When my husband and I visit England this April, one of the things I am most looking forward to is a weekend in the Lake District.
We are going to stay in Elterwater, Ambleside, Cumbria, to celebrate the 60th birthday of my husband’s father. His sister, who is due to give birth on April 16, and her husband are also coming.
Growing up, I have been to the Lake District several times for holidays.
Once with my parents when I was 12, I remember staying in a beautiful cottage. Each evening we went to the village pub and had wholesome home cooked meals. I’m sure my father had sticky toffee pudding every night.
My husband (who was my boyfriend at the time) and I stayed in Windermere when we visited in November 2007.
He later told me it was set to be the scene of our engagement but he delayed the all-important question for a ski trip in February 2008 after I received a text message from my friend Vikkie, who was coincidentally staying in the Lake District with her boyfriend, about her own engagement.
We stayed in a bed and breakfast with a gorgeous four poster bed and ate a cooked breakfast every day. It doesn’t matter when you are going to spend the whole day walking we told ourselves.
Well that was the plan. It actually ended up raining for most of our visit and we spent my husband’s birthday dashing from coffee shop to outdoor shop and back to coffee shop.
You know you are in a rainy place when the hotel actually says that on wet days there are plenty of areas to sit and relax with a good book.
But that was all part of the experience. We did manage to do a couple of good walks and also had an amusing time trying to jump some stepping stones across a fairly fast flowing river.
We went to see the grave of the poet William Wordsworth who is buried in St Oswald’s Churchyard in Grasmere.
When we visit in April, I would like to see Dove Cottage and the Wordsworth Museum.
Dove Cottage is the poet’s most famous home. He lived there from 1799 to 1808.
Fellow poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge lived for some time in Keswick, and also with the Wordsworths at Grasmere.
Children’s author Beatrix Potter also wrote in the Lakes.
There is a wonderful museum in Bowness-on-Windermere called The World of Beatrix Potter and I remember going there as a child to see all those well loved characters from Peter Rabbit to Mrs Tiggy-winkle.
But what I’m most looking forward to about our trip to the Lake District (even if it rains the whole time) is some lovely pub food.
I guess I must take after my father with his sweet tooth but I can’t wait for some traditional English puddings.
I’ll make sure they are well deserved after a day spent walking although on second thoughts perhaps it is more likely I will keep my sister-in-law company as she can hardly be expected to go on long walks with a baby due imminently.
It looks like it might be another case of hopping from coffee shop to clothes shop to coffee shop again then. Perfect!
Rebecca Lawrence can be reached at 691-1258.
