31 Jul 2013 – Lake District-Cumbria/2

Tuesday 30Jul 2013 – Day 4 Grasmere – Patterdale 9m/14.5k 0830-1400hrs

Treat to have the extra time for this shorter mileage day. Got up at 0600hrs as usual to hear the rain, dozed for another hour or so and the rains stopped by the time the feet hit the trail.

Leaving Grasmere with the view of Helm Crag in the background and slowly ascending a rocky path with the new path under construction parallel to this path across the stream.

Long climb uphill but was worth all the effort with weather and views like today. Whoever built the stone way further up is an angel. Unlike the rugged ones just on, these are quite a luxury. Turning back to say goodbye to the delightful village of Grasmere.

Took me 2hrs (others will do in 1hr!) to get up to GrisedaleTarn and it was nice to see a lone camper by the tarn. Must have been peaceful in spite of the rains during the night.

Heading downwards towards Grisedale Valley to be pleasantly surprised by this Ruthwaite Lodge.

These stone fences and houses never fail to impress me. And more so now as some of the fences go all the up to where it would take me 2hrs to get to the end of the fence! How on earth did they manage to carry those stone all the way up to these mountains.

Into Patterdale village passing by St Patrick’s Church where there will be an organ recital tonight. Will try to stay up to attend.

The centre of the village. Staying in a real working farm app a quarter-mile from the main drag, hopefully not too much baa from the sheep tonight. Pass by this sign post to the farm. Am told that the Red squirrels are a native here!

Night: Tue 30Jul at Noran Bank Farm Patterdale, for B&B +a packed lunch GBP35 S$68

Do not know if there will be time, energy or fast internet access to blog with so many words again! Have been told that tomorrow will be the roughest day of the whole hike… !!!

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze – William Wordsworth

27 Jul 2013 – Stonehouse Farm

St Bees: between the 6th-9th century, Bega, an Irish princess fled here to avoid an arranged marriage with a Norwegian prince. And so the legend goes, she landed here and lived as a hermit and became famous for her good deeds.. She approached the local land owner Lord Egremont for land to build a convent.

Egremont was not generous and promised Bega all the land covered by snow the next day, considering as it was to be mid summer’s day. Miraculously snow did fell that day and Bega was able to get the land and built the convent.

26 Jul 2013 – To St Bees

Thu: Train from Milton Keynes – Manchester 1.5hrs – St Bees (change in Carlisle, with 10mins delay and made the St Bees just in time!) 3hrs, GBP36 S$68.

Thank you KV & Christine for putting me up and for all their kind hospitality.  Drive from Godmanchester – MiltonK Station 1hr. MiltonK is a new station and the only station I have seen where one has their bicycle undercover. According to the police, it looks tidy and we were thinking more on the security side 🙂

ManchesterP Station is a brand new station and like many modern designs, they lack something!  Had some time to spare and took a short walk around the area which has more character. The fire station and the church across the road are more impressive for these ageing eyes 🙂 🙂

St Bees is a total contrast from the other 2 mentioned stations, charming and welcoming village.  A walk to the starting point for the hike was quite delightful after a whole day on trains and stations.

Fri: how lovely to meet up with cousin YEO YatSoon (9th auntie’s only child and son) & family who are starting their summer holiday in this area. The last time we meet was in 2000 and now he&Helen are proud parents of 2 lovely girls. Spent the afternoon catching up and getting to know Merle&Mei-mei who was having an ear infection. Poor baby and she was in such good spirits. Appreciate them for taking time to meet and tkx to YatSoon for bringing a box of old B/W pix from his mother’s times from SIN for us to look thru’.

If you would be known, and not know, vegetate in a village; if you would know, and not be known, live in a city – Charles Caleb Colton

23 Jul 2013 – Apple Market

Tue: Happy 2nd Birthday James my 5th grandchild/USA (Linn & Jeff’s #5). For a moment I thought the pix is of his sister! Just goes to show that either time has gone by too quickly or that the eye sight is going downhill with the rest…

Mon: welcome to the royal baby who arrived on one of the hottest days 22 Jul 4-24pm followed by a night of thunders and storms; much-needed rains after over a week of hot dry spells. Will the baby be named James?? Also the day where the bombing and shootings happened 2yrs ago in Norway.

A lovely 15mins walk from Paul’s to the station, crossing railway lines, blissful residential areas and meadows. Got to the station in time for the 0723 train to realise that my return ticket was for off-peak hours. 1min walk to Ashtead Cafe for a 2 eggs and bacon breakfast started another perfect day.

Thanks to Paul’s clear instruction from Waterloo to Covent Garden Market (started 7th century). In the 13th century, the monks’ ‘convent garden’ became a major source of fruit and vegetables in London and, for the next 700 years, Covent Garden became inexorably linked with fresh fruit and veg.

Was just stopping by in between trains to check out stuff for the MacBook Air! Silly me, was looking for the Apple Store at Covent Gardens to discover that the Apple Market was not it. But found the Apple Store across from the market at The Piazza…

Around 1200 the first mention of an abbey garden appears in a document mentioning a walled garden owned by the Benedictine monks of the Abbey of St Peter Westminster. A later document, dated between 1250 and 1283, refers to ‘the garden of the Abbot and Convent of Westminster’  By the 13th century this had become a 40-acre (16 ha) quadrangle of mixed orchard, meadow, pasture and arable land, lying between modern-day St. Martin’s Lane and Drury Lane, and Floral Street and Maiden Lane.

The use of the name ‘Covent’—an Anglo-French term for a religious community, equivalent to ‘monastery’ or ‘convent’—appears in a document in 1515, when the Abbey, which had been letting out parcels of land along the north side of the Strand for inns and market gardens, granted a lease of the walled garden, referring to it as ‘a garden called Covent Garden’. This is how it was recorded from then on. Info from Wikipedia.

Train from Covent Garden to King’s Cross. Decided to take a walk to be pleasantly surprised to an impressive St Pancras, originally a medieval parish, now a four in one, church, hospital, hotel and station. London is full of wonderful history and hopefully will be able to check it out more in cooler days some other time…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Pancras,_London

I’m not smart, but I like to observe. Millions saw the apple fall, but Newton was the one who asked why – William Hazlitt

22 Jul 2013 via King’s Cross and Waterloo

Fri: train from Huntingdon to King’s Cross 1hr changing Underground on the Victoria/blue and at Oxford Circle to Bakerloo/brown line to Waterloo. Been awhile ago on the Underground, fortunately no problems with these well-marked signs. Thanks to KV for such good directions.

Lovely walk to South Bank with perfect blue sky for the pix. Had to make sure to catch the River Thames and Parliament House to not mistake the Eye for the Flyer!!

Last time in the London area was 2004, 9yrs ago!

Another train from Waterloo, under renovation but the exterior gradual never fails to impress me. Crowds are not too bad but in this hot India summer, a walk around the area including South Bank was a wonderful idea since there was time. 30mins train ride to Ashtead from Waterloo.

Sat: lunched and walked around Polesden Lacey, an impressive Edwardian era house with views of the Surrey Hills. An elderly man was playing Chopin on the grand piano and Paul commented that the player must have been as old as the instrument, but still charming to have life music.

The gardens are lovely and so is the caretaker’s cottage. Found a tree in the cherry orchard and the cherries were sweet and juicy and, yes we are allowed to pick them. Tkx to Paul for the introduction of another tiny wild orchid, Pyramidal. The Duke and Duchess of York (later King George Vl and Queen Elizabeth) spent part of their honeymoon here in 1923.

Mrs Greville, owner of Polesden Lacey was the setting for pleasure, leisure, gossips, luxury and discreet dalliance among the upper class remarked:

‘I never follow people into their bedroom’ but of course she did not mention who might be following her into her bedroom or the many other inviting places in the large gardens 🙂 The Grevilles had no children and after she died, the house was donated to the National Trust. To view the house and garden, GBP12 S$23 appreciations to Paul who guided me thru’ this beautiful location and he also is a member of the National Trust.

http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/polesden-lacey/

Good to see Paul and to meet his mother, an impressive 86yrs lady who cycles to care for her veg garden plot in the allotment. Thank you to Mrs Krause for her inspiration and for the beets.

Sun: gardening and weeding at Paul’s allotment; good for the nerves in addition to having fresh organic onions, lettuce, cherries, raspberries, loganberries for Sun steak dinner today. Decent crab salad lunch at The Olive Tree Cafe*** located in Ashtead Park Garden Centre on Pleasure Pit Rd! Indeed it has been a total pleasure and appreciations to Paul and his family for their hospitality. Life cannot be better than it is 🙂 🙂 🙂

Return round-trip train and underground tickets: Huntington-King’s Cross-Waterloo-Ashtead and back to Huntington GBP31 S$60!

..what thrills me about trains is not their size or their equipment but the fact that they are moving, that they embody a connection between unseen places – Marianne Wiggins

18 Jul 2013 – Cambridge, Castle Rising & Sandringham House

Tue: a hot Indian summer day in Cambridge. The last time here was 2010, so not much changes except for more crowds and a blue sky as compared to the not so blue sky of Sep 2010!

Fitzwilliam Museum

http://amylamsg.com/2010/09/10/cambridge/

Wed: 55mi 88k north drive of Godmanchester is King’s Lynn in Norfolk. What a a beautiful and peaceful ruin, Castle Rising, that was built in about 1138 by William d’Aubigny, 1st Earl of Arundel. The roof is no longer but the walls are fully intact. This is one of the most well-kept 12th century castle here in England. GBP3.30 S$6.4 for seniors.

http://www.castlerising.co.uk

Sandringham House and garden (GBP10 S$19 for seniors) where the Queen retreats to from Dec- Feb. Pix are not allowed in the house.. The  8,000-hectare/240 hectares Sandringham Estate grounds are open to public FOC daily. Due to the dry weather, the grass is not as green so far and can you imagine the reaction of the animal rights people when they see the King George V’s private museum of big games in the stable!!

The stable also houses an interesting collection of motor vehicles, children’s cars and fire engines

http://www.sandringhamestate.co.uk

Go anywhere in England where there are natural, wholesome, contented and really nice English people; and what do you always find? That the stables are the real centre of the household – George Bernard Shaw

15 Jul 2013 – Time to say goodbye…

As difficult as it is, the time has come to move on, and not to be able to see the youngest grandson until 2014 is a situation chosen but not an easy choice! Watching him developing the past 7 weeks was a total joy. Am so blessed to have been given the opportunity to spend time with him. Appreciations to M&B for putting up with me and for being such good parents to Olai.

Would not be until end Aug/early Sep till meeting these 5 other grandchildren in USA, sooo looking forward to that…

Dinner at Delicatessen**** good tapas bar. Thanks May for the introduction to this location. The price of this meal for 2pp is the same price in groceries for 3 meals, 3pp including a steak dinner!!

http://www.delicatessen.no/majorstuen

Where has the time gone, the weekend that just was also happened to the L&J 20th reunion from Lake Howell High School/LHHS. How could it be possible that it was over 20yrs ago when these kids were travelling with me, visiting the clubhouse and swimming in the pool at the condo in FL/USA? Have been asked if I feel old and if feeling old means that unable to travel and hike, then that is old for me! But then what is old when travelling and hiking is still a part of this life’s journey??

Posted this on FB and received some interesting comments, including from Lucy Amy, my idea of making sure life doesn’t escape me is to have a gr8 bedroom and bathroom, one meal I enjoy everyday, some K drama to watch for an hour or 2 a day and regular meet ups with friends and family members. I could do this for all eternity…

Each to their own as Lucy also commented and if I get to feel as Lucy does, then perhaps, that is what is feeling old for me 🙂 🙂 🙂

In the meanwhile, with a heavy heart, life will go on and now to the most dreaded thing – packing 🙁

I don’t know when we’ll see each other again or what the world will be like when we do. We may both have seen many horrible things. But I will think of you every time I need to be reminded that there is beauty and goodness in the world – Arthur Golden

11 Jul 2013 – Norway’s oldest town/871

Have known Stein since our Dublin days when he was an upstairs neighbour and friend who drove me to the hospital for an emergency incident a week before Linn was born! Have not seen him since the early 1980s and great to catch up and meet two of his children, Øystein and Ida. Thank you for putting me up in spite of his busy time trying to get his boat out on the water.

Tue: the train journey south to Tønsberg where Stein lives is pretty, passing thru’ gradual rolling hills and agriculture lands; dep 0941hrs Nationaltheatret stopping in Skøyen, Lysakker, Sandvika, Asker, Drammer, Sande, Holmenstrand, Skoppum and arr 1058hrs into Tønsberg NOK400 S$84 roundtrip.

Went to the beach with Ida and a nice drive around Vallø area and Furustrand camping grounds by the coast. Delicious steak dinner and a lovely outdoor fire to catch up with 30yrs of our life gossips and stories 🙂

Tønsberg is a municipality in Vestfold county, 1 and a half hours by train south of OSL a charming coastal town and regarded as the oldest town in Norway. 107 km² 41 sq mi, pop app 42,000 and is the site of Oseberghaugen, a Viking era burial mound.

Wed: Slottsfjellsmuseet=castle mountain museum and the tower are certainly worth to see NOK40 S$8 (senior). One can read about the ice-age and the vikings thru the times. The tower and the ruins are located on top of a hill, the best site and views of Tønsberg. 

The Osebertg ship was found in the Oseberg burial mound in 1904. This Viking era longship is now in the Viking Ship Museum in OSL. Archaeological excavations in 1904 uncovered history’s largest and richest example of craftsmanship from the Viking Age. In addition to the Oseberg ship, Oseberghaugen contained the Oseberg carriage, five beautifully carved bed-posts shaped like animal heads, four sledges, beds, chests, weaving-frames, household utensils and much more. Scientific examinations in 1992 now date the burial to 834 AD.

Bitter is the wind tonight,  It tosses the ocean’s white hair,  I do not fear the fierce warriors of Norway crossing in the Irishsea tonight – found in a monk’s manuscript