The Great British Road Trip- the Lake District

The Lake District! This may have been the area I was most excited to visit!

 

We started in the southern Lake District with a visit to Dove Cottage and the Wordsworth Museum.  It was the day before Wordsworth's birthday (April 7th) and they also had an Easter themed activity for the kids.  The big kids had to answer questions about Wordsworth's life to solve a puzzle and the little kids had to find sheep in each room with letters and un-jumble the letters to spell a title of a poem.  All of the kids were rewarded with Cadbury treats.

 

The cottage itself was pretty neat, and the tour guide knew her subject inside and out. The house is surprisingly small, considering all the people that eventually lived and visited there. I loved seeing the garden, walks, and views that inspired Wordsworth.

 

Next we drove north through the Kirkstone Pass and the northern Lake District. The drive was beautiful. We arrived at our airbnb in Askham.  It was what we would call a trailer, but Europeans call a caravan, parked behind a restaurant.  The inside turned out to be surprisingly clean, well decorated, and even had a fireplace!  Also, the restaurant- the Punchbowl Pub- was where we ate dinner and it was SO GOOD.  And also beautiful inside with fires going in the fireplaces, and board games and card games, which we made a little use of while we waited for our food.  All of this just to say, that sometimes places don't look so great from the outside, and end up being hidden gems.

 

 

The next morning we headed to the nearby Aira Force waterfall hike.

 

I'm glad we got there early, ahead of the crowds, and were able to enjoy this lovely spot.  We hiked over and under the falls, and up and down both sides of the river.

 

It's best to do our big hikes while the kids are fresh in the morning.

 

After Aira Force, we drove through the Honister Pass toward Lake Buttermere.  We weren't planning to stop anywhere, but kids needed a bathroom break so we pulled in to the Honister Slate Mine.  They have a tour, gift shop, and snacks there... but Rob and I were most intrigued by the rocky hike above the mine.  We decided to go in turns, Rob with the boys, then Charlotte and I.  This wasn't an appropriate hike for Amelie and she was happy with hot chocolate and cake in the snack shop. 

 

 

It was a really, really rocky trail.  And pretty much straight up.  We came home with some pieces of slate picked up along the way.

The views were really pretty though.

 

 

And sheep.  Everywhere.

 

Our next stop was Lake Buttermere.

We walked about a third of the way around the lake.  (Then the public footpath unexpectedly ended, so we had to turn back.) It was nice and level and easy, and the kids loved stopping to skip rocks along the way.

 

 

These yellow flowers in the thorny evergreen bushes were in bloom all over the place.

And look at those cute kids!

 

After Buttermere, we had just one more stop we wanted to make- the Castlerigg Stone Circle. Is it possible to  visit too many Neolithic stone circles?  No, I didn't think so.  I asked Rob for a birthday pose, and this is what I got.

 

It was getting close to sunset, and was fun just to relax here at the end of the day.

 

Charlotte trying out photo-bombing.

 

 

Awww, I love this guy.

 

 

It's a pretty large circle, and out in the middle of an open field, with hills all around.  It was a really neat place to see. 

After Castlerigg, we fed the kids some cheese sandwiches.  (Rob teases me that my go-to shopping list on these family trips is: bread, cheese, chocolate, and fruit.  I think it's a pretty great standard list.)  Then watched some tv and got to sleep.  We had a long drive to look forward to the next day.

 

Before we left Askham in the morning though, we ran across the street to Askham Hall, for one last quick chance to embrace my inner Bennett. The daffodils alone were worth stopping by.

 

Askham Hall is a boutique hotel, but is still owned by the Countess of Lonsdale.  We just strolled the grounds. Rob thought this "Secret Path" with all of the signs labeling it as such, was hilarious.

 

Oooooh, I just loved the Lake District.

The Great British Road Trip- Northern Wales

Some of my ancestors come from Wales- Maxeys, Joneses, and Evans. We made just a brief pass through southern Wales to see Tintern Abbey, but now was time to do some hiking in Snowdonia in northern Wales and connect with the ancestral home.

 

Our first stop this day was Conwy Castle.

 

This was a military fortress built by Edward I in the late 1200s as he tried to subdue the Welsh.  It was a great ruin to climb around and see the village and countryside beyond.

 

Castles are just fun.

 

Even for big kids.

 

In the village of Conwy, we found Amelie's Cafe and Restaurant.  She loved it!  But we opted for a traditional fish and chips joint instead. (My potato, onion, and cheese pie was so good.)

 

We then drove into Snowdonia and stopped in Betws-y-Coed to look for a nice walk or two.  We set out in search of one on our map, and didn't find it.  But we did find this pedestrian bridge and decided to explore.

 

It let us into a lane along a sheep pasture where we visited with the new Spring lambs.

 

On our way back into town, we passed through the train station and they had this little train track ride.  Amelie and Jake took a spin on it with Jakey driving.  (There was just a forward/reverse lever.)

 

After our little walk we drove toward Swallow Falls, but stopped at the Ugly House.  Apparently,

Tŷ unnos (One night house), is an old Welsh tradition that if a person could build a house in one night, then it belonged to them as a freehold.  No one knows for sure if that is how this house came to be, but it is a fun story and impressive if it was actually built overnight.  Personally, I thought it was really lovely with all of the natural rock shapes bulging out.)

 

Just down the road was a short hike to Swallow Falls.  There was a turnstile and a charge of GBP 1.50 to go in, but no person there or way to get change. We scrounged together enough change for Rob and I and had the kids crawl under the turnstile.  Kids are usually free at tourist sites anyway, right? This is Rob and I at the upper part of the falls.

 

And here is a shot of the lower part of the falls.

 

Finally we drove deep into Snowdonia National Park to our airbnb apartment, let the kids watch a movie, and went to bed. The house itself was pretty interesting- an old row house with a raw slate wall on one side and a slate roof.

 

In the morning we headed around the corner to the trailhead for Rhaeadr Cynfal Falls.  Notice the slate fence?  We quickly realized anything that could possibly be made of slate in northern Wales, was made of slate.

 

The trail led us through a farmer's sheep pasture.  (Watch your step.)

I love the public footpaths and rights of way in Great Britain and Ireland! 

 

Eventually we came to the Afon Dwyryd.

 

And the beautifully secluded falls.

 

Some of our kids are better hikers than others.  Well, actually, all of them are pretty good about it, but Amelie. 

 

Snowdonia was beautifully rugged, and Rob would have liked to hike to the summit of Mount Snowdon, but we had to get back on the road and head for the Lake District.

The Great British Road Trip- the Cotswolds

Dear friends of ours lived in Cheltenham for years, and I never made it there at the time to visit. But I loved the photos that I saw, and wanted to go to the Cotswolds as soon as possible.

 

Our main goal for the day was to enjoy Blenheim Palace. Blenheim was built by John Churchill in the 1600s. He was the first Duke of Marlborough. (You might recognize the lake above from a Harry Potter movie.)

 

The Palace is gorgeous inside and out and the exhibits are extensive.  We took a tour through the Winston Churchill exhibit.  Baby Winston was born here, and the exhibit covered the highlights of his life and was really interesting.  Then we toured through the State Rooms which were hosting a "Fashion through the Ages" display.  And finally we went through the Untold Story- which was an animatronics and video thing that the kids enjoyed (it reminded me of the Hall of Presidents at Disney World) which explained the early history of the house and the Churchill family as you moved through about a dozen rooms.  There were even more possible tours, but we were worn out after these.

 

My favorite random item in the fashion exhibit- Mr. Darcy's pants... as worn by Colin Firth when he proposed to Elizabeth Bennett at the end of Pride & Prejudice. They also had an evening dress of Lady Diana's which I didn't take a photo of, so clearly you see where my priorities are.

 

Anyway, after all of our interior tours, it was time to walk the gardens and grounds.

 

It really is incredibly beautiful.  And the place was crawling with pheasants everywhere, so novel for us Americans.

 

The Water Terrace.

We ate lunch at the Water Terrace Cafe with a view of this lovely courtyard.

 

  

What a beautiful place.

 

Before we left Blenheim altogether, we had to visit the Pleasure Gardens.  The first stop was the Butterfly House.  So much fun!

 

 

Then we took on the Hedge Maze.  The world's second largest symbolic maze.  Supposedly, they estimate it will take 45 minutes to complete.  Thanks in part to a very tall Rob who could just see over some of the hedges, and a maze enthusiast named Toby, we were through it in about 15 minutes.

 

Yard size chess and the playground finished up a pretty full day at Blenheim.  I honestly think we could happily move in to this palace with no problem, which is not something I say about just any castle or palace.

 

It was time to seek out an ice cream cone we'd been promising the kids all day.  On our way, we came across this sign for the Rollright Stone Circle, so of course, we had to stop and investigate.

 

This Neolithic stone circle is made of limestone, which has obviously eroded quite a bit in roughly 6000 years.  I confess, we didn't see the sign saying not to climb on the stones until we were on our way back to the car.

 

This part is called the Whispering Knights and is believed to be a marker for a burial place. We love the things that you can just stumble upon in England!  And the location and weather were just perfect.

 

We finally made our way to Stow-on-the-Wold and purchased the promised ice cream cones.  (And a packet of fudge for later.) We walked past The Bell Inn, which reminded Rob of Lady Catherine de Bourgh in P&P when she tells Lizzie, "Mention my name at The Bell and they will attend to you."  Clearly, I'm not the only nerd in this house.

 

We also noticed this neat place.  The Porch House claims to be the oldest inn in Britain, dating from about 947 AD.  That's more than 100 years BEFORE the Norman conquest of England.  Craziness!  

After a VERY full day of sightseeing, we headed back to our airbnb and made some Tikka Masala from Tesco for dinner, did laundry, and gave the kids baths. Many more adventures to come!