Tuesday 26th September 2022
Next morning, we set off up the A49 again, leaving Shrewsbury and heading north for the Lake District. As it was late in the year for tourism, we weren’t expecting too much.
We stopped at a few places for snacks and drink on the way up. It was raining when we started and it was still raining at 1pm up in Lancaster. We decided to swing off M6 and head for Southport so Betty could see a typical English Seaside resort. It was still pissing down when we get into Southport. Even in late September, it was like a ghost town. No seniors wandering around even. Oh well, we drove along the sea front – as they are called in UK – and out the other end still pouring with rain. We headed back to the M6 motorway and headed north again to the Lake District. We stopped about 25 miles or so short of Lake District area and got the iPad out and started looking.
We found a nice cozy little hotel called the Lodge in the Vale which was about 6 miles south of Keswick (pronounced kessic ). It was a small place and it stated before we booked that they were small compact rooms as well. We didn’t mind as long as it was clean and tidy and the staff was good. We got all three and stopped for two nights. It wasn’t quite that easy though.
We typed the name and post code into the sat-nav to find this place and it took us down some narrow lanes into a tiny hamlet and said our destination was right there on the right. There was nothing there though, other than a seat on a small patch of green. We reprogrammed the sat-nav and tried again. Brought us back to the same place. We were in this tiny little hamlet, narrow lanes and didn’t know where we were. There was certainly no hotel here. So we drove out back to some sort of decent road and this time we tried typing in the hotel name. Bingo, it recognized it and took us right there.
We checked in and all was OK. We used the Coffee Shop there quite a bit. They had some lovely cakes and suchlike there too. My tongue was hanging out whenever I was in the vicinity of those cakes. But we resisted the temptation and went with the scones with fresh cream and strawberry jam.
This has been part 8 of a series of posts highlighting the trip of a British ex-pat in the US when he returns to the UK for a vacation. He shares the experiences with us here on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays for the next few weeks. I hope you will enjoy reading them as much as I have, and seeing the areas he (and his lovely wife) visit, through my friend David’s eyes. ~ Sherry
David invites you to visit his eBay store while you’re in the neighborhood!
Need to catch up on David’s story? Day 1 ~ Day 2 ~ Day 3 ~ Day 4 ~ Day 5 ~ Day 6 ~ Day 7
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