#100. 2022 September 24-30. Nomad Diary. Format Change. Beatrix Potter National Trust Sites. Move to Lancaster Apartment.

The annual Herdwick Sheep Show in Eskdale. Those colors are just incredible!

A company card about this special wool produced into products in the UK.

With this Diary Entry I am changing my format. From here forward I will be following the days and the dates in order of Saturday through to the following Friday. This Diary begins with Saturday September 24th (which is detailed in Blog #99 24 September 2022) and continues the days in order through Friday September 30th.

Saturday. 24. Today is the Herdwick Sheep Show in Eskdale. Details of this day are in Blog #99. This Saturday is listed as a place-holder in my overall formatting change.

The Following Week’s Activities:

A Selfie after we walked up and down to here.

View from monument over Ulverston and toward the water.

Sunday. 25. We walk to the address we have in town for church. We arrive to the building in town and discover that they have not taken down their web site. They have not answered our inquiries and the building has a real estate 'sold' sign on it!. Well, we change our plans to attend an online service at 3pm with our Alabama church. While we are in Ulverston and it’s only 11am, we take a walk up the funny rounded hill to the lighthouse monument on the top. The monument was built in 1850 for John Barrow. He was born in Ulverston in 1764 and became a Naval administrator and traveler then passing in 1848. Then we go down the hill and get a cappuccino at the grocery cafe along with a loaf of bread. We walk back to our house. We have a nice lunch with our foods in our kitchen. We have our 3pm online worship, Bible study and singing together. We discuss what we are going to do the next day. Darrell works more than an hour, maybe 2 hours to figure out a plan for Monday touring that suits us.

In Hawkshead, a school museum that's really amazing!

The Grammar School in Hawkshead 

Hawkshead schoolroom with the 1500's desks on the perimeter. The students were allowed to carve their names in the desks during breaks.

Walk from Hawkshead to Hill Top on a beautiful day!

Hill Top house owned by Beatrix Potter. .

Leaving Hill Top and walking to the Windermere car ferry.

My favorite picture of the day. Looking from the path onto Lake Windermere. 

Monday. 26. Today is the result of Darrell figuring out bus routes every which way to get us to different places around Lake Windermere. We settle on going first to Hawkshead where we see Beatrix Potter’s Gallery. There is an amazing display of original artwork with the theme of flowers. It is housed in a 17th century building that her husband worked in. It is a National Trust location. As members of National Trust our entry fees covered! We have a snack and a lunch at a restaurant in town. We do a little shopping at a hiking store. We go to a school house museum that was started in the 1500’s!  It was so cool! Then we walked 2 ½ miles to Hill Top which is another National Trust property that was Beatrix Potter’s first purchased house, and her inspiration house. We walk another 2 miles or so through beautiful country to the car ferry and  cross lake Windermere. When we depart the car ferry, we walk to Bowness to wait for a couple of hours for the last bus back to Ulverston. 

Tuesday. 27. Today is a day we decided to stay in our house. We are both tired. I do laundry. Darrell cooked French Toast for breakfast. Darrell works on the PC, does his Spanish language lessons, and buys train tickets for tomorrow. We are eating out of our fridge and we have plenty of food to finish off our day. For lunch Darrell has left over Indian food and I eat salad and left over pizza. We have salad for dinner and plenty of cheese and crackers. We decide to leave about 9:30 am to walk to the train station for our 1 hour ride to Lancaster. 

Street in Lancaster

Nice apartment layout

Apartment kitchen

Lancaster street scene

Cute tile entry to a store 

Italian restaurant 

Wednesday. 28. On this morning we get breakfast at a coffee shop about a block from our house. We also finish packing and cleaning up our property for check-out. The day is clear and cool about 55 degrees. We have a nice slow walk to the train station each of us pulling our large roller suitcase and carrying a backpack. We arrive to our train platform and there is one man there ahead of us. After a few minutes we begin to talk. I introduce myself and Darrell himself, then he tells us his name is Joseph Field. He is retired and never married. He likes to talk about his childhood because when he was 8-12 years old he lived in Singapore because his Dad was stationed there with the RAF. I enjoyed hearing his story and asked him more questions which led to learning that he was one of nine children! When the train came we acknowledged that it had been nice visiting and to have a nice trip onward. We arrived to Lancaster train station after a scenic coastal route. We walked to the hotel office to have them hold our luggage for a couple of hours until check-in time after 2 or 3 pm. Once we arrived to the office, the owner Joe greets us and says that there is a problem with the property that we have booked. He booked the last renter too close to us and the place needed a big cleaning. So he says right there out the back door of the hotel is a serviced apartment that is an upgrade for us that we can take at no extra charge if we like. He shows us the apartment and we accept his offer! We thank him, move right in and then head out to have lunch. We find a super nice Italian restaurant. I have some delicious soup and Darrell gets pasta. We do a little walking around the market area and find a grocery store to get a few items and then head back to our apartment. Darrell is not feeling well with his sinuses dripping and needing to blow his nose. From now until we check out on Saturday morning, Darrell stays inside this apartment. He spends time resting and working on his computer. 

The Judge’s Lodgings 

A wig for a man back in the day!

Furnished bedroom at Judge’s Lodgings. 

View in Lancaster from Judge’s Lodgings down the same way of the older Roman road. The domed building is a monument a man built for his wife long ago, now a park.

Thursday. 29. I have a morning haircut appointment and the stylist does a very good job giving me a cut. I go back and have lunch at the apartment with Darrell. I have looked at museum choices for this town and decide to go a couple of blocks down the street to the Judge’s Lodgings. The museum is small and interesting. It is one of the oldest buildings of this sort in town. Built on top of an older structure, this one was built in the early 1600’s and was in use into the 1900’s. The builder of the house had connections to the famous witch trials of the early 1600’s. I want to read more about this sensational story that has some history with the castle just up the hill from this house. There is also a lot of fancy furniture in this house that came from the 1700s-1800s from a manufacturer in town. There is a brief history of this furniture and much on display in this museum. It’s just loaded with interesting items and stories of hundreds of years and different purposes. We get hot and sour soup for take out. Here in England they call it ‘take away’. We enjoy watching some tv in the evening or alternately working on the computer, making phone calls, or reading. I took my backpack to a shoe repair to get a few stitches done to repair a seam.

Lancaster castle on the inside.

Castle gate and doors.

Castle view of different stonework used depending on the century built.

Castle door handle

Statue in town 

Friday. 30. I go for the 10 am castle tour just a block uphill from our apartment. Today is a very rainy day. I learn that this town has record for the most hangings outside of London. The English Sign Language for the town of Lancaster is to represent a hanging and look like you have died from holding the rope noose around your broken neck with your tongue out of your mouth. Once I am finished with the hour-long tour that filled me in on the witch story and many other stories and history of this still relevant and in-use castle, I walk downhill to the train station to get printed train tickets for our Sunday train travel. This is one of those times that we were questioning why? Well, in this particular case, you have to get printed tickets. The electronic ticket won’t do because there are different train line companies involved, and the beginning station in Liverpool supposedly couldn’t print this ticket for us. Well, I’m not sure about all of that, so to be sure about having tickets, I go to the train station in Lancaster and get an agent to help print the tickets. Success. I get back to the apartment soaked, and dry out and have some rest time out of the rain. Later I go for a walk and get some prepared food for dinner at the M&S grocery. We have a call with our son Eric and grandson Owen today.

Owen with his Dad, Eric on phone call.

Quinn on phone call.

Saturday. October 1 - Friday. October 7 will be Blog #101.

Nomad Notes. It has been challenging to be sick while traveling and living in properties and hotels just a few days at a time. So far we have been able to stay in when we have been sick. On a couple of travel days, one of us have been on the mend from an illness, and well enough to travel. During our time in England when one of us has been very ill, the other one of us has been in a much better condition. Getting errands done seems like a big deal compared to doing it in the states.