Beatrix Potter's Cottage. It's small garden is so appealing. I thought as if Peter Rabbit run out of there.
If you visit the Lake District, I highly recommend a visit.

How to go
<train>Catch the train from Euston, London, to Oxenholme(about 3 hours). Then, change to the local train to Windermere(20 minutes). Or take a direct train from Manchester Airport. It'll take 2 and a half hours.
<bus>It takes about 7 hours from Victoria coach station.
<In my case>on my first trip : I took the train to Oxenholme and changed to the local train ; on my second trip : I took the direct train from Manchester Airport.

The Lake District is famous for Peter Rabbit. I had wanted to visit the cottage of Beatrix Potter, Peter's inventor, for sometime. However, we can't go there directly, in other words, we have to change trains, so I gave up to visit a few times. It was the 5th time of visition England that I went to the Lake District for the first time. We changed trains on Oxenholme station, but the train connection wasn't good. Therefore, we arrived at Windermere later than we had expected. I thought I would arrive there in 3 hours, but although we took the eight thirty train, we arrived at the B&B at around one o'clock. The day before, I telephoned the B&B, "We'll arrive at around eleven o'clock.", so I was upset. I called again from Oxenholme, "Our arrival time will be delayed."

upper left : We walked from the B&B near the station to the lake ; upper right : The ferry station was approaching.
lower left : the ferry which we got on to go to the opposite side of the lake; lower right : the scenery in the picture which I took from the ferry

However, we had enough time. We decided to go to Hill Top, so we walked to the Lakeside and boarded a ferry.
After we got off the ferry, on the way to Hill Top, we met 2 Japanese middle-aged women. "I think you'd better hurry up because the last ferry will go around 5 o'clock.", they said. Therefore, we rushed to Hill Top and arrived at Beatrix Potter's Cottage being completely out of breath. However, People in the cottage said laughing, "Ferries go to Lakeside untill night(about ten o'clock)." We perspired a lot because of the women who gave us a false information. But, we laughed because they advised us out of kindness.

left & the middle : We walked up a road like this ; right : a grocery in Near Sawrey

Because of that, we could save a lot of time. After seeing Beatrix Potter's Cottage, it was quite early. Therefore, we decided to walk through the field to go back to the ferry station.
"What is that?" "Maybe, it's a church."
Just when we came to the church, the sky turned very dark. Then, it began to rain. We rushed into the the Sawrey Hotel which we found by chance. We had drinks at the bar. I had a lemonade while my friend had a shandy. After we had finished our drinks, the rain had stopped. "OK, let's go back to Windermere.", I said.

The next day, we visited Ambleside first thing. At about 10:15, we took the bus from Windermere and arrived at Ambleside at 10:30. Ambleside is a really lovely town, so it is one of my favourite places. After some shopping, we had lunch at a pub.
Around 2 o'clock, we took the bus to Keswick.

upper left : the bus which we boarded from Windermere to Ambleside ; the middle : the town of Ambleside ; upper right : Bridge House which the National Trust manages ;
lower left & the middle : the town of Ambleside ;
lower right : Keswick. Comparing to Windermere and Ambleside, Keswick isn't so lovely.
Therefore, the town didn't attract us so much. We left Keswick after only a 30 minute walk.

I bought an etching in Ambleside. In that etching, we can see the back of a woman, who is looking out to the sea. The main colour is brown except the sea which is blue. The proprietor of the shop said, "Very Englsh.". I totally agreed with her.

The left picture is John Kershow's Studio Pottery.
On the last day, Akiko and I went to a small pottery which we had been attracted to since the day we had arrived at Windermere. My friend liked the pottery which he made. The colour of his pottery is mainly natural clay tones.
I travelled with her the next year. That time, we travelled in Ireland, but Akiko wanted to visit his pottery again. She said that she would even go by herself, so I agreed we go together. It was well worth the visit. The lake district is a truly lovely place and very wonderful.
Thus, our next year's travel was very exhausting. We flew from Dublin to Manchester and after that, got on a direct train to Windermere.

to the Lake District 2

(2001.11.19, 2003.2.19)

To the Top

Trip to England