Windermere and Edinburgh

April 11, 2023

Google must be listening to me via my phone, because after my rant in the car the other day about stupid shortcuts, my phone now only presents routes that use major highways and motorways, and that are simple and straightforward. In contrast, the car clearly doesn't eavesdrop and still continues to offer shortcuts via narrow country lanes, claiming it's route to be faster.

Today we wanted to see more of the Lakes District on our way to Edinburgh , so we took the sat-nav scenic route - which, unlike the other day, ended up taking exactly the same time as the phone's proposed 'slow' route. Hmm. This technology is playing mindgames with me...

But what were we doing in the Lake District anyway?

Edinburgh was our next port of call, and for a range of reasons we wished to get there around lunchtime, which would mean a ridiculously early start from Church Stretton. So we decided to break it up by driving halfway to Windermere, spending the night there, and having a more reasonable start the next morning.

We had been to Windermere with Julia and Liz in 2003. A bit of background history - in her childhood, a young cousin of Liz mispronounced her name as 'Fizzy'. Clearly Liz made an impression on Windermere in 2003, as it seems they have named a café in her honour:

Everywhere we turned we were reminded

that Beatrix Potter once lived near here, a typical example being this cute and accurate full size recreation of a famous scene from Peter Rabbit:

One scene we couldn't recreate was hiring a boat for a row around the lake as we did in 2006. Sadly the boat hire had not yet opened after winter. Despite it being mid Spring and despite the hordes of people everywhere for the Easter holidays. Deja vu of Aberystwyth.

We settled for a selfie by the shore and went back to the B&B to watch Netflix instead...

As noted above, the next morning it was a scenic drive through the Lakes District, with the biggest challenge being to avoid the hundreds of walkers heading into the numerous tracks of the Cumbrian mountains. And they had plenty to choose from, ranging from serious adventure to easy ramble. We'll have to come back some time...

By contrast, presumably due to the serious wind chill factor in the mountains, we saw nobody engaged in water sports in the smaller lakes. With one odd exception - a man was sitting on a paddle board close to the shore. Not paddling, not fishing, just sitting with his legs dangling in the freezing water. He was surrounded by ducks, swans, and geese so clearly his watercraft was not anti-fowled.

After a fast run we arrived at Edinburgh to be warmly welcomed by Miggy, a cousin on Mary's father's side, and a very happy beagle, named Yoda. Yoda is not shy at expressing his emotions :

Yoda also provided a chance for Mary to get a canine fix after being Molly-free for so long.

We had a nice walk with Miggy and Yoda alongside the Leith. Miggy volunteers with a group looking after the Leith, in particular cleaning it. There are now fish and otters back in the river, which is fantastic.