A trip to the Lake District, which meant a very early start - 4.45 a.m. to be exact, so be sure of getting the 6.05 a.m. train from Euston to Windermere. I'd already booked my ticket, so didn't have to worry about queuing up at the booking office - not that there would be likely to be many people around at that time of the morning. But if you book well in advance, you can get huge discounts - book on the day and you have to pay a fortune for the same journey.
The journey up to Windermere was very pleasant, with the train rattling along at a good rate of knots through the countryside. In the beginning it was quite dark, but then the sun started to come up and you could see all the green fields and woods. I love travelling in the early morning when everything is so fresh.
I had to change at Oxenholme for the branch line to Windermere, which I reached about 9.30 a.m., and from there I got a bus to Ambleside, which is at the top of Windermere - the ride from Windermere to Ambleside follows the side of the lake through beautiful countryside.
Ambleside's main purpose is obviously to cater for all the walkers and climbers who visit the Lake District every year. The town is quite small, but there are shops everywhere selling walking and climbing equipment and lots of people who are obviously there to walk and climb. I loved it - it just has so much character and an outdoorsy feel.
Whilst there I fairly thoroughly explored the town and spent quite a long period in the Beatrix Potter Museum, which concentrates not so much on her fame as a writer, but on her other attributes, such as her extensive scientific knowledge and work on fungi - she was a world expert and in touch with scientists at Kew Gardens, where her work was eventually recognised. And then of course there was her work as a sheep breeder and founder of the National Trust, to whom she bequeathed her property when she died. A most remarkable women, and one can only wonder what she would have achieved if she had had the opportunities that girls have today, instead of being stifled by the restrictions of the period in which she lived.
From Ambleside I got a bus to Kendal, as I had seen on the internet that they had a festival celebrating Kendal's past as a famous woollen manufacturing town. The description of the festival on the internet turned out to be a slight exaggeration - or more correctly, a very large exaggeration - as there wasn't really very much there to make it worth a special visit, but Kendal itself was. It's a lovely little town, still unspoilt, with lots of interesting shops and history. The only problem was some rain - fortunately I had come prepared, so didn't get too wet.
Oxenholme, where I was getting the train back to London, is simply a train station. The village, about ten minutes' walk away, has just one Post office cum very small general store. It is quite close to Kendal, but the buses finish very early and it's a bit far to walk, so I got there in very good time and thought I would get something to eat before catching the train. After asking at the booking office, I was directed to Lidl (or was it Asda?) some thiry minutes' or so's walk away and set off down the hill from the station. The directions I had been given were a bit awry - the girl had taken them off her tablet, and I got slightly lost on the way, but by asking was put back on the right road. And indeed the supermarket was closer than I had expected, as there was a path though the woods to it which was obviously not accessible to cars, which had to take a much longer route by road. It was a very busy supermarket, set in a field - obviously one of those "out of town" establishments, with a very large car park, and completely impossible to use without a car. All I wanted was something to nibble on the train, which was fine, but I would not have enjoyed carrying heavy bags of shopping back to the station.
I got home rather late, feeling just slightly tired, but it had been a wonderful day out, away from all the hustle and bustle and crowds of London.
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