Ok so after we got back from Paris on the Tuesday I was back at work on the Wednesday absolutely shattered haha. I was hanging onto the dream of a lovely Sat morning sleep in… but Mum and Vicky had other ideas! Instead of a Sat morning sleep in we headed off to the Lake District first thing in the morning – Vicky had sorted accommodation on the opposite coast in Whitehaven so we headed there! We drove through Keswick on the way which was absolutely lovely – then we hit Whitehaven… and found the place Vicky had booked over the phone. Horrid! Seriously, seriously rank – it didn’t even look like a B&B so we had to resort to plan B… ringing the owners and using the old ‘we’re having engine trouble so won’t make it there tonight” excuse haha. Now before Vicky rang she told both Mum and I to keep quiet (as we’d just gotten over a giggle-fest over something) and what did Mum do!? the second Vicky said the blatant lie Mum burst out laughing, which of course almost set me off and Vicky was struggling to keep a straight face! Whoops… oh well. Onwards and upwards! We had brought a wee picnic so we headed back down to the harbour and plonked ourselves on the wharf and had ourselves a wee feast of, amongst other things, some scrummy chicken, cheese and pineapple – and a lovely cuppa tea while we planned our next move.
After feeding our faces we continued on down the coast, which beared a shocking resemblance to the West Coast of NZ funnily enough, and kept on the look out for accommodation. By this stage it was about 3pm from memory so we weren’t toooo worried… yet! We got to Broughton in Furness which looked like a nice place to stay so we had a wee drive round to try and find a place. Vicky got out at a place that was offering self-catering accommodation, but was full, and asked if they knew of anywhere that was available – and the guy was lovely and said his wife ran the information centre which had a list of all accommodation places! The fact that it was so late in the day and we didn’t have accommodation secured in the Lake District was obviously a stupid thing to do… we knew this by the look of shock and surprise on peoples faces when we told them haha. Apparently we were shit out of luck here but oh well… on to the next place – Coniston! That turned out to be a bust too tho so at this stage we were kinda thinking “oh shit” haha. We were told we would probably find some accommodation in Windermere so we headed there – and had to take the car on a ferry to get there! Upon arrival we had a drive round and EVERYWHERE was booked… so we went to the Info centre and saw this sign…
- OH crap!
This is when we really started to think we were either gonna be sleeping in my car… or just going home!
It was about 7pm at this stage so we headed out of Windermere and our luck finally came in and we found a decent place on the way out of town! Relief is a word that came to mind… bourbon was the next word that came out of my mouth haha. So we put our stuff in the self-catered apartment and headed back into town for a meal and a well earned drink!
After a good’s night sleep we headed off in the morning back into Windermere to have a proper look around and then up through Ambleside to Grasmere. Now this was completely gorgeous! Despite the fact that it hadn’t stopped raining all morning it was really picturesque. It was also the site of the great poet William Wordsworth’s grave which was really interesting. We stopped and had a coffee and took some photos – Beatrix Potter is also well-known in that region because back in the day she had a farm nearby – which we think we caught a glimpse off but can’t be sure haha. Lots of Peter Rabbit and Jemima Puddleduck nick-nacks in the souvenir shops so I got some for my friend Emma’s birthday back in NZ cos she’s a big fan of Beatrix Potter. On the way out of the car park I managed to drive through a huge puddle… not noticing the Japanese tourist walking on the footpath… she got COMPLETELY soaked and we all burst out laughing! Sorry!!
We then headed back up into Keswick planning on having our lunch there but the weather was just so shocking with the rain that it just turned into a quick dash to the toilet and we were back on the road to Newcastle. Homeward bound! All in all it was a good weekend away with Mum and Vicky but the rain made it hard to do anything really! Taking photos espeically 
Oh well… it was the Lake District after all. (Not a patch on the Southern Lakes of NZ though that’s for sure!)
High Point = The laughs we had in the car and sitting on the wharf having our picnic lunch feast.
Low Point = The rain!
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Oh and here’s the latest pic of me… taken on my phone at the beach in Northumberland… on what I’m not convinced was the last sunny day we’re gonna have for a while!
