Milan & Lake Como

On our long trip through Italy at the beginning of the summer, we had to pass on one of the major cities, Milan. It is in the northwest part of the country and was a bit out of our way. Also, we'd heard that it wasn't the best place to visit anyway. We had heard, however, that it was near the Italian lake district, which was supposed to be amazing, and Jenna really wanted to go. So, we ended up planning a trip for the beginning of September, the first weekend after the "end of the busy summer travel" to try and cut back on the number of annoying tourists we'd have to deal with.

Friday, September 4th

We arrived in Milan at around 10am, but due to the distance of the airport to the city, and some issues figuring out the logistics for getting around, we pretty much had to head straight out to a 1:30 appointment (after grabbing pizza of course!). We had tickets to see The Last Supper, which is in a church away from the main part of the city.

The Last Supper is a fresco painting (if you've been reading, paint mixed into the plaster of a wall/ceiling), and was done by the leader of the Ninja Turtles - Leonardo. They only allow a few people in at a time, and you have to get your reservations several months in advance. It is gigantic and very impressive. We've seen recreations and photos before, but the real deal is something else. There are no photos allowed, but we snuck this one, which actually turned out really well.

Leonardo had used an experimental technique, which caused the painting to start to deteriorate within a few years. Now, several hundreds of years later, it is actually in pretty bad shape, as a lot of the colors are fading or parts seem to be breaking away. Andrew's (far right)face is pretty much gone. There were hints, though, of its former glory, where you could see what the colors had looked like, and we stood in awe for about 20 minutes imagining how it would have looked then.

This alone really made the trip to Milan worth while. After we left, though, we headed to the center of town for the icing on the cake.

That is a picture of the Duomo, Milan's cathedral, which is one of the largest in Europe. We walked around the square a little and took in this church, which was really impressive. It was built completely out of pink marble from a nearby quarry, and has literally thousands of statues, both inside and out. Each of those little spires that you see in the picture has a unique statue on top, plus then there are more scattered all over.

They built the Duomo with politics in mind. They spent a ton of money to make it really big in order to make Rome (to the south) happy. Apparently the Catholic church showed a little more love to those who were willing to show their devotion by opening their pocket books. In order to get some support from the Germans and Austrians to the north, though, they shunned the "popular" Italian architecture of the time, like that used at the Vatican, and instead went with a Gothic theme, which was more popular in northern Europe.

After spending some time learning all of this and taking in the main square, we headed through the Galleria, a small, very upscale shopping area, to the Teatro alla Scala, which is Milan's opera house. From the outside, it isn't much to talk about, but the inside is incredible - one of the most elaborate buildings we've seen that wasn't a palace. This is probably the most famous opera house in the world, and most major operas throughout history have played here. They had a little museum with original scripts, playbills, costumes, and some other interesting random things like letters written by a young Mozart. I'm sure this would have been really interesting to opera fans, but what made us love it was that we got to see them practice. They have a couple of the luxury boxes open for tour, so that you can see down into the actual hall, which was amazing. The picture below is from the website, through, as they were rehearsing for a performance when we visited. We got to watch for about 10 minutes before they kicked us out, and it was really interesting. Made us want to go see an opera!!

After the opera, we headed back through the Galleria enjoying an excellent Gelato, and decided to tour the Duomo. We started with the roof, which was originally built to have people go up there - with stairs leading all the way to the top and several little spots to stop and sit and take in the art that they've put all over the building. Luckily, they've recently also installed an elevator that takes you most of the way up!! By the time we got up there, it was sunny and warm and we really enjoyed just being on top of the world.

We also went on a walk through the inside of the church, which aside from being full of hundreds of more statues, was not much different from the standard European cathedral.

After leaving, we headed back to the train station to make our way to Varenna, a small town on Lake Como, which is where we spent the rest of the weekend. After about an hour on the train we got to our hotel at about 9:00. We were pretty hungry and decided to eat in the hotel restaurant, which was on a nice patio. It was dark so we didn't get any view, but the food was really good...just one more reason to love Italy!

Saturday, September 5th

So this is what we woke up to.

Amazing.

This is Lake Como - in the Italian Alps just across the border from Switzerland. There are a few other lakes near by that make up the Italian Lake District, but this is supposed to be the best and most accessible. It is also the home of George Clooney when he's not working in LA. He was actually there while we were, but we didn't see him - guess we don't hang out in the same type of places.

We didn't do too much. As our friend Rick Steves says - this is a place to lower your heart rate. We had a walk through the town of Varenna, which was very nice. We stopped in the small grocery store and picked up some fruit and sundry picnic goods and headed to the town's "beach". Basically, one of the bar/restaurants in town had a big patio area next to the lake, and decided the best use would be to cover it in gravelly sand and rent out beach chairs. It doesn't really have access to the water, but since the lake is fed by the Alps, it is freezing water anyway, so that was not a huge problem. The sun was shining, though, and that was enough for Jenna, so we spent most of the afternoon there.

By mid-afternoon, we were really starting to regret the fact that we forgot our sunscreen, so to prevent further baking, we decided to go back to the hotel for the afternoon. They were supposed to have a nice patio with some umbrellas and we thought it would be nice to sit out and read. Boy were we in for a nice surprise. The hotel (Eremo Gaudio, if you're planning a trip), was at one point a monastery up on the side of the mountain. The reception and about 1/2 the rooms (including ours) sit below the original monastery nearer to the lake. A short funicular ride up the mountain takes you to the actual monastery, though, where the other rooms are. This is where the amazing rooftop patio was, and we literally could not believe it. The commanding view from up here was spectacular, and the building itself was just amazing. What a spot for the monks to come for worship. It is no surprise that they picked this place. As we stood up there and took in the majesty of the lake and mountains and everything else, all we could do was thank God for the beauty of His creation, and the many blessings He's given us that allow us to enjoy them!!

After a quick clean-up in the hotel, we headed off to dinner at a small local place with nice patio seating. Again, we enjoyed some great Italian food. While waiting for my calzone to cook, we saw a feat of feats. The guy next to us ate an enormous calzone (literally 12 inches across). This alone had me so stuffed I could barely walk out of the place. For dessert, though, he went ahead and ate a full pizza. The crust is pretty thin, but still, it was the same size of a US medium, and he downed it all like a champ. He wasn't overweight or anything - just a normal middle aged guy who ate in one sitting what could easily fed both Jenna and I for 4 meals. Needless to say, we were both extremely impressed!

After dinner we had a nice stroll through the town trying to find a suggested place for dessert. We never did end up finding the place, but it was okay because the town and lake were nice in the evening, and we probably didn't really need the dessert anyway.

Sunday, September 6th

Sunday was another day spent on the lake, and again, we didn't do too much (which was perfect). Our plan was to spend the day on one of the lake's main towns - Bellagio. We caught a mid-morning ferry the mile or so across the water to this town. It is quite a bit bigger than where we stayed, and has a lot more shops and tourists. It was a Sunday morning, so a lot of stuff was closed, but we still enjoyed walking through the town and peeking in the windows. Later in the afternoon some of the shops did open up and we were able to stop in and see lots of stuff we wished we could afford to buy. Many mental notes made of things to purchase when we return some day.

We headed through the town and out to a small park on the lake. We hung out in the park for a while and enjoyed the beautiful weather and scenery. We then went and had another great lunch at a restaurant near the park with great water views.

As we had to get back to Milan for our flight, and the trains don't run too often on Sundays, we had to leave Bellagio fairly early. We spent a little more time in the park before we headed back, though, and just had a really relaxing time there.

After a ferry back to Varenna and a goodbye to our hotel (we had to grab the luggage), we headed off for a 4:00 train to Milan. Fortunately, this gave us just enough time to make it back to the city center for a few final views and pictures of the Duomo, and what sadly may have been our last Italian gelato for a while.

This ended up being a wonderful trip. We really did almost nothing, but it was so enjoyable to just take in the amazing scenery and relax - something that we hear some people do when they go on vacation.

Counting our Blessings

The day we left for Cornwall (August 29th) was the official one year anniversary of our arrival in the UK.

What a year.

Looking back, it is amazing the things we've been able to see and do, and the experience has already proven to be one of a lifetime, and we still have several months to go! With that in mind, we just wanted to take a second to reflect on the many blessings we've been given (at least those related to this travel experience).

First, just some general reflections:

We still cannot get over the fact that we are here. It feels at times like we're just on a long vacation. Sure I have to work, but it mostly feels like a minor annoyance in between travelling. Five years ago if you'd have asked us where we wanted to travel before we died, we would have listed London, Paris, a few places in Italy, and probably a few other places around the globe. It is like a dream that now, at less than 30 years old, we've been able to see all of our major European destinations, as well as many more places - several of which we didn't even know existed!

They say that a picture says 1,000 words. Although we've taken literally thousands of pictures (see stats below), even they cannot describe what it is like to stand on top of the Eiffel Tower, ski (fall) down the Swiss Alps, stand in St. Peter's Square, hear evensong sung in Westminster Cathedral, or taste the perfect Italian gelato. The opportunity to see and do these things has been something we really could never have dreamed of, and in our prayers we remember to thank God for the blessing of being able to experience in one year what most people are unable to do in a lifetime. This is also another reason that if you're reading this, you should consider making use of our air mattress while it is located in London, and come over to experience some of these things for yourself. We're currently taking reservations through February 2010!!

In case you're counting, here are a few statistics:

1. We'd both travelled a bit in the US before this adventure, but not much outside of. I'd been to Canada and Mexico. Jenna had been there and also to Argentina, Paraguay and possibly Brazil (if you count lay-overs). The first time either of us had been to Europe was the day we stepped off the plane to move here. In the 12 months that followed, we've travelled to 18 different countries (if you count the Vatican, Wales, and N. Ireland as countries, which we do), and we've also taken 6 separate trips to major destinations in England.

2. We currently have more trips either booked or in the works that would take us to an additional 4 countries (look forward to posts on Monaco, Prague, Scotland, and hopefully Morocco, along with travels to a few "return" countries like Italy, France, Spain and others). There is a chance that we'll be able to extend my assignment by a few months, and if that happens we'll hopefully add an additional 6 countries (although I won't name those in case the extension doesn't go through, so you don't get disappointed). If all goes exactly to plan, that would mean a total of 28 countries. Amazing.

3. Since our arrival, we have taken 3,988 "keeper" pictures (not counting the one's we deleted). Luckily we've come after the invention of the digital camera, saving us having to deal with over 100 rolls of film!

4. It has been a bit of a roller coaster, but after 363 days (at least it didn't take a year), Jenna did get a job in the healthcare field. Check back later for a full post detailing that adventure.

5. Thanks to the beauty of public transportation, I've been able to read 21 novels, mostly on the trains.

6. London is one of the most diverse cities in the world. I've worked directly with people born in 13 different countries. In my 3 years in Dallas I'd worked with people from 2.

7. Thanks to the inefficiencies of the UK Nursing and Midwifery Counsel, Jenna has had time to read an infinite number of novels - on sunny days from the park, on cloudy days from the living room.

8. We have seen 6 shows: Jersey Boys, STOMP!, 3 Days of Rain, Mamma Mia, Oliver!, and Wicked. We have several more that we want to see before we leave!

9. We've written 58 blog posts (just more than 1 per week), of which I think only our parents have really read all of, and I'm not even sure they've read them all! If you're a loyal reader, you've probably noticed that over time they've gotten longer and more detailed, including a bunch of stuff like names of hotels that you don't care about at all. Sorry for that, but at some point along the way, we decided to write this blog more as a memory book for ourselves rather than an adventure story for our readers. We plan to make it into a book when we return, so that we can go back and show it off to our friends, family, and future children (if they are reading this...Hi Kids!!)

And lastly, a short list of our favorites so far:

Favorite meal:
Jenna - Pesto Lasagne, Vernazza, Italy
Aaron - Seafood Ravioli, Rio Maggiore, Italy

Favorite city:
Jenna - Toss up between Varenna, Italy (Lake Como), Venice, Italy and Amalfi, Italy
Aaron - Rome, Italy

Favorite church:

Both - La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona

Favorite castle:

Both - Pena Palace in Sintra, Portugal

Favorite London site:
Both - Tower of London

Favorite London food:
Jenna - Indian Food (one thing that will be sorely missed)
Aaron - Lunches at Borough Market

Favorite overall trip

Both: Hands down, Italy/Mediterranean Cruise

Cornwall

Cornwall is an English county in the far southwest corner of the country. For some reason involving the "jet stream" that we don't understand, it is the warmest part of the country, and the coast has some nice beaches. Thanks to the August Bank Holiday, we had a 3 day weekend, so we'd planned for several months to spend it sitting on the beach and taking in some of the sites.

Sadly, this turned out to be probably the worst possible weekend for us to go. They say that the August Bank Holiday weekend is the official end to summer. In London, it went out with a bang - giving the city dwellers a weekend of sun and warmth. In Cornwall, we were not so lucky. The warmest it ever got was around 65, and the sun barely ever popped through the clouds. We didn't really have any rain, which was good, and we were able to still make the most of the trip by seeing the sites, but it was far from Jenna's dream beach vacation.

Saturday, August 29th

On the one year anniversary of our arrival in the UK (see an upcoming post), we set off for Cornwall. We took a train from our place to Exeter, which is just to the east of where we were staying, and we picked up a car there. Since it is a little far, we thought it would be better to split up our time on the road, as the train is much more relaxing, and this turned out to be a good decision. Also, not sure if we've mentioned this before, but gas is outrageous over here. Remember when everyone was up in arms about gas nearing $4/gallon in the States a while back? We paid $6.50/gallon this weekend. No wonder the Hummer never really caught on here!!

The weather on Saturday was supposed to be warmer and sunnier than any other day, so we went straight to our hotel in Newquay, which was close to the beach, dropped off our bags, and headed out. We were not very lucky here. The beach was nice enough, and they were actually having a big beach rugby tournament which was interesting to see, but the weather just refused to cooperate. We spent about 2 hours on the beach, and the whole time it was windy and mostly cold, and the the sun never really made an appearance for more than a few minutes at a time.

We left the beach a little depressed and walked around the town. Newquay is known as a bit of a party town, and is big with the surfers (something that we didn't really know when we booked out hotel - no wander it was so cheap). The main part of town was full of a few restaurants and a ton of surf shops, and really wasn't that impressive to us. The best part - the Mexican Cantina where the Traditional Mexican Sampler was made up of BBQ ribs, chicken wings, and potato skins. Needless to say we passed.

In the evening we headed off to Tintagel Castle, in a town a few miles from Newquay. This was really cool. This is supposedly the site of King Arthur's castle. There is no written record of Arthur, but based on the strong oral history, they think that he probably did exist in some form. Since most of the oral history is from this region, and it is in an area known as Camelford (similar to Camelot), they think this must have been where he reigned.

The castle that sits on the site is completely ruined, and even they are not the ruins from Arthur's day. Another castle was built up in the 1200's several hundred years after Arthur, but there are remains of the foundations of some houses, a chapel, and a few other things that date from his time. It was interesting to walk around the area, see the ruins of the newer castle and the older homes, and just think of the round table (which probably didn't really exist, but we can dream!).

Afterward it was getting pretty late, so we headed back to Newquay for a delicious Indian dinner before calling it a night.

Sunday, August 30th

Sunday was our day to see the sites of Cornwall. Our first stop was Penzance (as in "the pirates of"). This town is supposed to have some great views over the sea. Unfortunately, the fog was so thick that we couldn't see more than a few hundred feet. We wandered around the town, found an amazing bookshop, and were very disappointed with the Sprinkles Cupcake Shop (nothing like the one in Dallas).

We moved on to the town of Porthcurno, which has become a tourist destination on account of its Minack theatre. A local woman loved theatre and basically sunk her life into building this place. They've built an open air theatre, complete with stage and stadium seating, directly into the the rocks overlooking the cliffs. The stage is very simple, and for most shows the only set is the waves crashing in the background. Again, it was very unfortunate that it was so foggy in the morning. The view we had was pretty good, but I'm sure it would have been amazing if the sky were clear.

Next we moved on the the biggest tourist trap in England - Land's End. This is the furthest west that you can go in England, and it is known as the last/first thing that sailors saw as they left for/returned from the New World. They have turned the place into a gaudy trap filled with every shop imaginable that can claim that it is the first and last (including the First and Last Royal Mail post office box, with a big sign saying it was not in use). You can even pay $20 to get your picture with a sign post showing the mileage to your home (if memory serves, about 4400 miles to Dallas). There are supposed to be some nice views from the point, looking out to sea over some cliffs, that make this madhouse worth while. Of course with the fog, we could hear the waves crashing but couldn't see a thing, and spent 5 very disappointed minutes here before we left.

Our last stop of the day was St Ives. This is another big-time beach town, and is known as an artist colony. There were a ton of small galleries lining the streets, and we had a nice walk through town down to the beach, peeking in at the different art work - mostly beach themed. As we got into town, we were lucky as the fog finally cleared and the sun started to peek through. We sat on the boardwalk for quite a while and watched all the people playing on the beach as the tide went out. After hanging out for a while, we had one of the area's famous cream teas - a pot of tea and 2 scones with clotted cream and jam. They were delicious.

After spending a few more minutes watching the people on the beach, we took off back to Newquay. It was still fairly early, and after the scones we weren't hungry for dinner, so we decided to waste the evening at the cinema. Jenna had read the book The Time Traveller's Wife, and it had just come out over here and she really wanted to see it. Turns out that movies in Cornwall are a lot cheaper than London, which was a nice surprise. The movie wasn't bad either, but based on the reaction of everyone in the theater, reading the book first (or having your wife summarize it) probably would have helped.

Monday, August 31st

Devon is a county just east of Cornwall, and home to Dartmoor, a national park and outdoorsy "moor" area, and where we planned to spend out last day on a scenic multi-stop drive. A moor is a type of landscape that is common in parts of England and Ireland, but is hard to describe. Just look at the pictures for an idea.

There isn't a ton to say about this. We walked around a few little towns, which was nice (but not quite as quaint as the Cotswolds). In the afternoon we did enjoy another cream tea and good conversation with the owner of the small tea room. We also spent a lot of time stopping along the roads to take in the scenery, climb some rock formations, and pet the wild horses. They aren't technically wild - they are owned by somebody - but there are no fences to keep them in, and so you'll see them just roaming by the side of the road. We've seen this in other parts of the country with sheep, but they aren't nearly as interesting. Plus, you can tell that these horses have been well taken care of by other tourists. At one point we parked the car and as soon as they saw us they came up looking for food!! A little weird, but they did just let you come up and pet them, which Jenna loved (and I kinda liked as well).

Yes, that horse did eat her button.  And yes, this is the same horse scratching its rear-end on somebody's car.

We finished the drive a little earlier than expected, so we had some extra time and decided to head back to Exeter (where we would later catch the train home) to see some sites there. They have a big cathedral that is supposed to be nice. Of course, we arrived 10 minutes after they closed up. They were supposed to have a nightly Evensong service that we thought we could attend, but apparently that got cancelled due to the bank holiday. The town looked really nice, but had definitely taken the day off. The only things that were open were a few pubs and coffee shops (and even most of those were closed). We wandered around for a while, grabbed dinner at the only acceptable place that was open - Subway - and hopped on the train back to London.

The Ruppel's in London

I (Jenna) got an email on July 25th from one of my good Olivet friends, Nathalie, saying that she and her husband Nick were thinking of making a trip over to visit London and see us. 15 days later, I was meeting them at the arrival gate of Gatwick airport!

They arrived early on Wednesday the 12th and they even came bearing gifts. This was a pretty uneventful day as they took a little nap to recover from the jet lag, and then spent most of the afternoon planning their one week trip. It was so good to spend the day hearing about all of their exciting plans for seeing the city. That night we went out in the rain for an Indian dinner.

On Thursday, they started their whirlwind sightseeing adventure. They bought a London Pass, which allows free entry to a ton of the major sites (Tower of London, St Paul's Cathedral, Cabinet War Rooms, Windsor, and many, many others). The problem was that it was only good for 3 days, and in order to make the most of it, you of course have to see a lot of places on the list. So, for Thursday, Friday and Saturday - they were pretty much going non-stop. They were like professional tourists, and definitely got their money's worth on the pass.

On Saturday afternoon, Aaron and I went with them to visit Windsor Castle. We arrived in Windsor (the town) at about 3:45, and started making our way to the castle. About half way there, Nathalie mentioned that she thought they might close at 4:00, so we picked up the pace. We arrived just before the cutoff - our watches all said that we had a couple of minutes - but the gate was closed and the not-too-nice guard told us that we were too late. Not only was the gate locked, but we could see the ticket booths completely closed up and employees starting to leave. We knew that even if our watches were off by a bit, there is no way they waited to close until 4:00.  See sad faces below:

We were really bummed that we went all the way out there for nothing, especially since we were on time, but there was nothing we could really do. As a consolation, we popped into a local tea-room and had a nice cream tea (tea, plus scones with clotted cream and jam). After taking in the nice weather (that the Ruppel's brought with them from Florida, and took home with them when they left) on a walk around Windsor, we hopped back on the train to London, where we had dinner at a nice place in Covent Garden. (My favorite thing about the following picture is Nick's little pinky!)

Sunday and Monday they headed off on their own again, seeing some of the free sights in the City on Sunday, and then going out to Stonehenge and Bath on Monday. On Tuesday they wanted to go out to Dover, which is in the Southeast of the country, just across from France (the tunnel under the English Channel runs from here). We hadn't been out there, so I thought it would be a good opportunity to tag along with them. Sadly, Aaron was stuck at work.

We had some big plans to tour the castle and go on a boat ride to see the cliffs. Unfortunately we were pressed for time and we didn't get to do all that we had planned. We did go see the White Cliffs which were amazingly beautiful and had lunch on the pier over the water. It was nice to be able to sit outside and soak up the sun! Then we hopped in a cab back up to the castle where we went on a tour of the underground tunnels of Dover Castle. Throughout the castle there were people dressed "in character" and talking about "their" everyday life. It was fun talking to them. After walking through the castle it was time to leave to catch the train back to London.

We returned in the afternoon and met Aaron in the city to see the West End musical Wicked. This is one of my favorites. This was my 3rd time to see it, and it was still amazing. Our seats were a little far back (and high), and the main stars weren't quite as good as the first cast we saw in Dallas, but it was still amazing. I decided that I want to go see that show at least once a month for the rest of our time here (although I don't think Aaron will let me)!!

Wednesday was their last full day, and they spent it going back to see a few things they missed and a few things that they wanted to see for a second time. We ended up meeting them for dinner at a pub near our flat, which was nice. On Thursday morning, they had a terribly early flight, so I got up at 5:00 to see them off, and they made it safely back to Florida a short 20 hours later.

We were really happy to have Nick and Nath over for the week, and super appreciative of the American groceries they brought with them. We were glad that they could take the opportunity to use our small living room as a free base for their sightseeing, and it was so nice to catch up with friends from home.

UK Lake District

About 5 hours north of London is the UK Lake District. This is a mountainous region with several good sized lakes, hiking trails, and other generally outdoorsy activities.

Friday, August 7th

I left work a few hours early to "hire a car", but since we picked it up from Heathrow, we still didn't get out of London until nearly 4:00. This trip gave us the opportunity to use our brand new (to us) GPS. We'd been thinking of getting one for a while, and on the last trip got fed up with paying £12 per day for rental from Avis, so when I found one used online for £50, we jumped on it. It has turned out to be a (potentially hot) gem. Between Friday traffic and the wreck outside Oxford, we didn't get in our B&B in Keswick in the north Lake District until after 10:00, so we pretty much went straight to bed.

Saturday, August 8th

We got up pretty early and had a wonderful breakfast at our B&B - Badgers Wood. The wife cooked up an amazing English Breakfast, and the husband offered up good conversation and advice on the area. A very friendly place that we have already recommended to our friends here in London with us.

After eating we took a walk around the town, where every other storefront was a camping and outdoors store. Probably really good for the people like us who came completely unprepared. Too bad we didn't take advantage.

We headed through the town to the edge of Lake Derwentwater, one of the larger lakes in the area. We hopped on a boat that took us around the lake for some scenic views before dropping us at the foot of one of the large hills, where we had planned to start our first hike. Turns out that lack of preparation (no water, no real hiking gear) was probably not wise. We got by fine, but had to take it slower than normal, and got a little embarrassed when we'd take a break and be passed up by the couples older than our parents.

As we climbed the hill, we were amazed by the incredible views. We were lucky enough to have sunny skies (and perfect weather - warm enough to be happy, cool enough to not die from the hike). After about two hours, we reached the peak of the hill at 1,500 feet and could see for miles. The site of several other lakes, rolling hills, farm and pasture land was just breath-taking. It is moments like this when we remember how much God has blessed us by giving us the ability to be here, and see all of His wonderful creation! As with many other things we've seen on this journey, there are pictures, but they can't even come close to giving you an idea of the experience of sitting on the top with the wind on your face, looking down at the majesty of the lakes and valleys.

After having a few minutes to pause and take it in, we headed back down to the lake and picked up another boat. We hopped off at another section of the lake, and had a late lunch at a small outdoor cafe near a tiny village called Lodore, and then saw some nearby waterfalls. By this time we'd done the main sites around this lake, but we'd heard there was a nice drive through the area, so we decided to head back to the car.

The combination of 6 hours in the car on Friday night and the morning spent hiking hit us pretty hard while on the boat back to Keswick. We planned to do an evening boat cruise, and were going to have just enough time to do our scenic drive and get cleaned up before going to that. On the way to the car, though, we both decided that maybe the drive could wait, and we did something that we've never done on any vacation yet - we went back to the room and took a nap! I set the alarm to just sleep for 45 minutes, but of course I set it wrong and we woke up nearly 2 hours later, and ended up having to rush around to get ready for our cruise.

The little boat tour was nice. It took us out to the middle of the lake that we'd spent the day hiking around, and a local man talked for about 30 minutes about the history, current affairs, significant events, and landmarks in the area. It was nice and relaxing and a good way to hear more about the Lake District from a guy who was born and raised there, and seen it change (he made sure we knew that he'd passed on the opportunity to buy a lakeside villa for £10k forty years ago, and it just sold the month before for £1.5m. He thought it was too much money back then!).

After the tour we were pretty hungry, so we walked around the town looking for a place to eat. It is a pretty small town, and since every other shop sells camping gear, there aren't a lot of options. We were lucky enough to wander down a side street, though, and come across a nice Indian restaurant, which had very nice food and atmosphere (although the waiter let it show that he was much less than pleased when we ordered tap water to drink).

Since there isn't much night life in the area, and we wouldn't be too interested if there was, we headed back to the B&B and spent the rest of the night relaxing and reading in the room. Very different than most of the travel we've been doing, but it was a nice change, and very relaxing for me after I'd just finished a pretty busy time at work.

Sunday, August 9th

Since it is a long drive from London, we didn't have a ton of time on Sunday. Our first stop was at the at the Lakeland Sheep and Wool Center for a sheep show. We'd missed out on a similar show when we were in Wales, so when we saw that this was just a few miles from where we were staying, we had to go. It was a little cheesy, but they brought out 18 different breeds of sheep that are bred in the area (there are something like 80 breeds in the country). They would let them loose from a back room and they would come running around the corner and right up to there place on the stage, where of course there was a bucket of food waiting for them.

The presenter talked about the different types, where they were from, and what they were used for. It was interesting to see the differences between types of wool, colors, horns, etc. I think if you'd have asked us 12 months ago how many types of sheep were in the world we'd have been pretty confident in saying "one". Now we know better. They also did a sheep dog demonstration. Since it was indoors, they couldn't have the dog herd the sheep around the small stage, so they used geese instead. It was pretty funny, as the dog walked these 4 geese around the stage, them flapping their wings and falling all over the place!

At the end they let us up on stage to pet the animals, including the cows they'd brought out at the end. The wool looks nice and soft when they make it into a sweater, but when it is on the sheep it is pretty gross. It is dirty from a life spent rolling around in the grass, but it is also very oily, which keeps it waterproof. Our hands were feeling pretty disgusting after the "hands on" time.

We left the show and headed off for another hike around the smaller Buttermere Lake. This hike was pretty much just a stroll, and a total joke compared to what we did on Saturday. It was still incredibly nice. There were several waterfalls flowing from the nearby hills down to the lake, and the views were still spectacular. It was basically just a 4 mile walk around this lake, with a few little ups and downs here and there. We ended up getting a little bored by the end, but it was probably better than trying to do another serious hike.

After the walk we went on our short driving tour. It was nice, but pretty similar to a lot of the scenic small towns and countryside that we've seen in other parts of the country and in Ireland. It was enjoyable, but I think we were glad we opted for the nap instead the day before.

By the time we'd finished the drive, it was about 2:00 and we were thinking about lunch and a long drive home. We stopped at the local grocer and picked up some picnic essentials. We planned to eat at a nearby stone circle (Stonehenge in only one of literally thousands in the UK, it is just the best). I was pretty hungry, though, and Jenna was feeling a little sick from the narrow windy roads, so I ended up just eating in the car on the way. We stopped at the stone circle, but it wasn't too impressive and there were a bunch of annoying kids screwing around, so we took off pretty quick, jumped on the road, flipped on the Top 40, and headed for home.