When we booked our room at this hotel, I think it’s just possible that Glenda may have mentioned it was our wedding anniversary. All part of the negotiation for an upgrade to a twin aspect room. Well, that was weeks ago. Probably about the time of our actual anniversary! I expect if one had recorded the original conversation and was able to play it back one might discover that Glenda didn’t actually tell any fibs. I’m sure the trip would have been described as our “anniversary trip to the place where we celebrated our honeymoon”. Well, it seems to have worked. We have views of the fells in two directions. Our puddings tonight also reflected the time-slip of our wedding date!
And, at night, our hotel is illuminated in our honour. Very Lake District???
Tomorrow we are planning a trip up (or down) memory lane. We are going to Langdale where we actually spent most of our honeymoon…
However, we woke to the first frost of the year. So a little pre-breakfast amble round the grounds was called for. White lawns and mist rising off the Lake.
Icy boat landing stages and a great view of the hotel…
Absolutely superb – but why the hell did I pack shorts and t-shirts?
Back over Kirkstone Pass behind the (very slow) number 28 bus. Sorry Nick. I made the bus number up! … and down the aptly named road, “The Struggle”, to Ambleside. Actually it should only really be called that in the other direction! Our way was more of a “Gravity-powered Meander”.
The Langdale Estate (time share for many years) used to be the small Pillar Hotel. We paid £73 and change for our week of half board there in 1970! It has had yet another make-over in recent years and is now very posh. B&B is currently from £140- 250 per night!
We do like the walk from Elterwater to Chesters (shop/cafe/restaurant/bakery/takeaway) at Skelwith Bridge. Starting from the hotel with the Langdale Pikes in the background. Down the Great Langdale Beck to Elterwater…
and on along the River Brathay…
Past the Brethay Force
to Skelwith Bridge with Chesters and the sad remains of the Langdale Quarry workshops. Now many years deserted, but when we built our house it was very active. We called in on the way (co-incidentally) to the same house we are going to on Saturday. And we managed to buy five slabs of Kirkstone’s best slate. Then we had to get the tyres pumped up because the estimated weight was well north of 100 kg and we were travelling home via Northallerton – a distance of well over 400 miles. And, just to be sure we had enough for the fire hearth which Glenda had designed, we went back to buy an extra slab. The car’s suspension was never the same after that trip!
Soup, cheese scones and coffees later, we returned by the same route. Admiring the Autumn colours as we went.
I hesitated to take the photo of the 15 foot waterfall (above) and had to wait 10 minutes while some daft woman held her two (?) year old child on the very edge of the falls. The only way I could get a photo without them in it was to push them over the edge. Well, nobody was watching – and it was a REALLY daft place to hold a baby…
I think that’s enough for today, but before I go you might like to know that…
On Monday, Mad Mary went to Lidl on her bike and bought six bottles of Speckled Hen. She put them in the basket on the front of the bike. She was just about to leave when she realised that if she fell off her bike, the bottles would break. So she sat down and drank them all.
It turned out to be a very good decision because she fell off seven times on the way home!