I don't even know where to start about today. Oh wait! Yes I do!!! I have to tell you about breakfast!! I fell in love with this cute little French press Ian brings me coffee in each day. I didn't have my phone with me yesterday so was better prepared today. Isnt it the cutest!
It was a long day full of riding in a van pretty much. (And since this is the second time I'm writing this because Blogger decided to just poof away my original I don't know how it's going to come out this time.) Our big plan for the day was a tour of the Lake District with a company called ... Wait for it ... Mountain Goat Tours. LOL. It didn't take us long to figure out where the name came from. Bob (not my Bob, the driver's name was Bob) was our tour guide and driver and we would soon discover that he knows this area inside out, backwards and forwards. He has a stronger accent tinted with some Scottish brogue and I really have to work to understand him, but it was worth it. He was full of information and stories all day long.
He took us to The Langdales, Hardknott and Wrynose Mountain passes, Ravenglass, Eksdale Railway, Wastwater Lake, and Muncaster Castle. And all kinds of towns and places in between. I don't know how in the world he keeps all that stuff straight in his head. Amazing. As wonderful as that sounds, and we did see a lot of stuff today, it wasn't a photography tour and we didn't get much time except at a few places to get out and snap pics. And in half of those places the sun was directly in the path of where you needed to shoot so was worthless. So I will share some of my faves and just impressions and thoughts I took away from the day.
First off, we now know one of the ways the British government saves money. They build miniature roads. For real. And expect everyone to drive on these miniature roads as if they were real big boy roads!! They do!! And the people have played right along into their hands. I promise I will NEVER EVER EVER NEVER EVER bitch about small roads at home again. Holy Mackerel Robin!! Well, just take a look ...
That folks is a one lane road that goes both ways!!!! Truth!!! It's crazy!! And these people drive these roads like we drive ours at home. One big difference, our roads actually have room for two cars to pass each other at the same time. These guys? They fly through these roads until they meet up with a car from the other direction and then everything goes into slow motion. It's like when Harry Potter rides the Knight Bus through London and everything almost stops when the busy has to squeeze through two oncoming cars. It really is!! But they just wave to each other and keep going. It was on one of these roads when Bob had to backup a couple of times, using the hand break to get around a 180 degree turn that he said, "And now you know why we're called Mountain Goat!" Release breath, and answer. If i had a dime for every time I held my breath while passing someone today we could've had a nice dinner in a nice restaurant in town tonight. And nice dinners in town aren't cheap. Just sayin. We arrived back in one piece. I'm grateful for that.
One of the things that continue to blow my mind here is that there are sheep every where!!!! No, I mean everywhere!! They pretty much have free reign and graze wherever their hearts desire. Which means you truly have to watch where you step because they don't watch where they get rid of what they eat. And it's everywhere. I told Bob tonight I bet we be bringing home some Herewick sheep dung on the bottom of our shoes. Almost impossible to miss it all, because ... Did I mention it's everywhere!?
The only other thing that seem to be about as plentiful as the sheep around her are the stone walls. They are AMAZING to me!!! It's not just the fact that they aren't held together by anything except how they are stacked together in a straight or curvy line but they stay there!! And have been there for hundreds of years! There are miles upon miles upon miles of them. You know how at home when you're in the country and you see miles of fences around farm land. Just thinking about the hard work and time it took to put those kinds of fences up. But these? Wow! One stone at a time laid upon another stone creating a maze of incredible stone walls. Would you like to guess who their biggest problem is? The bloody sheep!! They jump them, kick a stone loose, then one follows another and before you know it there's a hole in the wall where all the stones have just crumbled. So the farmers have to put up barbed wire on the top of the stone walls to keep the sheep from jumping them. I'm obsessed with them. Fascinated. Mind blown. I just can't wrap my head around the time effort and labor to bring all these stones in and place them so exactly to create these miles and miles of stone walls.
One of the "treats" we got was the experience of riding the train! Cool! I asked Bob (my Bob) "Did you know we were going on a train ride?" "I did not," he says. "Well you must not have done your research well enough then. We should know about these things!" Sue had packed us another great lunch because on the website it said they did not provide lunch. Well, neither did it say that they drop you off at a pub for lunch. Whatever, too late for that now. So Bob (driver Bob) took us with him to the train station (LOL) to buy tickets and we had a picnic lunch on the grounds. All worked out well. We were about 30 minutes early but since everyone else was boarding the train and claiming a bench we did too. So I guess I should show you the train now huh?
Part 2 of this is that we didn't even get to ride it all the way (not that I was upset about this, just an observation). We got tickets to take us halfway down and Bob would pick us up there to continue our tour. So four stops and 20 minutes later we were back in the van. But at least I did get a pic of the walls I have fallen in love with. (I so could've ditched the train ride for more time photographing the walls.)
Our next stop where we could take pics was a beautiful scenic lake called Wastwater. It's amazing how the terrain is so different just a few miles away. We did get a couple of shots we really like and since we were short on time and couldn't get out the tripod for selfies, I found a bloke with a Canon around his neck to ask him if he'd take our pic. Of course he said yes. Why do people who can't take pictures offer to take other peoples when asked? Ugh, it's fine. Will have to be. It's all we've got. But really? He couldn't turn just a bit to the left to get the other peaks in the background? Sigh. That's why you don't hand your camera off to someone else to do the honors. You just never know what you're gonna get. It's like a box of chocolates.
Muncaster Castle was next. It's been in the Pennington family since 1208. Digest that for a moment. 1208. That, .... Well, that's a long time!! They have a bird atrium where they take in injured birds to rehabilitate if possible and release. Some won't survive and will be kept in captivity their entire lives. Anyway, Bob rushed to get us there in time for the 2:30 show. It was informative and interesting as they all are. They had three birds to show off for us - a vulture, a barn owl and a Eurasian eagle owl. I didn't feel the need to photograph the vulture but the barn owl and eagle owls were beautiful.
I love this shot because you can see how huge and majestic this guy is.
Here's a few shots of the castle before we headed back to Keswick.
Bob kept us entertained and educated all the way back. It was 5:30 and we were ready for a pint! Oddfellows had been recommended to us and was close by so that's where we landed. Ended up having dinner there too and it was really good. Did you know that pudding over here is nothing like pudding at home? Yorkshire pudding is nothing more than a pastry bowl to hold food. And it's really good!! And Black Pudding is a type of sausage. It's ... Well, just look it up.
Our dinner companions sitting beside us tonight were delightful as well. That's something else I've come to know. British people are just genuinely friendly. They don't mind sitting with complete strangers and carrying on conversations. No matter you don't know each other. By the time you part ways, you're best friends!! It's such a refreshing difference from home.
We walked down to the lake to see what the sunset looked like, and while it was pretty it really wasn't
picturesque. So no pics there. Walked back to the room, showered and blogged. Twice now because Blogger lost the first one. Just disappeared!! At the end too!! So frustrated. Ugh.
Will have to have to wait until tomorrow to see what Bob has planned for us. You know he's got a plan. :)
Until then. Ta Ta!!
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