The Lake District and Glasgow (Monday 2nd September 2013)

We were first at breakfast this morning which was good because it meant we were first to leave. Nit because we were in any hurry. The next three couples who came down were coughing, spluttering and snorting like they all had the dreaded lurgy. The last thing we wanted was to get a cold after 9 weeks free from illness or injury. So high-tailed it out of there as quickly as we could.

Yesterday evening the manager gave us some direction for a scenic drive over to Ullswater, a long lake to the east of Ambleside. We easily found the little road that would takes us up over the mountain at the back of Ambleside. The said little road is very aptly named “The Struggle”. It is a very steep climb with a gradient of 25% in places. That's a rise of 1m in elevation for every 4m of road! The Citroen did indeed struggle in anything other than 1^st gear. But he made it to the top of the Kirkstone Pass to the only building up there, a pub of course. With great self discipline we drove on, down the equally steep road to Ullswater. The panorama was a fantastic. Huge, bare, rocky mountain-sides, craggy peaks, water running off the side of the hills and the mist sitting like a crown on the mountain tops. The sky was drizzly, the road was wet and the weather cool. I reckon it's perfect weather to see this landscape in.

Down the bottom the of the decent we were back in farming land. We stopped to appreciate one of the stranger sights of this holiday. In the paddocks around the hamlet of Harstop all the sheep were pink! Fancy that, who would have thought all those Pink! fans could have gotten here from Melbourne so quickly after last week's concert. We went for a short walk around the hamlet to enjoy the sunshine that had appeared once we were off the mountain and then drove on down the lake-side. A little way on we slipped into a car park of a National Trust site. We had stumbled across a short walk through the oak forest to Aira Force. Force is the anglicisation of the Nordic word Fors which means Falls. This was the waterfall where Wordsworth penned “I wandered lonely as a cloud......” It was a lovely round trip walk of about two kms through the forest on a made track with short runs of steps here and there. The top of the Falls was graced with a beautiful, arched stone bridge which was matched by one at the bottom. Oh, and BTW, I found it so you can all stop looking. On ascent to the top of the Falls we passed the Money Tree. Yes, lying there on the forest floor was a huge oak literally covered in coins that had been jammed into its trunk. Or maybe it was sprouting coins from its trunk! I can't be too sure which. Nevertheless, they were going nowhere without a set of pliers so I remain a pauper.

Being about morning tea time we popped into the Tea Rooms just near the carpark for a cuppa to warm up. Strangely, and in keeping with the agricultural theme of the Pink fans we met earlier in the morning, we were served, and I use the term loosely, in the Tea Rooms by an old cow. The rudest shop assistant we have met by a long stretch. I hasten to add, the Tea Rooms were not under the management of the National Trust and the girl was not an English girl, hailing from somewhere on the Continent.

We moved up the lake-shore until we stumbled across a fine looking establishment called The Inn On The Lake. Very posh. Luckily they were more than happy to serve members of the under-privileged classes. We enjoyed a coffee out on the terrace gazing out over the the lush, green lawns past the moored yachts to the mountains beyond. So hard to take. At such a fine place we expected a appropriately size bill. But no, the bill was actually one of the less expensive morning coffees in the last two months. There are so many of these top quality hotels hidden all across the English countryside it would be very hard to choose which one to stay at.

We left Ullswater heading for Keswick on Derwent Water. We stayed at a place near here back in 1990. After an unsuccessful attempt to buy something for lunch we continued on the path Kerry had set down the eastern shore of Derwent Water, almost back to Ambleside, then via the B5289 across the majestic Honister Pass. If you are ever in this part of the world DO NOT MISS IT! We have seen some awesome scenery in the last couple of months but this is awe-inspiring. It's a steep climb up a narrow mountain road through a tree-free landscape. We stopped so many times up and down the pass to take photos it's a shame the pictures will most likely not do it justice. But our mind's eye will remember it for ever.

Time was getting on and we needed to be on the motorway to Glasgow by 3:00pm. We cut back over another smaller pass to Keswick then sped on towards the M6 reaching it by about 3:15pm.

With motorway all the way to Glasgow we were always likely to meet our objective of catching up for dinner with Scotty. For those of you who don't know Scotty (Anthony Scott) was Best Man at our wedding and I his. We have known each other since primary school. Scotty is in Glasgow training with the 2014 Commonwealth Games Bowls squad having just four weeks earlier been crowned the Mens Singles World Champion for vision-impaired bowlers. What an achievement. He's also has just a lazy eight consecutive Australian Champion titles under his belt Any prospective sponsors out there just let me know!

Anyway we made it to Glasgow in plenty of time even considering the bucket of coffee we drank at the Costa's at a fuel stop. And that was just a medium! We checked into the Mercure Hotel in Ingram St right in the heart of town. I really expected Glasgow to be a lot bigger. It took just 15 minutes after leaving the motorway to reach the hotel with hardly any traffic to speak of and this was peak hour on a Monday night.

We strolled around the corner to Scotty's hotel, passing the Doctor's abode on the way,

and then to his favourite Italian restaurant where we enjoyed a very nice meal and a bottle of Chianti. Afterwards we retired to a bar near his hotel to have a quiet one or three of Scotland's finest.