The lakes district

Today we had a tour booked that would take us around the Lake District, as we only had one day to see as much as we could we though this was a great way to see a lot in an area we knew very little about, we had hoped to visit Beatrix Potters house but had heard reviews that parking was extremely difficult and even if you arrived early you may not be able to actually see the house until mid afternoon, so sadly it became a choice of seeing one thing or seeing a lot.

The tour we took was the 10 lakes tour.  As we drove along the driver provided us with a commentary on the local area and provided us with a explanation of the names of the various lakes and other pertinent information about the area.

One of our first stops was in the village of

Grasemere

Grasemere has a few claims to fame , the first being that it was the home of William Wordsworth and his sister Dorothea, it is now his final resting place. The graves you see below is his family plot.

Grasmere is also famous for it's gingerbread, which we absolutely had to try ( we both love it) we also bought a block to take home to share with our girls and their boys, but really we think we should eat it before, it might go stale or get confiscated in customs . . . . Lol

In all seriousness it was absolutely delicious and I immediately googled recipes, that claim to be the same . . . I think there is going to be a lot of serious test cooking that needs to take place.  

A lot of the buildings here were built similar to the above buildings, made from slate quarried locally. Apparently there is three different coloured slates produced locally, they are very charming.

 

Our driver went above and beyond taking us up to narrow little roads so that we could get good views over the Lake District , the above photo was one of those times, the view as you can see was breathtaking and the journey up and back down was very similar.

Ahhh the locals ( image above). These are herdwick sheep. Herdwick sheep are native to the Lake District,  they are prized in this area as they are robust in their health, and are very territorial and it is believed if you move a grown herdwick sheep 5 miles from it's home farm it will find it's way back, which is particularly beneficial when these sheep are often grazing on the fells ( mountains) in the area. The other super interesting thing about this sheep is that when they are born they are black and as they age they get lighter and lighter. So the image above is possibly of a mum and and her lamb.  The sad thing about these sheep is that their wool is considered substandard and as such the farmers shear the sheep for their health and their wool is often discarded or burn't and yep you guessed it these sheep are pretty much farmed for their meat. 

One of the other things we seen was castlerigg stone circle.  Our guide explained to us that they  really have no idea why theses stones were placed here. But what we do know is that this stone circle is among the earliest stone circles in Britain dating back to around 3000 AD.  

This was a lovely peaceful site and somewhere we would have happily spent hours , taking photos as the light moved across the land.

At the end of the day our tour included a cruise on the Ullswater lake , we gently cruised along looking at all the beautiful lake houses, the birds and the crazy British people dressed in bikinis and jumping into a pretty cold lake.

But the views were amazing.  At the end of our tour we got to travel over the Kirkstone pass again, I guess for gadget it was much more interesting this time as he didn't have to drive and the scenery is truely spectacular 

We finished our evening in the "royal oak inn" and had a second wonderful meal at this inn and relaxed in its very comfortable environment.

Cheerio 

Googy Girl