#99. 24 September 2022. Nomad Diary. Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh. Move to Ulverston. Bowness on Windermere. Eskdale Sheep Show.
Saturday Activities. 24. Today Darrell makes pancakes. While we are working on our emails and pc, I get an advertisement for a sheep show. I look it up and then tell Darrell about it as we had not made our plans for today. He gets busy finding how we can get there. We decide to go. We walk to the train station and go to Ravenglass. The train is comfortable and the ride is scenic. Once we are in Ravenglass we change over to a narrow rail steam train made for tourists and it takes us through more beautiful scenery. We ask to get off at the Green where the Sheep Show is happening. The Green is about half-way to the end of this mini-steam train line. We walk farther down into the valley to the Sheep Show. It’s small and reminds us of a country fair. There are tractors and displays and a couple of tents with food competitions by locals. The sheep are being scored and given titles and ribbons. These sheep are Herdwick breed. They are in shades of mauve, pink, dark and light, greys of different hues. They are amazing! I’ve never seen these colors of sheep! There are people with dogs and they are having a little breed competition. It’s all very quaint and enjoyable! I had read that there would be lamb to eat. Well there wasn’t any and we were hungry. We decide to go back to the train and ride it to the end and find some food. We check the schedule and we could just make it. When we get to the end of the line, we get a quick bite meal in the train snack bar and then go walking for about an hour or more until we can get the train back to Ravenglass and then back to Ulverston.
Week’s Highlights.
Friday. 23. We spend time talking about our budget and our travel and how we are getting them to work. Darrell is managing our finances in a very complex way. I understand money in and money out. Darrell takes this to a whole new level of complexity and detail with his spreadsheets that have several columns. The day is clear and beautiful today. I want to go to Windermere to a place about author Beatrix Potter. I find a place and Darrell finds the bus for us to go. We get on the bus and we go toward Windermere. Our bus gets to an obvious tourist town called Bowness on Windermere, and I began to realize that I have not got this figured out with enough details. I realized that I wasn’t sure what my goal arrival place was. We get off the bus in Bowness and go to get a cappuccino and figure out where we are and where we are going. I was stressed and trying to get through my stress. We are in a beautiful town on a beautiful day! Now I discover that the Beatrix Potter house and museum are on the other side of the lake and too far to get to today by bus. It’s not that far by car, but we aren’t using a car. In this town is a Beatrix attraction to introduce children to her. We change our focus to what we can do in this town today. We end up having a lovely lunch at an Italian restaurant, going to the World of Beatrix Potter attraction mostly for children and then taking a cruise on Lake Windermere to the Steam train on the other side for tourists. It goes back towards Ulverston, but not all the way. We ride the steam train, then take a walk through the woods and out to the southern end of Lake Windermere to a bus stop where we wait and then catch a bus back to Ulverston. I’m tired, and upset because of my tiredness. We have had an amazing day and I learned more of what I can and cannot do.
Thursday. 22. Pancakes. Laundry. Tour and bus shopping. Rain. We make salads for a late lunch and walk in heavy rain, the mile to and from a larger grocery. We decide on making chicken leek soup for dinner. We have a call with each grandson and their parents today! Lol. We are on Zoom in the evening with a preacher from London, David.
Tuesday. 20. Breakfast, laundry and PC time. Darrell and I decide to take a 2pm tour of the Brittania. It is the Royals decommissioned yacht now open for touring here. Darrell figures out our bus directions there and we get a pub lunch before arriving to the yacht tour. The tour is amazing, and better than I expected.
Monday. 19.We discuss and plan more for our New Zealand trip in 2023. We decide on and get our tickets for our return cruise from Sydney to San Francisco in April 2024. We decide to go for a hike to Arthur’s Seat. We ride a bus to a stop near the base of the walk up. We find our way to the trail and walk up a very steep trail. As we are going up we see hundreds of other people walking on several trails going over the hills that are all right there. We see the goal and the trail we want. We ascend quickly on a steep and rocky trail. We stop for a couple of brief rests and drinks of water, but keep walking. Once we get to a broad plateau, we can see the water next to the city that goes out to the North Sea. We climb over to a smaller peak, take some pictures and then go down to the plateau and climb up the taller peak of Arthur’s seat. On the top here are more than 100 people. People are taking pictures, arriving and leaving, eating, etc. We take some pictures as there is a 360 degree view for miles. We then decide how we are going to navigate our way down. The trails are rocky and steep. We get back to the plateau and then decide on our way from there that is different from the way we came up. We go a different direction and I’m getting tired. Darrell wants to keep going. We strike a deal about where we are going and how much longer we will be walking, and what we want to see. We walk on down the mountain into the park. There is a massive screen where is being broadcast the funeral of Queen Elizabeth. We see an ice cream truck in the parking lot and get a snack. Another block and we come to the Palace of Holyroodhouse. We walk around and get pictures outside the fence. Next we plot our way back to our flat.
Sunday. 18. Bus to church in Edinburgh. Joy, an American living here for 20 years gave us a ride back to a drop off near our flat. We went to a Thai restaurant for lunch. We went downtown and spent a 2-3 hours at the National Museum
Nomad Notes: Using Google has been an incredible resource for mapping and finding restaurants. The information is usually accurate, but not always. Pictures and dates of comments are important details to confirm while looking at online entries. Google maps doesn't always show every option, like all ATM's in the area. We aren't sure why. We are aware that the information is inconsistent.
Comments
Post a Comment