The road ran along this lake for about 10 miles and then we headed up! UP and Up we drove over some amazingly tiny and very steep mountain roads with nothing but a dry stacked rock wall between us and a plunge down hundreds of feet. The wall was perched right on the edge of the pavement-no shoulder. But David has become a pro at navigating the twist and turns and this was our reward.
Just after this point in the drive, we were motoring through clouds. The visibility was almost nothing except for a few feet in front of the car.
As you can see, the weather is taking a turn high up in these mountains. It is getting cold and it is starting to rain lightly. On we drove until we came to the town of Windemere and Grasmere-both famous for their storybook settings. We stopped in Grasmere for some shopping, sight-seeing and eating. After we donned our rain gear, we set out on foot. We found a small, cozy restaurant serving a very nice lunch. It was warm and dry with a cozy fire burning in the fire place; and we warmed ourselves and ate some good food.
All the buildings here are made of beautifully colored slate rather than the stone more commonly seen across the U.K. Most were of thin sacked pieces with a few larger ones mixed in. The color and shape combination was very striking. The town of Grasmere is extremely picturesque. Grasmere was home for a time of the famous poet, William Wordsworth. His fame is written all over town. I think it would be hard not to be a poet living among such beauty and tranquility.
One of the places we stopped was Sarah Nelson's Gingerbread Shoppe. This is world famous gingerbread and now we know why. The first time we talked by the house there was a long queue out into the rain. The second time, we got into the line which was much shorter this time. The house is tiny and the area to buy the ginger bread is only about 5 feet wide and 8 feet long. Only about 4 people can stand in there at a time. There is something about this gingerbread that is amazing. At first you don't taste the ginger, but then after a few minutes you begin to feel and taste it. The texture too is wonderful.
This beautiful stream wound its way through the town. Notice how close the foundation is to the river. You see that here a lot. Houses built right to the edge of a road or a stream.
One thing that has surprised us, on our journeys, are the number of Japanese Maples found all around. It makes perfect sense given the climate but just not something we had thought about. One of the places we stopped into was a combination gift store, garden center, and tea room. The walkway up to the place was full of maples of all kinds. I think we counted 5 different varieties of Japanese maples, all in full color.
We headed back to our hotel in the late afternoon, a little cold, a little wet, but happy none the less. Tomorrow we will turn in our rental car, explore Carlisle a little more, and then catch a 4:00 pm train. We hope you all are well and we will talk more later.
