Day 10 The Lake District

Friday, May 15--how can this be Day 10 already? Vacations should feel slow and easy! Well, perhaps not MY vacations. It is raining again or still, I'm not sure which. We left Chester this morning, heading for Keswick in the Lake District. We are bypassing Blackpool, England's "Coney Island," and Liverpool, home of John, Paul, George and Ringo. Maybe at some future visit we will relive my teen years at the birthplace of The Beatles.

Keswick is a 3 hour drive north on the M6, the fastest auto route north. The service plazas are great in this country. There are the usual fast foods but also a small grocery with take away foods and a big bookstore. The eating area has inside and outside areas with playgrounds. The restrooms even have showers! And surprise, a hotel on the grounds! I guess you could travel cross country and never leave the M's. It would be a pretty boring but fast driving route!

Hurrah, the rain is starting to let up. Now that we can really see the scenery there is lots of farm land, cows and, of course, sheep and now wind turbines. I wonder if the we, the USA, will ever get our act together? In Florida where we live, there was talk of building turbines, but locals were all in a "tiz" about killing birds! These blades seem to turn so slowly that birds could land on the blades and ride around.

Keswick is a lovely town, even damp with rain. Very outdoor exercise feel with hikers, bikers, equipment shops that rent and sell everything--bikes to rain gear to trail maps. One shop had an interesting sign --"no such thing as bad weather. . .only wrong clothing". The English are very serious about a little wander of 5-6 hours without regard to the weather. We already have our rain suits so we checked into our Victorian B & B and go explore the town.

Taking the Derwentwater Lake Cruise rather than the 9 mile, 4 hour walk around won out. The lake is very long and rather thin so we could see both sides through the light rain. Those tour books were right---- there are more rainy days than sunny days. Come prepared for "weather" in the Lake District.

We met up with Tim, from Cambridge, and his dog Nibs. They were tent camping outside of town. We all went to the Dog & Gun Pub for a pint of beer and conversation. His girlfriend was visiting her parents in the US so he was as interested in the US as we were in England! And we had a great time! He even volunteered to "show us the sites" tomorrow as his grandparents lived in Keswick and he spent many school holidays staying with them. What a lucky meeting!