Real Life
|
I went to the Lake District in April 2006, kept a
diary
and took lots of photos. Here is my diary with a selection of photos -
the page might take a while to load. Click on any of the photos for a
bigger one.
All of my Lake District photos, including the ones here,
can
be found at flickr
Tuesday 18th April
|
Gretna Green
Robert Burns house
|
I seem to be spending my time going
successively further north. First Windermere, then Carlisle, now Gretna
Green. It's almost disappointing that Scotland looks exactly the same
as England, only with more Scottish accents. It only took ten minutes
on the train to get to as well.
Gretna Green basically has one tourist attraction - the Blacksmith's
Cottage, where young couples used to elope and get married. There's all
sorts of information in there about how this came aboout and accounts
of some of the couples. People still get married there now - 27 a day!
There are also los of original blacksmith anvils, most especially in
the shop, unsurprisingly, which has more shortbread than I've seen in
one place. Including some chocolate shortbread that almost only
contained ingredients I can't eat.
I discovered, while in Gretna Green, Scotland's answer to Hay-on-Wye.
According to the leaflet Dumfries station wasn't far away, although I
wasn't entirely convinced. But I went there anyway. My suspicions were
confirmed when I got there and found Dumfries was miles away. It was
mid-afternoon by this point, so I thought I'd have a look at Dumfries.
It turned out to be the town where Robert Burns died, which I didn't
know. Although in all fairness, I did't know much about him at all. So
I went to see examples of typical 18th century rooms, which are in
Dumfries' oldest house. It included an example of a dentists - and I
think I'm scared of the dentist now! Then I went to see Burns' House
and the Robert Burns centre. All of which were free, so that was good. |
Wednesday 19th April
|
Today was a day spent mostly waiting for buses. I got an early train
(by early I mean before I can use my railcard) to Oxenholme. Then
waited an hour for a bus to Sedburgh (the Lake District's answer to
Hay-on-Wye). I had an hour and a half to look round but I struggled to
take half an hour. There are about four second hand bookshops there,
all tiny and none with anything I wanted to buy.
It wasn't an entirely pointless trip, though, because I saw some wind
turbines between Oxenholme and Sedburgh. They were really tall and grey
and stuck out of the landscape like a sore thumb. I can see why people
don't want big wind farms near them, making the landscape less pretty.
On the bus to Kendal I felt sick, so was glad when we got there. It's
quite a big town as far as the shops are concerned. So I wandered
around them and also went to the museum, which wasn't very exciting. So
I waited half an hour for a train to Oxenholme (less of a wait than the
bus) and then waited another half an hour for a train to Carlisle as it
was running late.
By this time I was hungry, so went to an Italian restaurant recommended
in Let's Go. It was expensive but I did have really nice chicken with
sauce. |
View from Kendal train station
|
Thursday 20th April
|
Carlisle Cathedral
Hadrian's Wall
A sheep and a lamb
|
Today was supposed to be quite a
relaxing day, which was just as well considering it was chucking it
down with rain when I left. I started off by going to look at Carlisle
Cathedral. It's a pretty standard cathedral really, just like the
others I've seen. Although less exciting than Salisbury Cathedral -
Carlisle has a whole lot fewer names of people on the floor.
Then I caught a bus (well, technically two) to Housesteads, which has
the remains of a Roman Fort and is in Northumberland. Once there you
have to walk up a hill to get to the fort and Hadrian's Wall. There's a
small museum there telling you about it, then the fort itself is on a
steep hill.
Mostly it's low stone walls, although the latrine is obvious! The wall
itself is quite wide and actually quite dry to sit on, considering it
had only stopped raining a couple of hours previously. There were lots
of stone things to climb on and walk along - it reminded me a bit of
Corfe Castle.
The hill the fort is on is inhabited by sheep, each with a lamb or two.
There was lots of noise from the sheep and lambs. The lambs were quite
good at posing for photos then changing their minds at the last minute. |
Friday 21st April
I wandered round Carlisle city
centre a bit before catching a bus to Cockermouth. It was quite a log
way away, so took an hour, but it was nice to see some scenery and go
through various little villages. I wandered around Cockermouth a but
before going to see Wordsworth's childhood house from the 1770s. It was
quite weird because there were some rooms where you were allowed to
touch and play with the stuff.
I totally want the job of one of the women that works there - today she
was the maid of all work, so got to play about in the kitchen. Some
days she's the nurse and gets to play with the toys.
I got to try writing with a quill. It's not too hard as long as you
don't stop and don't squeeze too hard and watch out for loads to come
out suddenly.
After that I had planned to go to the printing museum while waiting for
the bus but I got distracted by the second hand bookshop.
It turned out to be a really nice sunny day, so once I got to Keswick I
ate my lunch outside. Keswick is really pretty, with all the fells
around it.
As the bus passed it on the way in I went to the Cumberland Pencil
Museum (Cumbria used to be called Cumberland). It had a really
interesting account of the origin of pencils and how they're made. Then
I went to the Cars of the Stars Motor Museum. It was quite interesting
to see cars I've heard of, although it was a bit too much to pay
£4 for 15 minutes worth!
Afterwards I got distracted by another second hand bookshop but managed
to find The Puzzling Place. It has some interesting optical illusions
and holograms, all with explanations. They had a whole load of
computers as well. They had a couple of mirrors arranged so you saw a
reflection of a reflection. It was really weird to see yourself the
wrong way round.
The strangest thing there was the anti-gravity room. The floor in there
was sloped in such a way that it looked like gravity was going the
wrong way. It made me feel slightly ill after a while.
They had a whole load of puzzles in the shop that I'm sure dad would
have done really quickly but I just didn't have a clue, except for the
Tower of Hanoi, which I know the secret of how to do anyway.
After that I wandered down to the lake (Derwent Water) and took a trip
around it. I hurried back and made the bus back to Carlisle. On the way
back I saw some more wind turbines - these were smaller and white and
not quite so ugly. At various times today and yesterday I heard planes
go over very fast. It was too cloudy to see anything yesterday but
today I could see they must be RAF planes. |
Wordsworth's house
Keswick - Derwent Water
|
Saturday 22nd April
|
Carlisle Castle
The Citadel
|
In theory, my last day was supposed
to be an easy day. I started off by going to Carlisle Castle, although
got distracted by a big second-hand bookshop, although it was an
expensive one. I thought the castle was a bit cheap when I paid but it
turned out there wasn't a lot of it. There was also not a lot of signs
- I think they were trying to get you to buy the guidebook instead.
There was an exhibit in there about Bonnie Prince Charlie, with a bit
about Mary Queen of Scots and the civil war. I also had a wander round
the military museum as it was free.
Afterwards I went across the road to Tullie House museum and art
gallery. I skipped the boring art gallery stuff. The museum was
interesting though, giving a history of Carlisle, bits of which I'd
picked up from elsewhere.
Then I went to the Guildhall museum, where the Town's Guilds used to
meet. And then wandered around some of the shops before I thought that
my feet might really drop off |
|
