Still in the Lake District

On the Wednesday, we decided to go over to Keswick. I looked up a walk, online, which said that it was 4.45 miles long, and  took about 2 and a half hours. We had a look round the shops, and I found a cheap slimline fleece. My old fleeces are quite baggy, and under my waterproofs, made me look like the Michelin X man. So I changed fleeces, felt just as warm, and didn't feel quite so bulky. We went to the Information office as I thought they might have a copy of the walk, but it wasn't on their list. The lady did however look it up online, and printed out a copy for me for the princely sum of 25p. We went for a drink in a bakery/ teashop, and had a toasted teacake, then back to the car, moved to another car park, and donned our boots.
The walk was under Walla Crag, and the Great wood and lake. We set off from the moot hall, out through the town and up a lane, through a farm yard, then up a huge steep hill. The path was  being repaired in parts,and was quite uneven I needed a few stops for breath. It didn't help when, as I was struggling along, a young man passed me running!!!
Not much further and we turned right, across a, field, then onto a path through the woods. We were quite high up, and the ground was quite uneven, and I tripped a couple of times and jarred my back. After a while we began to descend, we saw a couple of police helicopters, and 3 military, but it was difficult to snap them amongst the trees. Eventually, we reached the path which was to take us down through the wood, and across the road to Derwentwater. We skirted part of the lake, but missed a part of a diversion, as we were getting tired. Eventually, we found the Lake theatre,and the road back into town. The walk had been harder than we thought, so we were glad to get our boots off, and zoom back down the valley to Ambleside, then down to Bowness.

looking down on Keswick and Bassenthwaite lake

Derwentwater from the wood

Hotel by the lake

One of the military helicopters

Derwent water

the crag we walked under

friendly robin

national Trust century stone complete with oystercatcher.

We had a bit of a rest before dinner, going down at our usual time of 7.15. That evening the soup was cream of carrot, then I had a starter of gurnard with ribbon pasta, and a crab sauce, followed by steak with a blue cheese mash and veg,  Then peanut butter and chocolate tart with peanut toffee. I'm not sure what starter husband had, but we both had the same mains and dessert. That was the only evening that we declined the coffee, we were both shattered, as the walk hadn't been as easy as we thought.
On the Thursday, I let husband choose the walk, he didn't think too much about it and suggested Tarn Hows. A nice easy walk, no stiles or really steep hills. it is National Trust, so we don't have to pay to park. Husband will not take the car on the ferry, as we once watched cars going down on it, and the fronts of the cars seemed to crash hard into the metal. I think it has improved, but he still doesn't trust it, so we went via Ambleside. There were plenty of people at Tarn Hows, but the lake was not frozen this time, and the sky was dull. We decided to use our sticks, but husband found his was more hindrance than help. I don't think I could manage Nordic walking poles, I would be a liability. It was still quite pleasant. Afterwards we drove down into Coniston, had walk around the village and the shops. We found a cafe which we have used before, they do huge baps there. We had coffee and cake, but the cakes slices were huge as well. I had suggested a walk round Ambleside after, but we were tired so went back to the hotel for a rest.

That evening at dinner, the soup was broccoli and bacon, husband had the mackerel starter, I had chicken terrine, we both had herb crusted cod, with crushed potatoes, mussel and  leek veloute, and samphire. Husband had sticky toffee pudding again, but I had panna cotta with plums, the plums were poached with balsamic, a very unusual  and lovely combination, That evening, we did have coffee, the waiter pours the first cup, then leaves us to it. I'm sure that husband got the pots mixed up and gave me ordinary coffee instead of decaff, as it took me ages to get to sleep that night.
Friday was our last full day. I suggested we tried again to walk to Hilltop.
After breakfast, we got maps, etc, packs packed,and down to the car for our boots. We set off across the grounds, down the road, checked the board and found that the ferry was running. After crossing on the ferry, we followed the road around, and saw a wooden sign to Hilltop, 1 3/4 miles, so we  turned on to the path, climbed a steep slope till we reached a sign, near the old tearooms which said Hilltop 1 1/2 miles. Then the path took a sharp left hand turn, and went down, on sort of log steps, and the sign at the bottom said Hilltop 1 3/4 miles! Great, half a mile to end up as far away as we had been. So we went on to the road, and followed that. It was an uphill climb, sometimes there was a path which went along beside the road, behind a wall, others we were on the road. Eventually we reached Far Sawry. There was a path from there across the fields, but once bitten, twice shy we kept to the road. I'm sure Lake District miles are longer. Eventually, we reached Near Sawry, and saw the sign for Hilltop. Sadly, I had forgotten to check the brochure, and was greeted by a lady, saying, 'Welcome to Hilltop, the gardens and the shop are open, but as it's Friday the house is closed'.
I said, 'Oh no! we've just walked up. Anyway, do you have a toilet?' I was duly directed there, and we looked at the gardens, not much to see, and then in the shop, where Jemima Puddleduck,and other Potter characters, embroidered on cushions cost £35. We went out and debated what to do. we recognised 2 Chinese girls from the hotel, they got into a minibus, we were tempted to go over and join them, but it was fairly obvious that they had hired it to do a tour, the ad on the side proclaimed visits to 12 sites.
We discovered that the pub next door did coffee, so went in and had a coffee each. We strolled through the village, nothing else there, a bus stop advertised the Mountain Goat service, which was limited in winter months. We decided to head back to Bowness Bay, and look at the shops there. The next bus stop we saw had a sign which indicated that The Mountain Goat service only ran during the half term week. Back in Far Sawry, we saw a sign for a village shop, but on approach found it was not due to open for a few weeks. It was becoming quite windy, so I began to worry about the ferry. Eventually we arrived at the ferry, the mere was being whipped up into waves.  However the ferry came across, and as we boarded, I asked the chap how high the wind had to be before it stopped running. He replied '30 mph, it's getting that way over the other side but it's intermittent'.  I sent a silent prayer of thanks up to God, with whom I had been silently pleading earlier, to 'please let the ferry be running.' On our last trip on Windermere, 5 years ago, it had been partly frozen, and very calm. Now the waves lapped at the side of the ferry
We left the ferry,walked down the lane and onto the path which leads to Bowness bay. I began to complain about my aching back, hips and ankles. At the bay we found a cafe, not far off closing, but we had tea and coffee, then I felt I could climb the hill and look in the gift shops. We got almost to the end of the shops, I realised I needed a cash machine for money for Saturday's journey home, then as I rejoined husband, I said 'I don't think I can walk much further'. He wanted to look in some other shops, so I walked back down to the bay. A bus passed me, and gave me hope that I might not have to walk back to the hotel. I was having trouble putting one foot in front of the other.
I sat for a while on a bench, than wandered over to the bus stop. The only bus I could see advertised, was one which went North, towards Keswick; we needed one towards Ulverston. Husband joined me, I explained that buses were as rare as hen's teeth, and as he had the internet on his phone, could he please phone for a taxi.We were directed to the taxi rank, and advised one would be there in 15 minutes. After 25 minutes, we decided to ask the driver of a rival company, who was idling there, if he could take us. He said, ' No problem, jump in', and proceeded to transport us to Longtail Hill, and our hotel.We were so grateful. Later husband calculated we had walked well over 7 miles. I can't remember walking that far since my disc problem first began; walking can aggravate it. We got out of our boots, went in the hotel. I lay on the bed for a while, then had a bath to ease my aching bits. I went down the stairs quite slowly to dinner that night.
The soup that evening was sweet potato and coconut. I didn't take the bread for the second evening running. Whilst in a way I was sad that it was our last evening, I was thinking I couldn't eat the dinners for much longer. For starters, I revisited the ham terrine, and husband the goat's cheese mousse. As it was our last evening, we decided to try the beef, for which there was a supplement payable. As with all the food, it came from a local supplier, it was 'pan fried' with smoked potato mash, bone marrow fritter, baby veg and wild mushroom jus.
I'm not over keen on smoked things, but the mash was interesting. For dessert we both had sticky toffee pudding, with salted chicory ice cream. It was an interesting combination, the ice cream offset the sweetness of the sticky toffee sauce.
After coffee and petit fours in the lounge, we said our farewells to some of the dining staff, they had all been superb. Devastatingly handsome Oscar, to whom I had patiently explained English idioms, charming Antonio, who patiently explained the wine differences to us, and the other two Spaniards.
The two Jamaican lads, and the chap from Kendal, all seemed sorry that we would be leaving the next day.
We went back up to our room, and did some packing, and gathering together of stuff that we would not need for the journey. We were up relatively early, showered dressed and down for breakfast. The hotel was beginning to fill up for the weekend. We had managed to park near the entrance, so we didn't have too far to take all the luggage, We had help to bring the main cases down, soon the car was all  packed, I settled the bill, and by 10.18, we set off on our journey home, We stopped at lunchtime at our Son's home in Cheshire, unfortunately he was working, but we spent some time with our Daughter in Law, and little Ethan, and had a very welcome hot drink. We skipped lunch as we were so full.
Sadly we had to leave,and stopped once more at Watford gap for a drink,and arrived home shortly after 5 pm. back to reality, sorting post, unpacking, and then off  to the supermarket to stock up on food for the weekend. I must admit to buying something easy for dinner that evening.
I have run into difficulty with some of the photos, so will upload them separately