Last Weekend in The Lakes.

Well, where to start on the subject of Last Weekend in the Lakes?  For a kick off, it didn’t really happen.  What should have been a Weekend in the Lakes in the event turned out to be only one day!

This was the plan.  On Saturday morning William and I along with our sweet friends John and Lesley were going to drive up to the spectacularly beautiful Lake District.  Two double rooms had been booked well in advance in a quaint country pub in Askham, a pretty village near Ullswater.  We had an itinerary worked out which included amongst other things visits to Windermere, Hawkshead and Buttermere returning home Monday evening tired and weary from a full weekend in one of the most picturesque corners of England.

This is what actually happened.  We did drive up to the Lakes.  The journey being the longest one ever due to not one but two closures on and two long detours off the motorway due to serious accidents.  

Once at our destination we had planned to spend the afternoon in Whinlatter Mountain Forest and this we did and had a lovely time.  That’s where the above three photos were taken. 

After this we headed to our accommodation in Askham arriving there at around 6 p.m. and that’s where things went hurtling downhill.  The village of Askham is still as pretty as ever but the pub, The Queen’s Head, we had booked into was to put it politely a dump!  It was such a disappointment.  William and I had been to the pub a few times over the years.  Then it had been a smashing little village pub serving excellent food but not anymore.  Goodness knows what had happened in the intervening years but it was nothing good. 

Anyway to cut a long story short we now had the task of finding somewhere to stay for two nights.  It was an impossible task!  We must have tried well over 20 hotels and guest houses with no luck.  (I don’t know about the economy being in a bad way. It’s certainly alive and well in the Lake District!)  We drove up, down and around some very dark and scary country lanes too.  So instead of arriving home tired and weary from a full weekend we arrived home just plain old tired and weary some time past midnight.  It had been one looong day!

Oh, and did I mention the trip was a special one to celebrate our ruby wedding anniversary?  And that I love the Lake District and was really looking forward to going?  We all were.  We all four had talked about it such a lot.

Looking on the bright side of things William and I couldn’t have spent the day in better company.  We managed to laugh and joke about the situation.  What would’ve been the use of the four of us crying?  As it turned out the weekend wasn’t lost.  We still had a great time - walking in the countryside, eating an excellent pub lunch at the Stubbing Wharf, enjoying a glass of wine or two -  it just happened to be spent closer to home that’s all!

Kathleen.