Back to Ambleside for a rambling amble. People flock to this district solely to go hiking in the hills wearing matching specialist hiking outfits.
I understand that these are not all hiking outfits, but as it happens, I couldn't for the life of me find any more than one picture of people in matching outfits.... which is totally strange, because this town was swamped with them!
We wondered what people hiking alone would do and Trish suggested that you could go to one of the many specialty stores selling everything you could possibly need for a walk, buy one of each outfit and sit in your car in the parking lot and wait for people to walk past you. Pick a person, couple or group and quickly change into the matching outfit that they are wearing, then sidle up beside them as if you’re meant to be there. It’s a great way to meet new people in a non creepy way - better than online dating!
The girls wanted to go on a longish uphill trek
taking in waterfalls and whatnots....
whereas Jenny and I opted for a wander around Ambleside coupled with the Heritage Walk, which pointed out all the old buildings around the town. The highlight of the tour was right next to the Old Stamp Store - Greggs Bakery.
I’d been telling Jenny all about the food I miss from the UK and a chicken bake from Greggs was one of them. We’d just eaten brekky, so I unfortunately couldn’t fit one in, but we did go in so I could show her around. Like I said - hightlight!
Boats and canoes for hire...
We opted for the lake cruise and boarded the little boat “Princess of the Lake”
which ferried people on a 50 minute tour of one end of Lake Windamere. It was absolutely freezing on the boat. It rained ever so lightly, but there was an icy wind which drove people into the cabin. 
There were two stops on this trip, the first being Wray Castle
where you were encouraged to get off the boat and have a free look at the castle. However, once we got there, free became £8 to enter.
But we said "No, we're not paying that!" and we had a quick walk around the castle grounds and the outside, which is a beautiful old building. On our way we came across this frame, specially set up to have a fabulous back drop of the lake.
By the time we had worked out how to use the timer on our cameras, it was time to head back to the jetty for the next boat - “Queen of the Lake” for our return journey. The next stop was an old house and an adventure playground, so after a quick consensus, it was unanimously decided that we would skip that one.
Seen one adventure playground, you’ve seen them all!
Food, food, food - off the boat and straight back to the village to the Giggling Goose for lunch.
We all wanted scones and they did what looked like a lovely scone with jam and cream at this place, but then after a few words from the wiser members of the group suggested that they were going to have a savoury lunch instead of cake….. and the rest of us finally followed, only with the promise that we would have a cream tea later that day.
Straight after lunch we headed back to Grasmere for a lovely Cream Tea with scones the size of my hand and about 7cm thick.
Rolling out of the tea rooms, we purchased a packet of Kendal Mint Cake which has the flavours "White", Chocolate" and "Brown"!
we were told it was a specialty around these parts and had to try some.... Then we all put our hands up for a guts up before meeting for dinner (God forbid!)
We had agreed to meet in the lounge after a little lay down for a pre dinner drink. On our way over from Melbourne, I was presented by the Emirates steward, a cake, a glass of champs and a bottle of Vintage Verve Champas. When I asked why, he said because it’s your birthday. When I said, but it’s not my birthday for another a few more weeks yet, he said “10th of June?” (Mine is the 11th) so I said “close enough.” It wasn’t until we got the bottle back to the hotel that I opened the card on the gift bag and either it had been regifted or the bag was just being reused or….. the champas wasn’t for me.
It was for Nicole Grebe from Luke Morgan and Luke's mum, Lynette - cause that was what was written on the card!!! So we decided it would have been what Nicole would have wanted, and together with me Jenny and me lovely friends, that we drank that bottle of Vintage Verve and toasted Nicole, Luke and Lynette.
Dinner had been pre booked by the lovely Tans at The Jungle Room in Grasmere, which had rave reviews on Tripadvisor.
We walked into the village and arrived just as it was starting to rain. We were ushered upstairs into what can only be described as an oven hot room. We started peeling layers off and Jenny even had to go to the even hotter toilets to take off under layers. At this rate the waiter was going to come back to take our order to find us all sitting in our bras and pants! Luckily Saskia asked for the fans to be turned on and the window to be opened and it eventually cooled down a enough for us to stop talking about it.
The lovely ladies had organised a bottle of Prosecco and a gorgeous little gift of A little Beatrix Potter book - The Tale of Jemima Puddleduck - my favourite.
This was for my nearly birthday, which was still in a couple of weeks. I was so chuffed at such a thoughtful gift and such a great time with such lovely ladies. I mean, what more can you ask for?
When the girls headed home about 40 minutes later they saw what was either a badger, who we later learned can gallop 25-30 miles per hour or a very large, short legged, bushy tailed, badger like cat.
Vs
Or perhaps it was something else entirely?
There was quite a debate on the subject, but the truth shall forever remain a mystery.
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