Michel and Judy took a tour to
the city of Chester, which they had wanted to see on previous trips but hadn't
had the chance. So we headed off to join our 4 busloads going to the Lake
District and Lake Windermere.
The day was quite nice and sunny
from the very beginning, and we had a very nice two-hour drive through the
northern English countryside. It was quite interesting to see how the terrain
changes as you go inland and further north - from gently sloping farmland to
high fells (hills, not mountains).
We eventually arrived at Haverthwaite
Station, and the steam train that was the inspiration for Thomas The Tank
Engine. Way back when, lumber and charcoal production was the big industry in
the area around Lake Windermere, and the railroad was built to haul out logs
and coal. Nowadays it's a tourist attraction, running between Haverthwaite and
Lakeview on Lake Windermere, a distance of maybe two miles. The forest is
pretty overgrown on both sides of the tracks, but we did get a couple of
pictures.
Arriving in Lakeview, we wandered
"en masse" (there were four buses from the ship, plus at least one
other large group) from the platform to the dock to await the boat that would
take us on our cruise of the lake. We think Noah had it easier than our four
guides. We had talked to Sue, our guide, on the train, and she agreed with our
assessment that it is probably less difficult to herd cats than cruise
passengers!! We really wonder, given the level of difficulty apparently
involved in walking 50 feet from train to dock, how some of these people
managed to make it from London to the ship in Southampton!
After a brief wait our boat, the
MV Swan, arrived and a mad dash ensued to get onboard. Fortunately while we
were waiting, they opened the back gangway, so we boarded there and found a
comfortable bench on the stern. The lake itself is about ten miles long by
about a mile wide and reminded us very much of a smaller version of Lake
Simcoe. The shores are lined with great manor houses, most built in the 1800's,
by the industrialists who developed the timber trade. Now most of them have
been converted to hotels and lodges, with the odd rowing or sailing club thrown
in. Sue mentioned later that the lake
had once been a hive of water sports, like water skiing and Seadoos, (again much like Simcoe), but about
three years ago local council passed a law limiting boats to a maximum ten
knots, so things are much calmer now. Our ride to Bowness took about 40
minutes, under bright sunshine which allowed for great picture taking.
Our buses drove to Bowness to
meet us, so we had about a half hour to wander around town before they drove us
up - literally - to the Windermere Hydro Hotel for lunch. After sampling some
of the local ice cream (yes, it is becoming a running theme, but England is
known for its cream, so it has to be checked out!!) we strolled around a bit.
The church bells were chiming on, and on, and on; it being Saturday instead of
Sunday, and having spied a decorated car going up Church St....lo and behold,
there WAS a wedding going on! And there were quite a few people standing around
waiting for the bride. Not wanting to seem too curious, we just snapped a quick
shot of the bridesmaids and bride's mother waiting for her arrival and moved
on.
The Windermere Hydro Hotel is (literally) right at the top of the town. Even though it would only have been about a ten-minute walk, the buses drove us all up the hill that seemed never-ending. Some of the people on the tour would never have made it if they'd had to walk.
Lunch was very nice roast lamb with potatoes and veggies, and Sticky Toffee Pudding for dessert. Sue even managed to wangle the recipe from the hotel pastry chef, so we have a copy to try it out ourselves at home.
One thing many people don't know
about the Lake District, especially around Windermere, is that it was greatly
due to the efforts of Beatrix Potter, the author of Peter Rabbit and various
other childrens' stories, that it has remained as unspoiled and beautiful as it
is. She was instrumental in establishing the national park in the area and was
the first female president of the trust that oversees it. She lived at
Windermere, so the town is the home of the Beatrix Potter Exhibition and the
Nursery Shop.
After lunch, we settled back on
the bus for the ride back to Liverpool. The M-series highways get you from
place to place quickly, but generally there's not too much to see on the way.
Here are a couple of photos from the ride:
One last thing that Sue pointed out to us is that one of the symbols of Liverpool is the pair of Liver (pronounced Ly-ver) Birds on top of the Liver Building. One points out toward the Mersey River, and the other towards the town. The story goes that the female bird is gazing out to sea, waiting for her mate to return, and the male is looking toward town to see if the pubs are open yet!
So, onward overnight to our stop
in Northern Ireland - Belfast. We had booked a private tour in a London cab for
the day, and were even met before the allotted time by Brendan, our
driver/guide. So we started off, trying to stay ahead of the numerous buses of
ship's tours that were headed, in one way or another, for the same places we
were. Our main objectives were a drive along the Antrim Coast and visits to the
Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge and the Giant's Causeway. So without any waste of
time, we started out at a good clip to get out of Belfast and onto the coast
road.
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| Carrickfergus Castle in Carrickfergus on the Antrim Coast |
Luckily, we didn't need to make
any stops along the way and got to Carrick-a-Rede in good time, and ahead of
the buses from the ship. We were doubly glad we were on a private tour when we
found out that the actual bridge was a full kilometre hike from the entrance
gate! We could not imagine how long it might take some of our shipmates to make
the walk to the bridge, then across it, and back again. Here are a few shots of
the bridge and the area around it. Quite beautiful!
The bridge itself is not a
difficult crossing; it's all the tourists who get out there and want their
pictures taken that slow things down. Having said that, you will note that
there is a photo of Larry with Michel behind him - Monica took it on a quick
two-second pause as she made her way back ahead of them. The bridge crosses
from the mainland to a small island and was originally constructed by local
fishermen. The area around the island once teemed with salmon and the fishermen
used the bridge to check their nets, an easy thing to do given how crystal
clear the water is. It is almost a Caribbean clear!
After crossing over and back, the three of us made the
long trek back to where Brendan and Judy waited at the carpark, loaded up and
headed for the Giants Causeway. This is a stone formation that covers a
promontory into the Irish Sea and, while it looks like it is manmade, it is
actually a natural formation. While Michel and Monica decided to take the
l-o-n-g walk down from the visitor centre (why do the Irish insist on putting
things so far apart?), Judy and Larry took the shuttle, found a comfortable
stone, and waited for the wanderers to appear. While there, Larry overheard one
of the local guides explaining that it is believed the stone formation is the
result of lava flow from an ancient volcano, but no one has ever come up with a
workable explanation for the almost perfect pentagonal shape of the individual
stones.
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| Dunluce Castle, looking quite ominous in the rain. Too bad we couldn't stop for a visit. |
When we first met Brendan in the
morning Larry had talked to him about his grandfather emigrating from Belfast,
how family lore had him involved in The Troubles and one step ahead of the law,
when in fact, as a member of the royal Ulster Constabulary, he WAS the law and
was probably one step ahead of the IRA. On our way back, Brendan asked if we
would like a tour of Belfast, but instead of the usual sites, we visited the
history of The Troubles. He took us to Falls Road (Catholic) and Shankhill Road
(Protestant), the areas that were "ground zero" of the worst violence
in the late-60's and through the 70's. We saw the Catholic memorials to their
"martyrs" and the Protestant memorials to theirs. These take the form
mostly of murals painted along the sides of buildings on both sides of
"the peace wall" that separates the two neighbourhoods to this day.
Brendan explained that, as much as anything else, the people of Belfast,
especially the Mothers, finally got tired of burying their children, and that
is ultimately what lead to the peace accord that ended the fighting. For all
that, the wall still stands, looking eerily like the remnants of the Berlin Wall
we saw a year ago. Brendan explained that while the fighting is for the most
part done, there are occasional "flare ups" and the wall prevents
them from getting out of hand. Interestingly, he said the fight was never about
religion, but about politics, with the two sides divided on roughly sectarian
lines. One side, predominantly Catholic, wants the North to rejoin the Irish
Republic (hence the Irish Republican
Army), while the other side, almost entirely Protestant, wants the North to
remain part of England. His own thought is that the North will always remain a
part of England.
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| One of the 'mural walls'. Some of the murals change on a regular basis, reflecting current issues |
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| One of the gates that are closed every night to keep potential violence at bay. |
As we sailed out from Belfast Larry said he
felt something of an attachment to the city and just maybe had a little
understanding of his Grandfather than he did before. A very interesting end to
a very interesting day.
On to Scotland!!
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