Thursday morning we arose, dragged our bags down the three flights of steps to the car and then stopped in the dining room for our last breakfast in Windemere, delicious again. This morning we took the highway south to enjoy the southern portion of Lake Windemere. We quickly discovered that, just like at home, there was nothing visible of the lake due to all the high end homes or hotel accommodations along the lake shore. Nothing to see but walls and the occasional three or four story lodging facility. A rerouting was in order.
We were headed for Sizergh Castle, a National Trust property, so the navigator picked some smaller roads to take us cross country towards our goal. We traveled some of the smallest and windiest roads of our entire trip as the highways twisted up and down the hills, into the valleys and across some very narrow bridges. At one point, Deb said we next would cross a river called Winster, coming up around the next bend. Mark said, jokingly, “By bridge or do we ford it? We came around the bend and there was the river, the pavement leading up to the water and only a foot bridge to get across. We slam on the brakes and came to a halt, some seventy five feet from the pavement on the other side. There were a pair of women walking across the foot bridge, so we asked how deep? The lady said no problem, it was shallow and we could easily make it. In we plunged, hoping we would not have to call the car rental agency for a tow and a very expensive repair - not sure how the rental agreement treats flooding, especially when it was self-induced. In the middle we felt the rocky subsurface, but we were quickly across, the water only being 12-18 inches deep. Needless to say, we didn’t stop in the middle for a picture opportunity, although later in the day, we talked about driving back to reinstate the incident for visual proof of our exploits.
We soon reached Sizergh Castle, presented our National Trust passes and spent the next few hours touring the wonderful gardens and the castle itself. The property has belonged to one family for over 1,000 years, the Strickland family. We watched an informative video before we began the interior tour of the castle where Tom Strickland, the current “lord of the Manor” talked about the history of the family, the number of times they were on the losing side of politics, as they were Catholic, an unpopular point for most of their history, depending on which way the ruling monarch was leaning, but always able to hang on to their holdings. Upkeep costs became most difficult into the mid 20th century, so the property was turned over to the National Trust for care and maintenance. They still live in a portion of the property and it is still a home to the Stricklands. Deb’s friends Peg and Rogers Strickland have visited and stayed at the nearby Strickland Arms hotel. Peg says that they have not found a direct connection with this group of Stricklands but we have decided to assume there is some family history here and next time we visit, we expect Peg to provide us with a more formal invite!
On our travels back towards Gunnerside, we passed near the famous arches railway bridge, outside of Hawes. You will recognize this bridge from countless scenes in movies, usually with a steam engine trailing smoke from its stack as it puffs along the track over the arch bridge.
We passed through the village of Hawes, an area we are going back to in the next week. Our good friend, April Dillon (a known Anglophile) recommended a detective series, The Yorkshire Murder Mysteries to us. This is set in the Yorkshire Dales with the protagonist Harry Grimm assigned to the Hawes police station. (The author is David J. Gatward.) We are enjoying the series immensely, following Grimm as he traipses through all the small villages we are visiting as he searches for the solutions to his murder mysteries. It provides us a different and local perspective on the area. We are continuously passing landmarks and pubs mentioned in the series. At one point there is even mention of our neighborhood Kings Head pub. Thanks, April, for recommending the series; it really brings to life all we are seeing and experiencing, not just the scenery, but a locale where real people live, work and interact in their daily life.
We returned Saturday afternoon and stopped at The Kingshead for a quick pint. One of the neighborhood hens came strutting down the road, trailing her five chicks. they marched right up to the patio of the pub and stood around accepting handouts of tossed breadcrumbs. This was obviously a regular stop on their daily ramblings. Every inhabitant of England seems to be a walker of some sort! Returning from the pub, we set up for our scheduled Zoom chat with the family. Seven o’clock Greenwich Mean Time is one o’clock Omaha time. It was great to see and talk to everyone. Technology has its merits when one can visit halfway around the globe in real time, not just hearing, but seeing each other. Our grandparents would not have believed it.
Sunday, we relaxed a bit. A drive into Leyburn for some shopping, back to our cottage for some afternoon reading and laundry, a cocktail out on our freshly trimmed front patio garden, and then across to the pub for dinner of steak and ale pie and fish and chips. Another week gone by - two down and two to go. We are surprised how quickly time flies.
