Manchester, UK and the Lake District

On Friday Morning, Sept. 8th, we boarded Ryan Air and flew to Manchaster, UK.  Even though we were traveling to another country, we didn't have to show passports or anything.  Since we were coming in from an Euro country, they call it soft borders. This was an experience, because we took the train from the airport to the Hotel.  We couldn't check in since the only flight  was at 8:00 am  and was only an hour long.  Got to hotel at 10:00 am and couldn't check in until noon.  We only had the one night in Manchester and the next day was to be the first concert at the Manchester Arena since the bombing.  A large city, with mix of old and new.  We walked around town, Piccadilly Gardens and lots of shopping.  Since I'm not much of a shopper, we just did some sight seeing.

Piccadilly Gardens No plants?

The fountains at Piccadilly Gardens, Sitll no plants

 Just some street views.  It's amazing that so many of the shops were the same as the ones we have here.  Of course, T J Maxx, is T K Maxx there.

On Saturday we go to Manchester Piccadilly Station that we had got online.  We redeemed our vouchers for tickets, only to find out that the ticket we purchases that was a direct route to Lancaster no stops didn't run that day. That was only a weekday route. Duh, the voucher showed it was a Saturday.  Anyway, we had to take our luggage, board a bus to the Victoria Station and then take a local train to another town, change trains and then to Lancaster.  If it wasn't for the people on the train, we wouldn't have known we had to walk across and down one block to another station. The train conductor and information booths were no help.  But we finally were able to get to Lancaster and take a taxi to Carnforth, Lancashire and to the Pine Lake Resort. Our home for the next 6 days.

It turn out that there were 70 people on this portion of the journey.  We would be taking buses each day to different places in the Lake District.  The accommodations were great and the guides from Big Journey were really nice and informative.  It was much bigger than we liked.

On Sunday, we explored Yorkshire Dales.  This was a small bus day since the roads are too narrow to negotiate by a big bus.  On small bus days, we had 5 buses, 2 buses taking the reverse course of the other 3, since most of the towns couldn't accommodate the crowd for lunch and touring.

On the way to Bolton's Castle, we stopped at the town of Sedbergh for lunch.  The drive and countryside was beautiful, and really green. But since we only stopped at dedicated places, taking pictures from a moving bus wasn't easy.  Especially with raindrops on the windows.

From top of Buttertubs Pass.  One of the highest passes in UK

deep limestone potholes called the Buttertubs. It is said that the name of the potholes came from the times when farmers would rest there on their way to market. During hot weather they would lower the butter they had produced into the potholes to keep it cool.

Inside court yard at Bolton Castle

That night was the welcoming dinner, food was good at Pine Lakes.

On Mon. we had the big buses, since we would be going to Hadrian's Wall. 

On the way we stopped at Lanercost Priory that was built around 1165 to 1178.  Is said to have played host to both King Edward I and Robert Bruce its tumultuous history.

Church entrance

The entire Priory

Drive entrance

Hadrian’s Wall was the north-west frontier of the Roman empire for nearly 300 years. It was built by the Roman army on the orders of the emperor Hadrian following his visit to Britain in AD 122. At 73 miles (80 Roman miles) long, it crossed northern Britain from Wallsend on the River Tyne in the east to Bowness-on-Solway in the west. The most famous of all the frontiers of the Roman empire, Hadrian’s Wall was made a World Heritage Site in 1987.

Originally, the wall was to be 8 ft. wide and 10 ft. tall, but this task was too great and it ended up being 8ft wide and 8 ft. tall.  Every mile, there was a guard station called a Milecastle.  This was to protect the area from the crazy Scotsmen.

A portion of the wall. England used the base of the wall to build the road you see. This was in the early times before the importance of history was realized.

A rendition of a Milecastel on the wall.

We had box lunches at a small lake near more ruins of the wall. 

Roadside park with access to portions of the wall

Parts of wall

While we were looking around, this Cow gave birth to her calf 

 After lunch, we toured Vindolanda. Although first built by the Roman army before Hadrian’s Wall Vindolanda became an important construction and garrison base for the Wall, a Hadrian’s Wall fort in its own right. During this time Vindolanda was demolished and completely re-built no fewer than nine times. Each re-build, each community, leaving their own distinctive mark on the landscape and archaeology of the site.

Our guide for the tour was actually an archeologist And very excited about the recent discovery of tablets written by soldiers while building the Hadrian's wall.  Assumed to be correspondence to family or friends

An actual dig.  But it started raining so bad that everyone had to cover the site and leave.  A few days after we left, it was reported that they had recovered various swords and weapons in tact from this very area.

This was a great task to uncover all of this history.  If you're interested in ancient Rome and archeology, go to www.vindolanda.com 

This was the only day that we had a real downpour, Bob and I braved the elements and went back out.  It was really an interesting area.


On Tuesday, we could either go to Ambleside in the morning and Grasmere in the afternoon. or Vice-versa .  We chose to go to Grasmere and walk to Ambleside.  We walked along the coffin trail. The history was that since there was no church in Ambleside, if you wanted to be buried in sacred ground, your coffin had to be transported to Grasmere for burial.  The only way was by foot, therefore, you followed this trail. Around 4 miles.

William Wordsworth's  Dove Cottage

Along the trail was a tree with coins from all around the world inserted into the cracks in the tree. It was a wishing tree and since this day was Bob and My 19th Anniversary, we put a penny for luck in the tree.

Spring running along trail

Sheep were everywhere in both Ireland and the UK

The sheep farmers branded there sheep in different ways, they also would paint the chest of the ram and then when they mated with the female, they would know who was the father of the different lambs.Notice the paint on the rump of the ewe.

Since this was the coffin trail, at various places along the walk, there would be a flat stone to rest the coffin on.

Flowers in the garden of  Rydal Hall

When we arrived in Ambleside, we toured the town and shopped, but the main attraction was a walk, about 1/2 mile to the StockGhyll Woods Waterfall.  The tour guides said we wouldn't have time for the walk from Grasmere and up to the falls.  Luckily, the ones wanting to do both, overruled them and they had both a morning hike to the falls and an afternoon hike.  It was a slippery steep walk, but well worth the time and effort to the end.

The meeting place for the afternoon hike was at the Bridge House. In the 17th century the taxes were only applied to houses built on land, so one enterprising individual designed this house, the smallest of record to be built on a bridge in the middle of the stream in order no to pay taxes. Some things never change, people trying no to pay taxes

First view of falls

Falls at the top

The next day, Wed. we took a bus tour of the Ten Lakes in the lake district. It was another misty day, beautiful green countryside and lakes.  We also stopped the the Castlerigg Stone Circle. There is still no explanation why these stones were set in a circle.  What they do know is that Neolithic people erected these stones and used the monument for ceremonies.  It is not know if these are related in any way to Stonehenge.

 

The last day of the Lakes tour, we went back to Windmere (not the town, but the Lake) you don't say Lake Windmere, since Windmere means Lake.  You would be saying Lake Lake.  We went first to the Steamboat Landing  in Bowness. to see where we would meet up for our Boat trip after we toured the town. Then to The World of Beatrix Potter.  Great small models of all of her characters in her books.

After the tour, we all separated to see the town and meet for our cruise on Windermere.  It turned out to be the prettiest day we'd had so far and there were lots of people on the water and shore.

In the harbor with all the sail boats

Even though it was still cool, it was a sunny day

Our steamboat coming in to get us

Houses on the side of the lake

From the boat, we went to the historic steam railway  for a ride from Lakeside which is on the  southern end of Windmere to  Haverthwaite Station. Neat ride, but a short trip.  Lots of scenery, but again taking pictures from moving vehicle is not the best.

 Back on the bus and we head to Holker Hall and Gardens.  This is the ancestral of the Cavenendish family and dates back to early 1600's.

Holker Hall

Even had entertainment.  

Entrance to the Gardens, with sculptured hedges

Maze

Fallow Deer  At back of Garden Notice the rack, somewhere in between our deer and moose?

More of the hedges

Flowers even late in the season with the butterflies everywhere

The Grouse that is so popular to hunt

 A great day and the end of the week in UK Lake District.  After the farewell dinner, it's off to bed and to pack for our next adventure to Scotland.