Scherer Family ~ European RV Tour: The Lake District

Published 11.June, back dated 8.June to be in chronological order.

I’ve noticed that a lot of people tell us places we “must see” often not knowing or acknowledging the size of our rig. It’s only after the fact that people express surprise that we made the journey. The Lake District was just such an experience – at the campground (Park Coppice) people couldn’t help but stare at us and ask in awe, “You drove that here?” Not knowing has turned out to be a benefit to our travels. We don’t know we don’t fit … so we journey on, assuming that wherever a semi or box truck can go, we can too. Here are some pictures of what I was seeing out the passenger side of the motorhome. Dan laughs at me on these skinny roads, lined on both sides with stone walls. I tend to duck and lean left when the big lorries come at us.

View from the passenger seat

This is what the roads look like...

We stayed at Park Coppice, just outside Coniston. The campground was nice enough to hold a pitch for us – there is really only one at Park Coppice that is sufficient to accommodate us. We also had a few bits of mail waiting for us – the girls were thrilled to get mail from home!

Coniston Waters (the lake) was about 1 mile (downhill) from where we were parked. Sheep graze in the surrounding pastures and as the area is held by the National Trust, it is not overly developed. From the lake, we had a prime viewpoint of Brantwood, the home of John Ruskin for the last 28-years of his life. The Steam Gondola also routinely passed by on its hourly voyage. Otherwise, one is left to contemplate the wide open spaces, beautiful scenery and fortunately for us, nice weather. The girls spent an evening throwing rocks in the lake. Sophia took a tumble immediately after we arrived and was wet shoulders to toes; Megan soon after threw herself in the water, then jumped up, claiming it was an accident. Such a sympathetic sister!

Steamboat Gondola - This puppy can cruise!

The Lakes District was home to Beatrix Potter, the “Lakes Poets” (Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Southey), John Ruskin and hydroplane speed records. In 1957, Donald Campbell broke his previous speed record by attaining a speed of 239.07mph on Coniston Waters (source: Microsoft®Encarta®2007). Today, it's a very popular tourist destination and we were surrounded by people with trekking gear intent on reaching their destination.

Path to the lake (Coniston Waters) through another campground, through a few fields, inside the rock wall.

Bridge to Coniston

Beautiful hotel - love the stonework

We spent a day trying to reach the Beatrix Potter Experience in Windermere. The friendly staff at the Coniston Tourist Office directed us to take a bus from Coniston to Hawkshead; change to a private bus from Hawkshead to Ferry House and take the ferry to Bowness. Sounds fun. Only we are not early morning people and the buses run hourly, at best. We arrived in Hawkshead around 1:30pm… the next bus to Ferry House was not until 2:10. Exploring Hawkshead was fun though the old grammar school, attended by Wordsworth, was closed. Given that we were aiming for the Beatrix Potter “Experience” we skipped the Beatrix Potter Gallery which houses the original artwork (managed by the National Trust). Accents came to play in the next interchange – the bus driver kept asking why we didn’t just take the Stagecoach bus to Windermere – he then thought we wanted to get off at Hilltop, the location of Beatrix Potter’s home. Finally figured it out and we arrived without further ado at Ferry House. Turns out, we could have saved ourselves a lot of money and time had we understood the bus service better.

Beatrix Potter Gallery, Hawkshead

Entrance to grammar school, Hawkshead

Tourist outing foiled, it was a nice day out. The passenger ferry to Windermere is quite small and very beautiful as you can see in the picture below. We wandered the hilly area a bit, then decided to catch the bus to the train station (our connection to get home) a bit earlier than planned. Turns out it was the best possible decision as traffic gets clogged down by the marina and our bus was 10-minutes late. We arrived with 20-minutes to spare to make the last bus out of Windermere and back to Coniston.

Ferry from Ferry House to Windermere

Cruising across Lake Windermer

Windermere - these buildings are actually side-by-side.

Sunday was another beautiful day. We wanted to hike Old Man Coniston (2,635 ft), but after checking with a few folks, we learned it wouldn’t be appropriate for Sophia. Dan and Megan headed off for an afternoon of hiking. Sophia and I biked off to the marina at Coniston Waters to take in the Gondola Yacht and disembarked at Brantwood. We spent a good amount of time exploring the gardens and the house. Ruskin was an English art collector, critic, and thinker whose ideas influenced many later generations. My favorite two things from the house: 1) in one room was a bucket of stones. An excerpt from one of Ruskin’s books welcomes the visitor to take a handful of ordinary rocks; select one to examine and realize it’s a mountain in miniature. 2) a quote found in the study, “There is no wealth but life.” I’m attempting to read his book, titled “On Art and Life” and enjoyed exploring the gardens and house. We tried to grab a bite to eat before heading back to meet Dan and Megan, but the restaurant was too slow. We gave in to sharing a piece of carrot cake and tea. She thoroughly enjoyed it!

View of Brantwood House from across Coniston Waters

Met up with Dan and Megan at the Black Bull. We had tried the pub earlier in the week with dismal results on food but yummy beer. We had agreed to meet between 2 and 3pm so I didn’t think it an issue to arrive closer to 3. They had been there, waiting, for an hour already! Oops. As Sophia and I hadn’t had a real lunch, I ordered a Sunday roast and the restaurant redeemed themselves from our experience earlier in the week. Their Sunday roast was quite tasty and Megan grooved on it too. (Roast beef, served over mashed potatoes, with gravy, deep fried potatoes, two biscuit-like things, filled with gravy, and a side plate of fried turnips, squash and zucchini). We ate outside but I couldn't help but take pictures of the interior. Love it!