Thursday 30th June, 2011 - The Lake District

Hello to all
Early start todoay, we were being collected at 9.30 for our mini bus tour of ten lakes. Beautiful day we have been so fortunate. We collected the other people who were coming with us, there were 13 of us and we went with a company called 'Mountain Goat' very good tour guide, they certainly do a good job these people.
We set off up a road called Struggle Road out of a little town called Ambleside over the Kirkstone Pass, the Vikings gave this Pass the name as they came upon a rock which reminded them of a church, and the Viking name for church is Kirk. At the top of the Pass we stopped for a photo opportunity etc stunning, there is an old hotel there called the Kirkstone Pass Inn built in 1496.
From there we went to the Circle of Stones built by Celtic Tribes about 4,500 years old and it had a lot of uses, it was a meeting place, a place to exchange their goods and also a place of worship etc. It is very prominently placed both mathematically and situation wise.
We continued on our journey lots of beautiful scenery and information we went through Keswick to Derwent Water (Derwent pencils) where we then had a 50 minute cruise on Derwent Water, we stopped off at 6 different places in the lake to either drop off passengers etc, at all these places there were stunning hotels or walking tracks etc.
After our cruise finished we went into Keswick a very pretty little village where we had an hour to have lunch etc. Sam and I found a lovely little place to make us some lunch and we sat outside watching the passing parade. There was also a market on as well.
We then headed up the winding road to see the view on the 'Derwent' Lakeland pencil box very lovely. Stopped at Ashness Bridge for a photo opportunity etc. Lots more beautiful places etc and then through Grasmere where Wordsworth and family are buried he wrote many of his poems in this area. He had a few jobs he collected the stamp duty for the land sales and he also became the Poet Laureate for which he earned £60.00 a month for seven years prior to his passing away and this was a great amount of money then, but he actually never wrote a poem for Queen Victoria, a lucrative job if you could get it. Apparently he did not want the job at all.
We continued on, we met a lovely chap and his wife, he was a Scotsman and born in Fife and went to school in Cowdenbeath where Sam's Mum was born. Very interesting the people you meet. We all got dropped off and wandered home we just had cheese and biscuits for dinner I was really tired and Sam as well, way too tired to head out. Anyway tomorrow is anor day, we then head off to Scotland on Sunday. Sam and Sabine