Europe Adventure: Day Seven, part two- Grasmere

After our wonderful experience at Hill Top Farm we drove to the little village of Grasmere. 

As we drove we went through a few small villages, all lovely. 

I would love to go to the Lake District again someday and if I do I know for sure we will be staying in one of these small villages. There was such a different feel to this day and to these areas. I'm sure they get busy too but they were wonderful during our stay. 

Grasmere ended up being one of my very favorite spots. 

We parked in a nice, big car park and then walked through the village looking for the famous Sarah Nelson's Grasmere Gingerbread shop.

There it is!

We went in to the small, quaint shop and bought a package of gingerbread. 

I wish we had bought more of it!

Then we took our gingerbread around the corner to the grounds around St. Oswald's Church. 

At the start of the path there was this lovely William Wordsworth quote: 

"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;"

As I have mentioned, daffodils mean England to me now and so this poem, which I have always loved, meant a lot more to me now. 

To wander this path near the churchyard where Wordsworth is buried looking at all the daffodils was an amazing experience. 

We wandered the path for a while and then found his grave and those of his family.

We found a bench to relax on and enjoyed our first piece of gingerbread. 

I like gingerbread. But this was amazing.      

   It was by far the best gingerbread I have ever had. 

The hype is deserved. 

After enjoying our gingerbread and the beautiful nature surrounding us for a while, we kept strolling. 

We went through the shops on the main street and then decided to stop for lunch at this restaurant, Pottered Out. 

It was a really nice place with really good prices and we got a cute booth with a view of the front door and the street. 

We both ordered the Goats Cheese sandwich on Warm Ciabatta Bread with marinated red pepper, sun blushed tomato, and pesto. It came with the salad. 

This was delicious. 

It was one of the best meals I had, I think. 

After lunch we walked back past the car park and down the road a ways to visit Dove Cottage. 

It was just so beautiful and quiet here.

Dove Cottage: home of William Wordsworth

Wordsworth moved into Dove Cottage with his sister Dorothy in 1799.

He would live here for eight years. 

In 1802 he married Mary Hutchinson. Three of their five children were born here. 

He wrote many of his best poems here and his sister Dorothy wrote her Grasmere journal which would also become famous. 

It was a really cozy place. 

Wordsworth's letter making him the Poet Laureate in 1843.

After exploring the inside of the cottage, we explored the garden.

At this point we went back to the car and began to make our way toward Scotland where we were going to visit Hadrian's Wall and the border. 

But the road we were going to take was closed because of recent flooding. 

We were disappointed but decided to drive back toward Bowness-on-Windermere to our B&B. 

The other routes would have taken a lot longer and we just weren't sure we would have the time. 

The drive was beautiful.

 

As we got closer to our town, we pulled over to an overlook of Lake Windermere and enjoyed the view for a while. 

We settled back into our room and then walked down the road looking for a place for dinner. 

We decided on Rastelli's. 

It was a nice little Italian place.

We ordered garlic bread that came looking like a pizza and a pepperoni pizza.

We enjoyed it. 

After dinner we went back to our room and had a nice evening of reading. 

This was one of our favorite days!

At Dove Cottage I bought this really cute illustrated version of some of William Wordsworth's poetry.

Europe Adventure: Day Seven, Part One- Hill Top Farm

We woke up on Monday, April 11th full of expectations. 

I was worried as today would be one of the things I was MOST looking forward to. 

We had pre-ordered breakfast at our B&B (they leave a paper in your room to do that) and we did not do a good job of it. I ordered poached eggs thinking they were fried eggs (duh) so they were so runny I couldn't eat them. My mom ordered salmon thinking it was cooked salmon. It was raw. Yeah, we felt extremely picky this morning as neither of us could finish our food. I wish I had a picture of it but I don't. It was completely our fault and I have no doubts that if we would have ordered something else we would have loved it. We had some toast and fruit and then grabbed some Zone bars from our room on our way out afterward.

We decided to take the small car ferry across Lake Windermere (only a few pounds) to Far Sawrey. 

It was pretty fun. It was a short ride but cool to ride across the lake. 

 

At Far Sawrey we drove off the ferry and made our way to Near Sawrey to visit Hill Top Farm, the home of Beatrix Potter. 

We got there early so we sat in the car and just got more and more excited while we waited for the ticket office to open. 

When it finally did open we were only behind one family that got there while we were waiting and stood in the rain by the ticket office until it opened - we didn't want to do that. It was quite cold. 

We were able to get a 10am tour time. 

You walk down the street from the parking lot to get to the entrance for Hill Top Farm. 

It was a wonderful walk. 

So beautiful and so peaceful. 

At this point my worries started to fade away. It was no where near as crowded and it was so quiet. Just what I imagined it would be like. 

I've always thought sheep were cute... but after this trip I love them. 

Sheep, like daffodils, were everywhere in England. 

On our way down the road we passed the Tower Bank Arms. It makes an appearance in Jemima Puddle Duck. 

I love that about Beatrix Potter's art. Everywhere we went here we saw scenes from her books!

I was keeping an eye out for Castle Cottage. It is where Beatrix lived after marrying William Heelis. It is across some fields from Hill Top. 

I found it!

the little babies...

Soon we walked through a little gate to the pathway past the gift shop and up to the house. 

We were so excited!

We couldn't believe we were here!

We went right in and explored this wonderful house. 

I couldn't take pictures inside unfortunately so I will just have to say we loved it. 

This house had a special feeling in it. 

It felt happy. It felt calm. It was amazing. You could feel her there.

We were able to see so many of her cool things and the spots she painted into her books. 

There was a wonderful doll house that some children were playing with. 

It was just a fantastic experience. 

After touring the home we spent some time in the garden and took more pictures of the outside.

I took the bag I got for my birthday the year before with me to use this day. 

I had to get a picture of it in the garden. 

The gift shop was small but so much fun and I bought a lot there!

I got the two postcards to frame and put on my book shelf next to my Beatrix Potter books. 

I got a Peter figurine and a Mrs. Tiggy Winkle figurine to match them. They look great on my shelves!

I also got a little Lilliput Lane figurine of Hill Top itself. 

I bought a pencil for each of my daughters- blue for Maddy, pink for Abi.

And I also got a leather bookmark. 

We started out the day worried but were quickly so calm and happy. 

This experience was exactly what I needed at this moment. 

We went on to have such a wonderful day which I will write about more in the next post. 

Hill Top Farm is still one of the best things we did on our trip. 

I will always love this place. 

Next up: Grasmere