Discovering Grasemere, Lake District, UK
As I was saying in my last post, I sometimes just visit a place without knowing a thing about it. Grasmere was one such place where I just turned up because it was the last stop on the open top bus for which you could buy a Day Rider.
This was my first impression of the place and I liked what I saw, it looked small and cozy. The thing is I did not know what to do next after I got down from the bus, so I just followed the crowd and which led me to three things, The Cemetery behind the St. Oswald’s Church, the church itself and to the Grasmere Gingerbread shop!
While I was about to enter the park where Wordsworth’s grave is, I stood for a while reading the signboard. It talked about Daffodils and Wordsworth but as I had just turned up at the place it was only later after reading more sign boards I realized that it was a tribute to Wordsworth and he rests there!
From there the next logical stop was the St. Oswald’s Church, which is right behind the garden. It is a peaceful place, a place whether you worship or not, you would like to sit quietly for a while and contemplate. I did just that.
On getting out I saw the Grasmere Gingerbread shop and went in to have a look. I bought one bread and came out. A few bites later I went in again and bought a pack of six but I have written about my experience with the Grasmere Gingerbread in detail about it before.
After this I was a little confused as to what should I do. So I walked into the tourist information center and the helpful lady out there told me of two walks, the Roathy River Walk and the Walk to the Lake Grasmere. She also mentioned Dove Cottage where William Wordsworth used to live for a while. I decided to check out all the three.
I walked up to the Dove Cottage first but when I entered the book shop next to it and inquired about the entrance fee, I decided that I was happy after looking at the exterior only.
I then did the Rothay River walk and it was a pleasant short walk next to crystal clear water. But if you are used to what we call rivers in India, this one was much smaller in size. I met them doggies on this route too but most of them were really well behaved.But the best of all was my walking around the Lake Grasmere, it was quiet, it was beautiful and it was soul lifting.
By the time I reached the other end of the Lake Grasmere I wanted to keep walking. So instead of coming back via the route I went by I started walking from some other side, knowing the general direction of the road. I asked a few people with maps to tell me if I would meet the road eventually and they said, yes. So, after walking for quite some time via beautiful scenery, I reached the bus stop and headed to The Stag’s Head at Windermere.
As an added bonus, I managed to spot this Goldfinch but unfortunately my zoom lens was not working, so clicked this from my wide angle lens. But what a sweet song the bird has!
