Very nice dinner last night at the hotel bar here at The Inn at Grasmere.
It’s a very efficient set up here, it seems small, personal and inviting but actually they can feed and house a large number of patrons. You have to book a time slot for breakfast, there are so many people staying here. It’s big and rambling with three stories of bedrooms. It’s also full of character but with sympathetically modernized facilities. I love it.
After breakfast we drove to the Pencil Museum in Keswick, a nearby town. Enjoyed it far more than you would have believed. Graphite was mined out of the local hills in the 17 and 18 hundreds, there used to be a number of pencil factories here. At one time graphite was more valuable than gold. Did you know pencils were never made of lead? People think that because they’re dumb and think anything soft and black has to be lead. Actually I must confess I believed it was true as well. I learned loads of useful facts at the museum – if you fill out a quiz of 20 or so questions, you win a prize. The test included an obligatory pencil sketch, so I did one of Simon. It was terrible but I blame the fact that he kept looking down at his phone and wouldn’t look at me. Serves him right if it looks like a police sketch.
Amongst many fascinating displays was the world’s largest pencil.
They also had an art gallery of pencil drawings including this one. Not a particularly inspiring subject but the quality was amazing!
My prize was several more pencils on top of the one you get with your entrance fee – to fill out the quiz with – so of course I then had to buy a wee pencil case
We had planned to go on and do a forest walk that had been recommended to us, but Simon was already fading. Considering he was recently very ill and only out of hospital a couple of days, he’s doing extraordinarily well. So, instead we went back to the Inn for a nap.
By midafternoon he was feeling revived enough for us to go on a walk around the nearby lake, just called Grasmere. It was very pretty, and it’s another gorgeous day.
We were cautious but in the end did the entire loop.
There were a number of other people on the walk but it wasn’t unpleasantly busy. Many had their dogs with them. Dogs seem to be welcome everywhere here, it’s clearly quite normal to take your canine companion on holiday with you. It’s the best thing I know about the English.
Our quiet country walk was also interrupted a number of times by jet fighters flying low overhead, which seems very out of place. There must be an Air Force base nearby somewhere. No photos because they’re so damned fast.
Having skipped lunch after a big cooked breakfast, some of the famous local gingerbread was very welcome. Chewy, sweet and spicy, very nice.
We plan to have dinner in the bar again tonight, why spoil a winning formula?