From my travel journal as I was on the bus: "After just a few minutes I'm already loving it, it's so beautiful, stunning! Lovely rolling green hills rising steeply to fells, trees everywhere, wonderful clear streams, such pretty Victorian buildings."
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| Windermere lake, from the bus |
Grasmere was smaller than I was expecting; it's a tiny village and all of the places I was planning to go to there were within a five-minute walk of each other. I went first to Green's Cafe & Bistro for lunch, and ordered their Rarebit With Attitude - basically a rarebit with chilli-lime-ginger jam, served with crisps and salad. It was nice enough, but personally I didn't think it was worth £8.50. I also forgot that rarebits have mustard in, and I'm not a fan of mustard. It didn't fill me up either, but I didn't get a pudding, thinking I would get one after dinner later on. Oh well!
I was happy to discover the Herdy shop! Herdy is a small retail chain based in the Lake District and their slogan is "Made to make ewe smile" - and it does, it's so cute! They sell a wide range of things (umbrellas, mugs, keyrings, bags, coasters, baby things, stationery, etc.) decorated with the simple but very cute design of Herdy the Herdwick sheep and/or Sheppy the sheepdog. I didn't let myself buy anything, because I don't need a mug or a large umbrella or an absolutely adorable toy sheep...
After resisting temptation in Herdy, I crossed the village green to the Heaton Cooper Studio and pottered around there for a while. William Heaton Cooper founded the gallery in the late 1930s and the place now exhibits the artwork of four generations of the family. They sell prints of the works and a wide range of art supplies; of course there's also the nowadays-expected pretty little gifts and homeware items, and a café. They also sold books, mostly ones on art, but some nature-writing and local interest. I really liked one in particular, but, again, didn't let myself buy it, as I was planning to go to the bookshop opposite afterwards.
Of course, with Sam Read Bookseller's being a lovely independent bookshop, I spent about an hour in there. I did let myself buy one book, The Art of Mindful Reading... and also left with a list of 19 other books to add to my ever-increasing "To-read" list! (Mostly from their delightfully-named 'Curious non-fiction' section.) On a related note, I wish I was more familiar with - more interested in, I guess - traditional poetry and art. Some famous names spent time in and were inspired by the Lake District - William Wordsworth (lived and died in Grasmere), Samuel Taylor Coleridge, John Ruskin, etc. - but I know none of their works. I've heard of Daffodils but don't actually know it beyond being able to recognise the first line or two. I am a bookworm, but I know nothing of classic poetry and there are many pieces of classic literature that I've never read.
It was nearly 3pm by this point, I'd been up since 5am and was carrying round my cumbersome holdall, so I went next door to Lucia's Café & Bakehouse for a sit-down and a cinnamon bun. I also gulped down two glasses of water, having barely had any to drink all day. I loved that they baked everything from scratch on site, in the small kitchen right behind the serving counter. After that I went to find the Grasmere Gingerbread Shop! I love gingerbread, be it cake or biscuit. Grasmere cook Sarah Nelson came up with a recipe in 1854 that became very popular locally, and nowadays queues out the door are normal. The shop is in the old church cottage, which is tiny, and because the gingerbread is made in the same building, on the other side of a partition wall, the shop section is so miniscule that only five or six customers can squeeze in, and you don't really feel able to take a few minutes to look around at their full range. I liked it, though. They probably could afford to get their products made elsewhere and use more of the cottage space for the shop, but they choose not to, and it means the place keeps a sense of originality and history; it's easy to imagine some shops being that small a couple of centuries ago. Oh and the smell! You could smell the gingerbread from the front door :) I bought a packet of six pieces and put it in my bag to enjoy over the week. I was only in the queue for ten minutes and it had tripled in length by the time I came out.
I had a wander around the rest of the village and came back to the main road. Another place I wanted to go in Grasmere was Barney's Newsbox. It's a newsagent, selling the usual stuff you find in newsagents nowadays... and hundreds upon hundreds of jigsaw puzzles! The upstairs was absolutely crammed full of them, every flat horizontal or vertical surface excepting a bit of floor space was used, so much so that only one person could actually fit in between shelves and I couldn't get further than the top of the staircase, which was likewise lined with puzzle boxes. I wish I'd had time to stay and explore it a little more.
I had another bus to catch at 4:15, but before that I went to find the village hall, which was holding The Lake Artists' Society's annual Summer Exhibition. You needed to make a small donation to go in and I didn't have enough change left, but they had postcards of the artworks out front, so I got to have a look anyway. As with poetry, I sometimes wish I had a better knowledge of and appreciation for art.
The 4:15 bus leaving lovely Grasmere was to Keswick, the market town on the shores of Derwentwater in the northern Lake District. I sat on the top deck again to see the views on the way :) Grasmere is roughly halfway between Windermere and Keswick so it was just over half an hour's journey, and I was happy to find the town a very nice little place. It took me less than 15 minutes to walk from the bus station at the bottom of town, through the town centre, to my B&B at the other end. Owner Graham let me in, gave me a map of the town, asked what my plans were, and recommended a couple of walks. I rested for a couple of hours before heading out to walk up to Castlehead, a viewpoint just outside town.
Just 15 minutes after leaving the B&B I reached the top of the hill, and the view was amazing. Derwentwater was spread out below, surrounded by fells, the town was partly visible through some trees to the right, and the sun was just setting over to the west. A dial on a cairn showed the names, heights, and directions of 30 fells you can see from there in clear weather. An Irish couple, perhaps in their sixties, were sat on the bench sharing a flask of tea and a sandwich, the gent talking away amiably to his wife. I stayed up there for just over half an hour then made my way back down as it was getting dark.
I headed down to the lake shore, as I hadn't been there yet, and found the Theatre by the Lake. If I'd gone out earlier I would have bought some fish and chips and eaten by the water, but it was pretty dark by this point, so I went back up into town and ate my late dinner on a bench in the market square. It was about 9pm and pleasantly lively out, people milling around going to and from restaurants and pubs, or the chippy like me, or enjoying an ice-cream. Just off the market square was Packhorse Court, a courtyard outside a pub with a few little shops and a Mexican restaurant, and decorated prettily with strings of lights, bunting, and flower-filled hanging baskets. I walked back to the B&B, had a piece of gingerbread for a sort of pudding, and went to bed after a very long but very nice day.
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