My husband K woke at 6:30. I managed to sleep until 8:30, in spite of waking several times during the night. The bed was very soft.
We met J coming out of her room at 9, our agreed to time. I had the chance to notice thee were a couple of more rooms on our floor and another stairway up. I was glad that I had had to only climb one set of stairs last night.
Downstairs, a very gregarious older lady, who later told us that she did this in the morning to help out and be busy, pointed us to an empty table. She told us to grab the ceramic pieces with our room numbers to place on the table to mark our spot. She also pointed to the self-serve hutch and that she'd bring the orders we'd placed last night. I picked out a yogurt, a bag of granola, and a banana. She brought me an OJ, J an apple juice, and K a French press of coffee. She also brought one of those nifty British toast holders.
It was not long before she brought our food- a cream cheese and salmon bagel for K, a 3-cheese omelet for me, and an omelet for J.
Before we went upstairs to wash up and gather our stuff for the day, we took a peek in the front room. I don't know if the British call it a "living room", but it certainly looked like one.
We headed out at about 10:30 into a wet Windermere. J doesn't have an umbrella, because it is in her still missing suitcase. Using Google maps, she guides us to the nearby Boots to buy an umbrella. Then. we went to the nearby post office on Cumbria Street. I was positively ecstatic to see how it was like the 1:48 scale post office I'd built 2 years ago. Inside, there were post cards, greeting cards, gifts, etc. I bought some post cards and got stamps for a post card to mail to our granddaughter. The lady at the counter was friendly and chatty. She even picked a bit of lint out of my hair left over from the very linty towels at the hotel.
We needed to catch a bus, but I took a moment to take a photo down the street, fairly certain we wouldn't have time to explore the town.
We got off at Bowness-on-Windermere at 11:30. We were near the ticket booth for the boat tours. At home, we'd already decided on the yellow cruise, which included everything we wanted to do. J paid a total of Ł109.50 for the three tickets and we went to pier 1 to wait for the boat. We had some time to look around at the shore. I have no idea what kind of geese we saw, but they looked like our Canada geese.
At 11:40, we boarded the Swift and at 11:46, we set sail. Over the speaker, we learned that Lake Windermere is 220 feet at its deepest and is England's longest lake at 10.5 miles. We had found seats inside, but ventured out on the deck to take photos. It was not raining and we had some wonderful views thanks to the clouds and mist as we sailed south to Lakeside. We even saw a glamping site, as well as a ferry crossing the lake. I took a moment to stop at the boat's shop and buy a button for Ł1.50.
The boat arrived at Lakeside, the bottom of the lake, at12:22. We disembarked and headed for the next stage of our travels, a steam train.When we boarded the train at 12:28, the sun actually made an appearance.
The train was fairly popular, but we found seats with a table in between and a window with a view to the east. When the train started moving at 12:34, we soon discovered how fortuitous this was. It turned out that it gave us a view of the River Leven, which flows out of the lake before traveling 8 miles to Morecambe Bay.
There was a lot of chattering from the other passengers. It did not take me long to realize that the two adults across from us with several kids were getting out at the next stop to take advantage of a playground. In fact, when we did stop at12:52 at Haverthwaite with its charming station, I was surprised at just how many people did disembark. We didn't pick up that many passengers, either. We just stayed put.
At 1:10, we were moving again but back in the direction we'd come. The train did not turn around to do this, which meant we could still see the river and the surroundings. It was just so pretty! We were really glad we'd chosen to do this with the lake cruise.
Surprisingly, we didn't see people along the way. Well, that is other than this paddleboarder. Seemed too chilly for the outfit he'd chosen.
We went to the dock to wait for the next boat, which was the Swift, which was diesel-electric. Looking north, we saw some dramatic dark clouds.
We boarded the rather crowded boat at 1:39 and were soon underway. K decided to get hot chocolate for J and me to warm up. Two cups cost Ł5.20.
We were seated on the eastern side of the boat and had a view of some housing that we hadn't earlier. This first house has some nice lake views. Look carefully at the second. I think you can sail your boat right into that archway. The third is Storrs Hall, a Georgian mansion, which is now a B & B with the possibility of dinner.
At 1:55, the sun disappeared for a time and it was 63°.
The boat stopped at Bowness-on-Windermere at 2:25, but we stayed on board. Ten minutes later, we were sailing north as the Red Cruise. We learned that just north of the lake was the Fairfield Horseshoe, which was a classic circular hillwalking ridge walk route with a lot of ups and downs. The 10.2 mile route circled an area carved out by a glacier.
Meanwhile, the clouds continued to be impressive.
The land formations were interesting, too. Not quite mountains, but not hills either. There were definite signs of glacial action in the distant past.
This is the Langdale Chase Hotel. It was built in the late 19th century and is on the English Heritage Register as a house of historical significance.
At 3:16, we were underway. It was sunny to the west, breezy and chilly on the water, and dark to the east. The entire lake hasn't frozen over since 1963. The North Basin hasn't frozen in years, but there will be ice around the islands sometimes.
The trip south was pleasant with nice sunshine. We'd chosen well today.
The bus arrived at 4:50 and I bought the three tickets needed for Ł2 each, as usual. Just six minutes later, we got off on Beech Street back in Windermere.
It had been a long time since breakfast. So, J checked for restaurants around us that were reasonably priced. We chose Brown Sugar, just a bit north where Crescent and Main Streets closed a loop.
We are not tough people, so we looked for seats inside, where we would stay warmer. The table was right next to the bar. We were given menus and tried to order from the phone as the menu directed to no avail. Finally, someone decided to take our order. A large Coke Zero and a large Coke were each Ł4 and K's Guinness was Ł5.80.
I really didn't like the high chairs we had to sit in at the high-top table, but the food was delicious. Of course, we had room for dessert. There was a case of desserts to one side of the bar and J recognized caramel shortbread and banana banoffee pie. So, I went to the side of the bar to order one of each. I cannot tell you how long I stood there, while others came up and were served beer. I tried moving around to the front with the same result until I finally told the next person to come up that I was next. The guy behind the bar was none too friendly, but I ordered and paid Ł13.50 total for them. He called someone over to put pieces of each on plates and bring them over. They were both gooey and decadent.
Inside, I took the opportunity to take photos of the breakfast room. The doorway in the first photo leads to more rooms. The table on the left in the second photo was ours this morning.
We then went upstairs to pack, for tomorrow we move on again. We did fill out our breakfast requests and got them downstairs on time. Then, we had the evening to relax.
Unsurprisingly, my phone showed only 3162 steps for a total of 1 mile.
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