Reliving my childhood & not getting the soccer hype

Sorry this one’s a bit delayed, it was not exactly a crazy day, but we just had to be out at a pub to watch the Euros final, which is usually when I would do some writing. So now we’re at an Apple Pie Café killing some time before our train later to Liverpool, and I have a couple of minutes to catch you up on yesterday’s events.

Turns out that whilst buses in the Lakes are plentiful, they don’t like to be on time. And from our experiences on them, we can completely understand why. The streets they’re driving down are realistically one lane, though both directions of cars can be seen. This means whenever there’s a head-on situation (which is very often) either the bus or the car has to reverse down the road back to where there’s a bay to pull into. It’s comical every time this happens, as the car expects us to reverse a decent kilometre down the road, which the bus driver gives the death stare of the century (and wins every time).

So naturally we were not surprised when our 11am bus from Glenridding to Ambleside arrived at 11:40am. It was a bit of a longer bus journey today, as Glenridding is a bit out of the way. We had to go Glenridding to Windermere then get a connecting bus back up to Ambleside. But as per usual the scenery was lovely, and the weather was gorgeous (i.e didn’t rain) so we sat up on the top level of the bus which was open-air and had a great time. It was a bit inconvenient to go via Ambleside, but we needed to drop off our bags at our BnB.

We planned to go back into Windermere for the afternoon anyway, as we hadn’t spent any time there, and though Beatrix Potter’s cottage was a bit far of a walk from town, there was a Beatrix Potter exhibition set up for Peter Rabbit’s 120th birthday, so I insisted we go. I think we were the only adults there without children, and whilst it definitely lent towards younger kids, but I had an absolute ball. It was so magical, I would compare it to a kids version of those immersive Van Gogh art experience thingos? Absolutely loved it. They had a different walk-through section for each of her stories, and at the end there was a mini museum about Beatrix’s life. Turns out she was so slay, and supposed to have been a fungi scientist, but all the men at the National Museum wouldn’t let her display her findings, because of course, she was a woman. So she then took her talent for drawing, love for the natural world, and her pet rabbit Peter, and made her books. I grew up on those stories, so it was a very nostalgic experience for me, I absolutely adored it. On the way out I just had to get a little Peter Rabbit mug. I brought my Ravenclaw mug with me too, so I can’t wait to be in my student accommodation with both of them ready to go.

We then got lunch at an Italian café, which was also insisted upon by me. Though I have been enjoying the rich comfort of British pub food, it can get a little repetitive, and I was craving some fresh, spicy pasta. It hit the spot, god it was so good!

Heading back into Ambleside in the late afternoon the weather became overcast again, clearing out the mini gold circuit next door, perfect for a hit in the rain. And those who know me or my Dad know he loves and adores golf, and I really couldn’t care less. That being said, I’m actually not half bad, and only lost by 7, which for my track record is pretty good. I felt like a pro compared to the old dudes a couple of holes behind us, who took 20 minutes for the first one. They seemed to be having a good time though, which I guess is all that matters.

After chilling in our BnB for a bit, we went to our pub we went to last time, the Royal Oak, for a drinkies before dinner. It was probably only 6pm at this point, but all the pubs were already packed for the soccer (footy, apologies) that night. We had dinner at the Priest Hole (weird name I know, I shall explain) which was named because families would hide priests in their home when Catholicism was outlawed by Henry VIII. I didn’t join the dots that the Protestant church was only formed when he wanted to divorce one of his wives (can’t remember which one) and the Catholic pope didn’t allow it, so instead of living with the consequences of marriage and actually staying together, he decided to create a whole new religion and outlaw the other one. Which seems entirely fair and rational to me. It made me think our ridiculous the conflict between the Catholics and Protestants had been the whole time… like guys don’t you realise someone made up your religion just to be able to marry someone else? It did make me giggle.

After dinner we went to the Ambleside Tavern, which was definitely the spot to be for the soccer. The first half was riveting (0-0). I really don’t understand the craze behind the soccer. I get it’s the national pride of it all, but the sport itself is really dull. I wonder how many matches have ended with 0-0, surely that wasn’t that great of a time? Second half did heat up though, with Spain scoring the first goal (I accidentally clapped, which was probably not the wisest idea). I did absolutely want Spain to win, but I also didn’t want to die by voicing that aloud. It was a great experience to be in the room when England scored though, and even funnier when Spain scored another goal in the last couple of minutes and it was clear the game was lost. I tried to keep a low profile in the corner so I could observe the tantrums. Honestly it was like they’d been told their entire family had just been murdered.

About ready now to head to the train station to go on to Liverpool, very exciting!

Can’t wait to explore the city in the 2 nights we have there, before we head onto the next leg of the trip.

Currently MIA,

Lauren x