Wales and the Lakes District.

Only just made the ferry in time......Dublin Port is difficult to navigate....a maze of lanes and dead ends and we were the last on. In the rough seas after the storm it was a bit of voyage but nothing compared to five months on a leaky boat!
Landed in Holyhead, a real port town, and headed into Wales (our fifth country) and pretty much straight down to Snowdonia.

We caught the track railway up to Mt Snowden but could only go half way because of the severe winds at the summit. But what a ride it was and what a view.








The town, Llanberis, is an old slate mining town dating from Roman times and the scenery again is mesmerising. Lots of people on the train but a few trekkers toiling away were spotted on the way up..... and a few mountain goats!

It was really steep but the track railway ( it is driven with a toothed, geared system to allow the train to grab the track) got us up to a lookout area that was stunning.

Our hotel for the night was very old....I mean very old.....small,low, creaky and cramped but the owner was friendly and the food and drink excellent.

Luckily for us, our travelling day from Snowdonia to The Lakes District was was quite wet, pouring actually, so we didn't feel we missed out on much.
Had lunch and a look around Kendall, which is very old (saw one building dated 1519) and then headed up to Keswick through Windemere ( Beatrix Potter country), Ambleside and Grasmere past lakes and tree-lined, windy roads with stone walls and stone bridges around every corner.....or so it seemed. I think we are getting "quaintness overload"

Our digs at Keswick are very nice..and another Victorian terrace with our room on the very top floor so we are getting used to manhandling our suitcases up many flights of very steep stairs wherever we go.
All the people we have met have been so friendly and helpful and our hosts in Keswick, Trevor and Geraldine are no exception.
This is the view from our room and as you can see, not exactly sunny.

We found the Lakes District to be beautiful but commercialised and on our cricuit around the little towns and lakes there were lots of tourists and walkers. Parking in such tight, narrow little places is at a premium.

.....and we thought that this would be low season!

Our drive around took us out past Derwent Water (the pencil museum was very interesting) and through little towns Penruddock, Ambleside, Troutbeck and Windemere through fields and down lanes, over streams, past lakes and sometimes up dead ends!

We browsed and had coffee and cakes in little bakeries and shopped but mostly soaked up the special place that is the qintessential English countryside.










Now on to Whitby and then York to follow up the Palframan and Megson family lines....but not before we toddle down to the local English style pub for a pint before dinner!