May 20, 2011 - Rydal Hall

Walked down to Rydal Hall yesterday with Sarah. It turns out that this estate is rather young, being built in 1906. It had lovely gardens, which would have been more lovely if they actually had fowers in them! I suppose the term that better fits at the moment is "grounds." Anyway, they were nice and even had a very good size croquet lawn...reminded me of my childhood. Sarah had a hard time believing that I actually played croquet as a child growing up in New England!

Of course, we had to stop at the tea garden and get a coffee (and white hot chocolate for me, which I've become quite fond of!) before returning home via the Coffin Trail. The Coffin Trail is literally a trail that the pall bearers would walk carrying the deceased from Ambleside to Grasmere (at least 5 miles), because there was no church in Ambleside at that time. There are "coffin stones" along the way, although not on the section we took, where the pall bearers could place the coffins while they stopped for a rest. We passed one on the way to Grasmere on the route to Dove Cottage.

Well, I've only got 2 more days here at Nab Cottage and then I'm off to the Isle of Man for a week of couch surfing. There was only one HelpX Host on the IOM and I didn't get a reply. Unfortunately, the first ferry for the season leaving for Dublin isn't until the 31st, so I've gone to my backup of couch surfing. I'm grateful that my first Hosts in Scotland (and Matt from New Zealand) clued me into the CouchSurfing website. It's a great option to have and will save me spending money on Hostels. I plan on making use of it when I want to see some of the bigger cities on my days off...like London and Paris.

I may get one more post in before I leave, but if not I should be able to blog from the IOM. I'm kind of looking forward to a "no work" week and meeting some kind and generous souls and fellow travelers willing to put me up for a few nights. I should learn a tip or two about nomading...