I won’t make our American readers jealous by telling them how much vacation time we have, but suffice it to say, we have more than we know what to do with. So in mid-June, we took the first of our many summer trips, and we chose to go to the infamous Lake District! I have heard about the Lake District many times before landing on this island (example, we read “Amsterdam” for book club a couple years ago and a pivotal event occurs in the Lake District) and was eager to check out some of the most beautiful scenery in the country. Much to our surprise, though, many people that we spoke to around Aber had never been there or had been there only briefly years ago and some even questioned why we were going there. Even when we were there, several retired guests at our fabulous B&B said this trip to the Lake District was their first visit to the region. You can judge for yourself, but I thought it was absolutely gorgeous. Here’s a short chronicle of our journey.
We left on Thursday morning and stopped at Valle Crucis Abbey in northern Wales. A couple months ago, we invested in a CADW pass which gets us access into many national heritage sites around Wales and discounts in England. They also recently started letting dogs into select sites, so Siena was very happy about that!
This poorest of abbeys in Wales dates back to the 1200s
We also passed this shop with a crazy long name. Thanks to our Welsh lessons, we actually understand the meaning.
"The little card shop by the bridge over the river Dyfrdwy in Llangollen" (that is the town name which means "hazel church")
We arrived in Keswick (pronounced Kess-ick) around 5pm in the rain. After settling into our room, the rain had stopped, and because we are so far north, it was still light out for a walk, so we decided to do a pre-dinner walk up Latrigg.
We had to go through some pretty dark woods to get to the top
Once we got to the top, we had some spectacular views of the valley we were staying in.
The view from the top of Latrigg toward Keswick and Derwentwater
The next day, we headed to yet another stone circle (there ae a lot of those in this country!) called Castlerigg which had amazing views all around.
Castlerigg Stone Circle may have once been a trading post
After lunch, we started a climb up Skiddaw, which is reknowned for hiding in the clouds.
The peak of Skiddaw peaking through the clouds
Despite the cloudy appearance one way, it was actually lovely the other way.
The view from Skiddaw, as far as we dared venture
The next day, we took a boat ride on the lake near our town. Despite the fact that it’s called “The Lake District” there is only one official “Lake” as all the other lakes are not named “Lake something” but rather “something water” or “something mere”. The lake by us was called Derwentwater. We took it across to the other side in order to climb The Catbells.
The ridge we would be climbing as seen from the boat
From the top, you can see two lakes!
Family picture at the top of the Catbells
After three nights in lovely Keswick, we meandered back home. We stopped by at two very different castles with our CADW pass. First was Ewloe Castle, which is in the middle of the woods and pretty run down.
Unlike the other castles we've visited, Ewloe Castle is built by the Welsh to keep the English out!
Denbigh Castle was completely different, with a manicured lawn and expansive views.
Quite a contrast, Denbigh was part of King Edward I's ring of castles
So concluded our journey to the Lake District but not our explorations! Upon returning, I spent 2 days in the office before I headed to a writing retreat in Usk which is in south Wales near Newport. Even though I was mostly on my laptop in a hotel conference room writing most of the time, I did duck out to see some of the cute town. They have annual competitions to see which storefront has the loveliest hanging flowers so throughout the town, you get to see views like this:
They were all super-cute like this one
In a stark contrast to the other castles I had visited, Usk Castle had animals roaming the grounds and a lot of charm to it!
Not particularly big or tall, it was a cute homey castle
After 3 days in Usk, I headed home to finally sleep in my own bed. But the weekend was a beautiful one so we took advantage of it by going on a walk to Hafod Estates, which is about 12 miles away from Aber. We took part of the Gorge Walk to the Gentleman’s Walk and then ended up on the Coed Hafod Walk.
View from the Ystwyth Gorge Walk
There were lots of cute bridges all over.
Sometimes Siena would be afraid to cross the bridges for fear of dropping through!
We finally end our adventures…this month. After putting in another requisite few days at work, we are off again to celebrate our country’s birth in Spain! Happy Birthday America!
Oh, and read this great piece on how the gay behavior of animals flies in the face of religious anti-gay arguments.
