Day 23 – Yorkshire Dales & Lake District

We set off this morning at 8am after having the wake up both the girls. One day we’ll manage to get a sleep in – maybe! We stopped for breakfast but there wasn’t much to choose from so we just grabbed something quick and ate in the car. The landscape through the Yorkshire Dales is just spectacular – green hills, stone walls and lots of sheep.

Christy was a bit car sick with all the bends so I let her sit in the front while I sat in the back.

Our first stop today was Wensleydale Creamery.

first introduced to us by Wallace & Gromit.

After watching a film and walking through the museum we sampled some cheeses – oh, my, gosh, so yummy! We bought 3 different types. The original with pineapple was our favourite.

More driving with an occassional photographic stop.

I wonder if these were the cows that helped make our cheese?

We drove on the Lake District and to Windermere. We found a place to park the car and caught the little train to the water.

Winderemere was as lovely as I remember and a lot dryer.

We walked into the town to the World of Beatrix Potter.

First up was lunch in the tea rooms.

Christy had toast soldiers and I had the kids potatoe with baked beans (don’t you love my bowl :-))

We then saw a movie about Beatrix Potters books and walked through the exhibits.

On the way back the train spot we bought some ice creams, and sat and ate them buy the water.

We managed to spot another Golden.

Then it was back on the train and back in the motorhome, where we caught the car ferry across Lake Windermere. This was esp. fun as before our trip we had been watching it live on the webcam.

We then continued driving, through some very narrow windy roads and on to Grasmere.

Our mission – the famous Grasmere Gingerbread. Luckily I had read about parking difficulties and that there was garden center you could park at. We made sure to buy something from the gift shop – which wasn’t hard as there was loads I could have bought. Such a beautiful town.

We eventually found the Gingerbread shop and the gingerbread was yummy. We decided to just buy a few bars but after we ate a more later already wished we had bought more :-).

Then it was on to our final destination – Castlerigg Caravan Park near Keswick. We got checked and on to site. Best location yet!

Check out the view. We’ve been so lucky with the weather. Today was forecast scattered showers but we really didn’t get much of anything.

After got settled Kevin & I enjoyed some tea and gingerbread while taking in the view.

Kevin and Christy both spotted a Goldie in the park. I only saw the photo :-).

There are also lots of bunnies hopping around.

People who live the UK are just so spoiled when it comes to holiday spots – they have so many beautiful places to choose from and many right on their doorsteps. While we lots of beautiful places in Australia they are all so far from home. Unless you want a beach holiday you’re a bit limited where we live.

It’s been a long day – with way more driving than indicted by google maps :-(. We’re going to try and a “take it easy” morning before hitting the road and driving to Scotland (and to met up with my Dad).

We had a nice dinner sitting outside – taking full advantage of our view and plan an early night (at least for the girls). They’ve been fighting quite a lot today and I’m thinking it’s because they are overtired. We have 3 nights in Stirling coming up which will be a nice break from being on the go every day.