A ‘rot day’ that really wasn’t a ‘rot day’ in Keswick
Today was such a lovely day!
Although we got started a bit early for my liking, and didn’t get quite enough sleep, I was looking forward to the day. We had such a nice breakfast in their conservatory, and dropped our bags down in reception around 8:30am.
The bus stop was luckily right outside the door to our inn, so we hung out for a bit in our room before heading out to the stop at 10am, to catch the 10:15am bus from Buttermere to Keswick. If we drove directly, it would’ve taken 30-40 minutes, but with a couple stops we were on there for around an hour. The views were stunning, and the weather was incredible (i.e not raining). There was also only one other guy on the bus for the majority of the journey so Dad and I basically got a private bus. I didn’t even need to sit next to him!
We arrived right in town just after 11am, and after heading to our new hotel to check our bags had arrived, we dropped some things off and went for a little walk. You may see on the Instagram, I posted the Strava tracking from the walk today. ‘Little walk’ did in fact turn into 19km… ladies and gentleman welcome to the typical day of travelling with Lauren and her father. A couple of days ago I unfortunately explained to Dad what a ‘rot day’ is, after I realised I might start getting agitated if I didn’t have one for the month we would be galivanting together. He hasn’t really hit the nail on the head with what he thinks is a rot day (he said today was a good rot day because we weren’t hiking between towns). I didn’t have the heart to tell him I don’t usually leave my bed on a rot day. In comparison, this ‘rot day’ was actually extremely productive.
Walking through town we finally got a sense of how busy the Lakes can get in peak season. Because of how remote the last 2 villages were, it’s easy to forget it’s a major destination. There were people everywhere, and they all brought their dogs with them. Obviously I made many new friends (not of the human kind) and found some really cute postcards from a bookstore to add to my collection.
We then hiked around 45mins out of the town to reach Castlerigg Stone Circle, which is basically a knockoff Stone Henge. I seriously don’t get the appeal of rings of old rocks like ??? isn’t that all rocks? These are special because people put them there? I feel like I’m missing something. If you know any details that might make me appreciate, please do let me know. At least the views from the Circle were very pretty, that I cannot dispute. We also came to the very logical conclusion that huge animals from 3000 years ago would have had to drag them from parts of the field over- Dad would also like to clarify these animals would not still be alive today.
Heading back down the hill we’d just crawled up, of course we took a little detour which took us through a lovely parkland. It felt like we were in the middle of nowhere, and very odd to consider we were not even 2 minutes away from a major town. Thinking we were exploring a new place, it was very disorienting to pop out of the park right in front of our hotel like huh?
Unfortunately we still couldn’t check in, so we walked to the other end of town where the lake was (every town has to have their own lake of course) and did cute little 50 min cruise of Derwentwater, which actually got really cold. The photo I’ve got here of me of the boat was the only time I didn’t have my raincoat zipped all the way up to my nose. Being able to rest the feet was great, and we got some incredible views of the lake and surrounding valleys. Also fun fact, this area of England still uses some ‘Old-English’, personally I think this is because they want to sound intellectual, but all the lakes of the area are called ‘tarns’ and hills are called ‘fells’. There’s probably heaps more, but these are obviously the ones that come up the most regularly.
Now we could check in! We walked our way back through town and got settled into our room (where I’m writing this whilst Dad has a drink in a pub somewhere). Being in a bigger town also means we have some variety and choice with our dinner options. Which is amazing, cause I’m this close to being sick and tired of British pub food. To be fair, it is always tasty, cozy and hot, after a long day out and about. But I miss pasta and sauce and spice and fun food. If you know me, you know I absolutely love my food. And I do enjoy the pub food, I enjoy it a lot. But everyday for now over a week? Yeah I’m gonna need to eat something else. Hopefully I can convince Dad to be adventurous tonight, or at least find a pub that has some fun options. Will let you know! (Update we found a pub that has a chicken tikka masala (meat, sauce, spice AND rice? YES PLEASE). Can’t wait to wolf that down.
Tomorrow we head to Patterdale, our second to last stop on the Lakes District portion of the adventures. Excited to explore another town in this beautiful area!
Currently MIA,
Lauren x
