Kathleen
Ambelside, United Kingdom – 6/29 – 7/1, 2013
The first thing to say about travelling in the UK, is that it feels more like home than anywhere else (save the US and Canada) in the world. I am guessing that this is mostly due to the fact that it was the British, in large part, who started our own country and potentially a tiny bit to the fact that we actually lived in the UK for 6 months way, way, back in 1995. There is something comforting, if of course less interesting and exotic about feeling at home and knowing what to expect. This means you have a relative idea of the standards you can expect for hotels, restaurants and grocery stores. It means you can find a toiletry item (like, say, conditioner) that you are used to having readily available. It means you not only can read the menu but (in most cases) understand what the words you are reading are likely to translate to in terms of food arriving on your plate. I am not saying that Ireland wasn’t fairly similar, because it was, but just really not to the extent that you find in the UK. We decided to try to enjoy those aspects of the journey as much as possible with the expectation that it will not be the case for many, many months to come.
What shocked and delighted us about this particular trip was actually the very thing we set out to find…places we had missed in the past that were supposed to be wonderful and beautiful. I admit that we did make it briefly to Edinburgh 20 years back, but as far as the rest of the places we went in the last couple of weeks, they were all new and both the lake country and Scotland are phenomenally beautiful beyond all expectation. It is surprising to me that we have waited so long to tour this area of the world, since it is relatively close and easy, but I think that a large part of this might be a lack of attention from American travellers in general. I don’t really ever recall anyone saying “You MUST visit Scotland, it is stunning and there are a million things to do.” I find this surprising for some reason, I think that Scotland has somehow stayed under the radar (maybe it is the Scots themselves, who don’t want to end up with a bazillion tour busses everywhere like Ireland), or maybe it just doesn’t seem beachy or vacationy enough. But I will tell anyone who is paying attention, “GO TO SCOTLAND! IT IS AMAZING!!
The unfortunate thing about even my statement, is that it leaves out Ambelside, which was our first, and only destination in the UK that was NOT in Scotland. So I must say also, “Go to the Lake Country, it is stunning and quaint and delightfully beautiful!”. And if you are going to go, although I have only stayed in Ambelside and we really pretty much spent all of our time in the town or places we could walk or hike to from the town, I would still be able to recommend that you make this your home base, because we absolutely LOVED it!!
First off, the B&B we chose did not disappoint. It was called the Waterwheel Guest House and it was smack in the middle of the very historic center of the village, where there was a waterwheel and a stream going through to power it. We had a bird’s eye view of the waterwheel and river from our absolutely lovely room, which was small but beautifully decorated and had a huge, superb bathroom. Even better were our lovely host and hostess (Nigel and Julie) who were friendly and helpful as could possibly be and also avid hikers so they could give us the skinny on all of the walks in the area. He even gave us good tips on where to find a nice beer, which we always appreciate. Breakfasts were wonderful, and you had many choices of hot breakfast to choose from (we usually got egg and bacon which is actually more like egg and ham served with delicious fried mushrooms and a baked tomato, and toast with Jam…yummm…
I guess all we really did in Ambelside is hike and eat, but since these are two of our favorite things to do, we thought that was perfect. The first night, on Julie’s advice, we hiked up into the fields, through a bunch of sheep gates, to a lovely little bridge over a stream from which we could look down and see the entire town and the lake spread out in front of it. We were walking in essence through all the grazing pastures and everything was green and grassy and mossy and it really seemed like the perfect country experience. The next day we picked up Steve’s Mom from Manchester. She was supposed to arrive around the same time as we did the prior day but due to some bad weather, she got stuck in Chicago overnight. She was in pretty good spirits considering the ordeal, but also pretty tired. That evening, while she took a nap, we again took a lovely walk up into the sheep pastures but went on a different route and had a fairly equivalently lovely experience. The next day we took a particurlarly popular local route and it was a gorgeous day. The three of us hiked for about four hours and just delighted in the views and the countryside. When we returned to Ambleside there were many, many options for a beer and a warm dinner. It is an adorable little town on a river with about 5 streets that are packed with restaurants, shops and pubs (this is a tourist area after all) but has such a homey feel that it really seems like a village from long ago. In addition, there are actually ruins from a Roman fort a short walk from town, and we took a peek at those before dinner and wandered down to the lake for a beer on the shores and a lovely pub dinner. We were all sad to leave Ambleside the next day……..