Up to The Lakes (Sunday 1st September 2013)

Today was split about 50/50 between travel and touring. We left Broadway after breakfast and after I finished yesterday's blog, just before 10:00am. We had an objective to reach the Lakes District a couple of hundred kms to the north. Taking the M6 we traveled past Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester, Preston, Blackburn and Lancaster. A pretty uneventful trip apart from the hour we lost trying to find a place for a coffee. The sky was overcast and dull but it didn'r rain. To be honest, the area we drove through matched the sky pretty well. Oh, there was one highlight when a woman riding a horse down a narrow lane yelled at me for being a maniacal driver because I went past her horse too quickly!

When we got to Cumbria the landscape changed almost immediately. Now there were mountain peaks, winding roads and green fields bordered by stone walls. We traveled westward towards Lake Windemere and then along its shoreline to the town of the same name. It was very busy there, full of tourists, so we continued on. Kerry had picked Ambleside as our objective anyway.

Before long we had reached the town on the shores of Lake Windemere. It's a lovely village with plenty to accommodate for tourists but quieter than Windemere. We found a place jusrt as we entered town called Ambleside Lodge. It's a very large house probably built for the purpose of accommodating tourists. They had two rooms left so we snapped up the cheap one on the ground floor. Yay, we're back at the 70 quid price-point! The room is very large and comfortable with all the usual B&B stuff like en-suite, Wi-Fi, kettle and full English breakfast.

We went off to the village and found a cafe open where we had a cuppa and some fruit cake. Then to the Bank to cash-up and off to the mini golf course. I haven't even held a golf club for almost two years and boy did it show. This was “serious” mini-golf, by the way. Not the mucking around obstacle course stuff. It was nine holes on grass with “tees”, “fairways” and “greens”, real golf clubs (a wedge and a putter) and proper golf balls. The standard of the golf played left a lot to be desired but I must say Kerry was a killer around the greens sinking 3 or 4 long puts and even chipping one in from off the green. I always knew she was naturally adept at the game. I've just gotta convince her to take it up. Maybe there's a glimmer of hope now :).

In the true spirit of the game we shook hands, grumbled about what might have been except for rotten luck (I did the most of that) and then headed for the pub. Ambleside has no shortage of pubs. We chose the Queen's Hotel because it served a roast dinner. Not within cooooee of a Les Bryan roast but not bad just the same. We sat and watch the world go by through the windows overlooking the main street while we ate and drank. I made it three quarters of the way through the selection of local ales before we thought we'd leave and have an early night.