Day 11 - Thursday 28Dec - exploring York

We didn’t sleep too well last night. It was really warm in the room and the noise from the street continued all night. We had breakfast in the hotel as it was included in our room rate. Pretty average but ok. 

We then walked into the city in the very crisp winter air. (Maximum was 4 today!). We had plans to go into the cathedral, the York chocolate story and perhaps the Jorvik Viking Museum. ....well the queues were simply too long and to stand still outside without moving as crazy! So we simply enjoyed it all from outside and pottered around the shops. We wanted to walk on the city walls but sadly they were closed as there was too much ice. The York walls look so appealing to walk on as you really notice them as they encircle the city. 

The huge hotel lobby/staircase area.

 

The Shambles street. So quaint. As you can see, you can hardly move for people!

Love this particular lopsided building.

The Harry Potter shop. See the queue? Though it moved quite quickly. Darn expensive. I wanted a chocolate frog...well one frog cost GBP 12.50 - R212! Dunno why it was so expensive!

I’ve dubbed York as a giant outdoor shopping mall. Inside the city walls are hundreds and hundreds of shops and restaurants and tea shops with thousands of people shopping in the post-Christmas sales. The ancient architecture is amazing and the York Minster cathedral is monumental and so beautiful!

 

We dropped off our shopping bags at the hotel and relaxed our very weary feet ( my phone said we walked 10km). We had been wandering the streets and browsing the shops for 5 hours! 

Shannon googled and found us a reasonable restaurant for early dinner called Bill’s. It turned out to actually be a chain of restaurants, but really good and  although still expensive with the exchange rate, it was good value. We’ve also realized that to avoid crowded restaurants, we go eat at around 4 or 5 as the sun sets. Not all places are open for dinner that early, but it really helps to get in before the crowds arrive from 6pm onwards.

I’ll add some photos here tomorrow as I haven’t yet uploaded the photos from the camera onto my iPad. Thankfully the WiFi in the hotel is amazingly fast so I am able to post easily. ( if you scroll backwards you will notice I’ve added more photos to the other blogposts...) * update .... photos added.

Day 10 Wed 27/12 - traveling to York

This morning was a lovely sunny day albeit it really cold - 2 degrees maximum.

We left our cottage just after 9am to travel to York. We had a quick stop at the Gingerbread shop in Grasmere as it wasn’t open over Christmas. Well worth the visit! I had read that the shop was small but wasn’t expecting it to only be a tiny kiosk type shop with a lady behind the counter. The gingerbread is delicious and is made fresh everyday and shipped throughout the country and even overseas. 

 

We popped into the Herdy shop, a brand of sheep themed products based on the Herdwick sheep farmed in the Lake District. Our cottage had a lot of things from the Herdy shop in it.

We left Grasmere at around 10am and drove North toward Keswick then past Penrith and down toward Kirkby Stephen. We first drove a scenic route along Thirlmere lake, which was really stunning!

The famous Herdwick sheep.

Most of the first part of our drive after Keswick was on highway or dual carriage roads. Then we left the main roads to drive towards Muker. As we drove along on the narrow country road, we started noticing the snow more and more on the ground right next to the road until we were suddenly surrounded by  road was very icy so it slowed us down a bit but fortunately it wasn’t a long stretch. 

We got excited at this scene, and then went over the next little hill....

 

 

The sheep in the Yorkshire Dales are called Swaledale sheep. Very inquisitive and stop and look at us as we take a photo! They look a bit like mountain goats crossed with dogs.

The snow cleared as we dropped in altitude towards Muker. We found the Swaledale Woolens shop that we visited 27 years ago. Next door was the Farmers Arms pub we planned to have lunch at. Such a good idea as the food was delicious home-style food and the pub had a great quaint atmosphere.

 

 

 

This was a giant Yorkshire pudding topped with spotted pork sausage, veggies and gravy. 

We left Muker reluctantly, it would be such a great place to stay! Maybe one day! ...when it’s warmer! We continued a few kilometers on small county roads but eventually were taken onto a highway towards York. They were spraying salt onto the road in the middle of the traffic and the cars just casually passed by the truck ...

We arrived in York at around 3pm. We dropped off our luggage at the huge Principal Hotel and then drove to take our car to Avis which was just outside the city walls. Easy enough to find and then we walked back through the city to our hotel. We stopped off at many shops along they way, through The Shambles and past The shop who must not be named. I’ve never seen so many people! We thought Chester was busy! 

We got back to the hotel exhausted and decided to eat in the pub at the hotel. Not such a good choice, but you can’t win them all! Our hotel is a little disappointing. No aircon in the rooms and if you open the window, lots of city noise outside. Who would think with rfeezing temperature outside, you get hot in the hotel so much you open the window. The decor in the hotel is really elegant in calm muted beige, grey and cream. The lounge areas downstairs are particularly nicely decorated. Gorgeous Christmas decor too. Even a large gingerbread village of York in the lounge. 

Day 9 : Boxing Day

Today was cold and despite however much we wished for snow, it didn’t snow at the cottage. Though the mountains were topped with snow! And it was cold today! (I know I mentioned that but boy it was cold!) The temperature didn’t go above 4 degrees. 

We grabbed breakfast at the cottage and then drove up to Keswick. On the way we were thrilled that it actually snowed for a few minutes while we were driving and the mountains were topped with snow. So so pretty! 

The idea was to go to the Derwent Pencil Museum, unfortunately the details on the internet were not correct and it was closed. We enjoyed pottering around the village shops and had warm drinks at Costa coffee and then headed for Castlerigg stone circles. 

  

These shops are everywhere and Leon loves them, especially the Harris tweed!


The circles were really beautiful and the scenery and view onto the snow capped mountains was breathtaking - despite the slushy fields and the cold. It was impossible to walk into the actual circle as it had been transformed into another little lake after all the rain.

 The Castlerigg photo bomber!

We then drove to Hawkshead as we visited there in 1990. Well I don’t think much has changed in the village since 1990 ! Quite disappointing! But the drive there from Grasmere was really really pretty through the woods.

Shannon chose Dodd’s restaurant in Rydal for our late lunch. A good restaurant, though the service is a bit lacking. Shan and Reece had pasta, Leon had a burger and I had a frankfurter and sauerkraut sandwich and a small vegetable soup on the side. Yummy!

The entrance to our cottage viewed from across the road.

When we got back to the house, Shannon opted to stay indoors as it was so cold, the three of us walked across the road to the river - we were frozen by the time we got back! The woodlands paths are so pretty, if it was warmer, I’d love to have gone for a good walk! It’s refreshing to feel at ease walking out In the open like that.

    

Since getting back, I’ve made a feeble attempt at sweeping and mopping the white floors!😑 Heck I could not live with these floors in this weather!! Looking forward to our last week where we don’t have to worry about finding parking or taking off our shoes at the front door! 😂 

Day 8 Christmas Day : Grasmere

Christmas Day was so different to our usual Christmases. 

Everything was closed today obviously except for the odd pub and hotel restaurant. So we decided to have a relaxed day. The plan was to do some walking but we woke up to rain and it rained and rained. The river in front of the house even flooded over the footpaths, though by Boxing Day it had subsided. 

We had a light breakfast (including Christmas mince pies!) at the house and then took a drive towards Keswick, though we turned around about half way as the rain was pouring down. Leon then made a Christmas lunch. 

It took over 3 hours to make the lunch as we had the tiniest single oven to cook in! A little juggling, but he managed a roast chicken with stuffing, roast beef, roast potatoes, roasted vegetables and gravy and even a starter of little mushroom Wellingtons (pies). Not too bad! 

After lunch we relaxed at the cottage and swatched tv. A nice break actually after all the traveling.

 

We even had Christmas crackers which I bought on sale in Chester at less 50% at M&S!

 

Driveway to our cottage.

Some more pics of our cottage....

 

Our bird feeder. We had 2 large jars of nuts to replenish the bird feeder with. It was a very busy spot in the garden! 

Our resident woodpecker. Not a great photo but I couldn’t get close enough to take a photo, so had to resort to zoom and the light was so bad outside.

  

We had four sheep visit. 

I googled why the sheep have colored markings.... They are marked according to the farm they belong to. This has been done for centuries. There is a formal register kept of the various markings (different colours, different combinations of colour, and where on the wool the sheep are marked). The sheep tend to graze in their own area, the mothers teach their babies not to wander. If they do, the other farmer can contact the owner and the sheep are sent back where they belong. They seem to behave a little like mountain goats, they are called Herdwick sheep and are farmed for their wool throughout Cumbria. They find it easy to roam the cells of the Lake District.

  

Behind our house - the White Moss walks start alongside the house and up the mountain behind it.