Lakes and Poets
Like Preston, should I ever return to the Lake District I will never leave it again. Just give me a cottage with higher ceilings and a good chimney, a horse, some dogs, some sheep, a good pair of wellies, and a novelly walking stick and Cumbria becomes heaven.
After leaving Preston, we stayed the first of two nights at the hostel in Ambleside, a village in the famous Lake District. The following morning started with an 8 A.M. hike through mud and fog, over rocks and up hills to William Wordsworth's Dove Cottage. I loved the hike, especially as most of it I was at the head of the group and a bit separated just on my own. We went past a few Roman ruins and lots of sheep. It stayed cloudy, but the grey was beautiful against the green and reds of the changing leaves. It took around two hours to finally reach the cottage. The first thing I noticed was that the cottage ceilings were higher than most cottages in England. They may have actually been just over six feet high. The reason for the high ceilings was that it was a pub before it was turned into a cottage, and pubs need higher ceilings to help cut down on the smoke from the patrons. My favourite part of the cottage was that the fireplaces actually had fires in them. The warmth, light, and smell of the coal fires added that something extra that really conveyed what it would have been like when Wordsworth lived there.
After touring Wordsworth's cottage I walked over to Grasmere Village and bought some of their famous gingerbread. It was less cake-like and more flat and hard than the gingerbread most are familiar with, and it had a very strong ginger taste rather than the cinnamon and spice flavours. But I still really liked it. After enjoying the gingerbread we took the bus to Hill Top, the favourite home of Beatrix Potter, the author and illustrator of Peter Rabbit. Again they had a fire in the fireplaces. That makes all the difference, especially when it is very cold and windy outside. And the ceilings of Hill Top were even higher than Dove Cottage, as it is a much newer house (it's only a century old and Dove Cottage is four centuries old).
The rest of the day was spent walking around Ambleside and then going in as the weather got even colder and wetter. A storm was moving in, but luckily we left just ahead of it the next morning.
After leaving Preston, we stayed the first of two nights at the hostel in Ambleside, a village in the famous Lake District. The following morning started with an 8 A.M. hike through mud and fog, over rocks and up hills to William Wordsworth's Dove Cottage. I loved the hike, especially as most of it I was at the head of the group and a bit separated just on my own. We went past a few Roman ruins and lots of sheep. It stayed cloudy, but the grey was beautiful against the green and reds of the changing leaves. It took around two hours to finally reach the cottage. The first thing I noticed was that the cottage ceilings were higher than most cottages in England. They may have actually been just over six feet high. The reason for the high ceilings was that it was a pub before it was turned into a cottage, and pubs need higher ceilings to help cut down on the smoke from the patrons. My favourite part of the cottage was that the fireplaces actually had fires in them. The warmth, light, and smell of the coal fires added that something extra that really conveyed what it would have been like when Wordsworth lived there.
After touring Wordsworth's cottage I walked over to Grasmere Village and bought some of their famous gingerbread. It was less cake-like and more flat and hard than the gingerbread most are familiar with, and it had a very strong ginger taste rather than the cinnamon and spice flavours. But I still really liked it. After enjoying the gingerbread we took the bus to Hill Top, the favourite home of Beatrix Potter, the author and illustrator of Peter Rabbit. Again they had a fire in the fireplaces. That makes all the difference, especially when it is very cold and windy outside. And the ceilings of Hill Top were even higher than Dove Cottage, as it is a much newer house (it's only a century old and Dove Cottage is four centuries old).
The rest of the day was spent walking around Ambleside and then going in as the weather got even colder and wetter. A storm was moving in, but luckily we left just ahead of it the next morning.
posted by ladyofdarkshadows | 12:00 PM
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