

Cat Bells

Alighting at Hawse Landing we then clambered up Cat Bells, without doubt our hardest climb, about 450 meters up. Described by all the guide books as “…one of the great favourites, a family fell where grandmothers and infants can climb the heights together, a place beloved. Its popularity is well deserved: its shapely topknott attracts the eye offering a steep but obviously simple scramble,” this walk took the breath out of me and “scramble” means climbing up rocks with your hands. After descending and walking along the lake, we returned by boat from Hawse Landing to Keswick and the ducks.

Click any image to see them all enlarged (in a browser).

Keswick to Walla Crag

The next morning, after another hearty breakfast, a taxi took our bags onward to our hotel in Keswick and deposited us in the town center. From there we hiked up to Wall Crag, at an elevation of over 375 meters, for even more stunning views including of the Derwent Water.

Click any individual image to see each one enlarged to full size.

Rydal Mount

After a misty walk from Ambleside we arrived at Rydal Mount Gardens. Some of these gardens were designed by William Wordsworth who lived nearby for the latter half of his life. While we waited to tour his house we visited the Grot, a small grotto designed specifically to give a romantic, pre-composed view of the gorgeous nature abounding. We had pre-booked our tour and the guide was a young man with a lot of Wordsworth expertise living in a small apartment in the house who gave us a lively and fact-filled introduction, then let us get on with it. Click any image to see them each enlarged to full size.

Bowness

Samuel Johnson wrote Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia in the 18th century and I read it in college in the 20th (it’s where we get the word serendipity from). The grave of Rasselas, native of Abyssinia is in the churchyard of the 15th century St Martin’s church in Bowness. Lovely weather brought the tourists out in the pier area. Click any image to see them each enlarged to full size.

Wray Castle

After alighting the ferry we walked up the hill to the castle, wandered round the grounds and peeked inside. The 1840s mock-Gothic mansion was being renovated, all the furniture had been removed and the ticket-takers suggested we might not like to purchase tourist tickets under the circumstances. But the walk around was gorgeous. Click any image to see them each full-size.

Dirk Gently

We now interrupt your regularly scheduled program to bring you photos from the first two weeks of May taken hiking England’s Lake District. Pictures can scarcely do justice to the beauty of this area or how marvelous an experience we had wandering these trails among sheep, geese, ducks, cows and horses, stones and streams, lichen and moss.

Our first image is from the train(s) from Manchester to Windermere (we wound up taking 3 trains, then a bus, then walking a mile with our bags after the 6.5 hour flight from NY – we were a little tired upon arrival).

Manchester train station, UK