So we woke up to blue sky with a few puffy clouds. Both Patti and Dick were very happy that Patti got a decent night sleep with the new nighttime cough syrup. Yay for good medication.
Did a few things in the morning, including dropping off our laundry to be washed, going over and picking up some meal deals at the local grocery store to take on a picnic, and then heading off to go on what we thought would be a hiking walking adventure. We first followed a beautiful path that went through the neighborhood and then more of park area heading down towards the lake.
We were very surprised to see a couple of small Roe deer over on the side. Our first real wildlife that we saw on this trip.
We also walked along with an English couple on holiday, who were from the area that we had just been staying at earlier in the week. We had some lovely conversation with them about this area, and the lake area. They were delightful and we enjoyed hearing their impressions of the previous night's soccer game between England and Denmark, where they were both disgusted by England’s uninspired play.
Looking on our little map, it appeared that it was going to just be a quick jog over to find the Jetty Boat Museum, where we would also catch our boat to go on a boating ride and then do a walk around part of the lake. However, it was not nearly so clear and we ended up walking half mile in the wrong direction, and then had to turn around and come back. We were quite frustrated and really glad to finally see this museum.
We went into the museum. We were trying to confirm the schedule for the boat. It turns out the trip that we thought we were scheduling ourselves for only happened in the “summer “. That actually means starting in July with the school holidays. So the boat wasn’t going to leave from where we were for another 2 1/2 hours. disappointing, especially as the clouds were starting to roll in and we were hearing reports of rain later in the afternoon. We had to do a little bit of regrouping.
We had tickets to take a look in the boat museum, which turned out to be a great treat. We saw some amazing wonderful boats. This is the largest lake in all of England: 10 miles in length and a mile wide. It has a long history of interesting boating. The museum had a fabulous collection primarily of antique wooden boats. We looked at an large number of beautifully kept restored boats.
But the highlight was a talk by one of the boat builders who talked about the whole process of restoring and conserving old boats. Steve, who was a paid staff member and master boat builder was a font of fascinating information about this whole process. One of the things that struck Patti was they are always making the decision about whether or not to acquire a boat is to ask what story will this boat help to tell? Steve was an exceptionally good storyteller and had a lot of wonderful information for us as a group. Then Dick and Patti hung out and chatted with him for a while afterwards. These people with their hearts set on keeping history and imparting wisdom, they are so wonderful and we’re always happy when we find them.
By this time, it was just enough time to have some "cream tea", which is tea scones, along with butter, jam, and "clotted cream". In case you are not familiar with this, clotted cream is a thick cream made by heating full-cream cow's milk using steam and then leaving it in shallow pans to cool slowly. During this time, the cream rises to the surface and forms "clots", hence the name. This is a classic British snack and one that tasted especially good as the weather was getting cold.
We boarded the boat and went partway up the lake, and just stayed on it and came partway back down the lake. No hiking for us today on the beautiful other side, but we had at least a chance to get out on the water for a bit. Patti had talked Dick earlier into taking some of our cold and wind proofed clothings out of our backpack. That was an error. It was VERY windy, and even wrapping up in a small blanket, Patti was way too cold.
We also made a quick stop at the Beatrix Potter World site. This year is apparently the 120th birthday of Peter Rabbit so they were highlighting that. We were less interested in paying 10 pounds to go and visit. But this is the area that Beatrice Potter lived for many years. She was also part of a group that bought up all kinds of forest land to keep the heavy development from going all the way around the lake. Thank you Beatrix.
Before we went back to the room, we stopped an picked up our laundry. We were happy that we had decided to have it done for us and now would be challenged to get it back into our little suitcases. In our room, Patti took a well needed nap. Even with our not going on the 4 1/2 mile walk around the lake, we still walked nearly 6 miles today anyway. A nap was in order.
For dinner we had some very nice fish and chips at a nearby pub, and then headed off to bed. Time for a long night's sleep.
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