Day 7: The Lake District, Hawkshead, and Beatrix Potter's Home

Today was the day for our Lake District tour. It started out on the tube, where all great adventures take place. We took the tube to Euston station, where we were set to meet a representative of our tour company. We found her and she explained all the particulars we needed to know. Most importantly we needed to be sure to get off at Oxenholme station, where we would meet our guide for the day. So, with a good half hour before our train was set to leave, we got some breakfast and waited in the cafe for our train to arrive.  I got some water at the store there, and he cashier guy was Polish and was consequently rather hard to understand. Once he figured out that I was an American, he asked the obligatory question that I find they like to throw at you here: 
"Nice weather we have been having, eh?" 
It is a theory of mine, due to the amount of times i have been asked this after my foreign-ness has been revealed, that they ask you this question as a test to see what you will say, as a sort of joke. You are supposed to look surprised and dumbly say, 
"It's foggy and 43 degrees, that's NICE? I usually say, "Yes,  very nice for London!

When we were getting our tickets punched, the two workers that were punching them were standing back to back. They obviously had some sort of mock rivalry going on, because one of them poked the other just for fun. He jumped so bad, and it was amusing to hear him exclaim, with a thick accent:  "Good lord, George! Stop it or i'll see you reassigned!" 
This led me to form a conclusion: things are ten times funnier when said with a British accent, and facts and opinions automatically become 20 times more smart sounding and interesting. Just a rough estimate.

The countryside going by was just as lovely as it had been on the way to Edinburgh! Lots of sheep, idyllic pastures and rolling green hills. We even passed some rugby fields and football fields too. They also have the biggest elderberry trees I have ever seen before!  It's funny how that in the rural parts of the States when you are riding around, the most interesting thing you could see would be a horse. Kids might say," Look mom, a horsey!" Here, it's "Look mom, a cathedral" or "Look mom, the ruins of a 11th century castle." The scenery here is always stunning.

We passed through the following towns: Wallington, Wigam North West, Preston, Lancaster, and finally Oxenholm, our stop.

When our train pulled into the station we looked and looked for our guide and could not locate him after searching the whole of the tiny station. We opted to wait a bit longer until attempting to contact the agency to give the benefit of the doubt to traffic or other uncontrollable hindrances. After a half hour we contacted Victoria's Father who had the agency's number. He took care of contacting them for us to see what's up. While we waited we made friends with the kind stationmaster who told us it was very unusual for them not to be here waiting on their people. He was very nice and kept checking on us to make sure we were making progress on contacting the agency. Just before he walked away, he said "We'll, I hope to goodness that I don't see you still waiting here when I go on duty in the mornin'."  We also made friends with the coffee guy, with whom we passed around 25 minutes talking about everything under the sun.

We heard back from Mr. Stringer and he was happy to report they had a taxi coming for us. Apparently, there was a mistake on the booking agency's side causing them to not get our reservations. The Cabbie came and turned out to be a young Russian guy that was a bit hard to understand. All I know is how to say hello in that language and it took me weeks to get the pronunciation. We eventually arrived at the tour office, where they said that they could still work us into their schedule.
The tour would be essentially the same, minus a few details. 
"And, as we discussed, it will be in Japanese."
Wha?
Apparently, the only tour available that afternoon would be with a Japanese couple and their guide. We thought we'd go with it. After all, we didn't ride the train for 3 hours for nothing!

We ate lunch at a cafe in the town and it was very good. I got a smoked salmon quiche with veggies and chips (French fries, I consistently betray my american-ness when I refer to them as fries instead of chips!)

At the appointed time we piled in the minivan with the Japanese couple, their guide, and our driver, a very British gent with a little dog that rides along with his paws on the dashboard.

We began our trip heading towards Hawkshead, an old  11th century Medieval town that had an old chapel and graveyard hundreds of years old. It was a delightful little town, and I especially enjoyed the chapel and the stained glass. We also stopped by a little bookshop, where to my delight we heard older lady's accent that sounded precisely like Mrs. Medlock from the Focus on the Family Radio Theatre radio drama, the Secret Garden. If you've heard that, you know exactly what I am talking about. If not, sorry. It was cool!

Next we began our drive to Hilltop, Beatrix Potter's home. At this point I deemed it a good idea to recorded some of the tour guide speaking in Japanese just for later enjoyment and hilarity. However, you don't need a recording to hear what it sounded like. (best  when read rather fast for full effect.)

"Bi ja mi hano ipe mi do ha de Jemima Puddle Duck ja bi ki lama po no ha!"

"Hai Lu knichi Rama du ge is ra Jeremy Fisher no ga chi to ra ma."

Mercifully, the driver did not leave us completely in the dark. He would tell us things when their guide was done talking. Very nice of him! He also would tell us stories and antedoctes and would then say, 
"Now, tell your Japanese people that! 
She would smile and try to recreate in Japanese the complicated story of him leaving his wife and niece in the forest by accident, or how the red squirrels are finally repopulating the district.

The roads were so incredibly narrow that I can't imagine the nightmare it must be for local drivers. It would be like going up someone's one lane driveway all the time, praying no one is coming down it!

Hilltop was absolutely picturesque! The house was neat too. When Beatrix realized that people may want to visit her house one day, she left specific instructions on how things should look and where things should be placed. Hence, the house looked exactly as she would have liked it to. It was also fantastic to see some of the views that she painted for her books! 

Afterwards we made a few more photo op stops The landscape is breathtaking! The hills remind me of a bright green quilt, outlined in gray-green and draped over some hills. The thing that may have amazed me more than the landscape were the rock fences. They stretch, unbroken, for miles over the green grass that nourishes the sheep that make the wool or the dinner. I mean, can you imagine building them? It would be like making a 3-d jigsaw puzzle out of ROCKS for miles upon miles, and then having them strong enough to withstand the elements. Amazing!

At the conclusion of our tour we were ferried back to our station to catch the 5:30 train back to Euston station. This train ride was boring (normal) and ridden in non-ghetto style, in assigned seats. Rather uneventful. Along with the underground, trains seem to be the veins and arteries of London and greater Britain. I would venture to say that they have train travel down to a science.  We got back to the station and ran a quick errand 

British-Isims-

Some train drivers have a great sense of humor, but you have to listen closely: "Please take all your personal effects with you, your ipod, briefcase, luggage.... any small children you might see running around." 

"Dodgy" = unpredictable or currently out of order. As used today by the announcer on the train "Due to a dodgy Coffee machine, we are unable to make any drinks at this time."

My debit card has a picture of me on it for identification purposes. Apparently, that's never done here. As the old lady at the cafe said today, holding it and looking at it in wonder: "Why, it's got your picture on it, doesn't it! Handy, that! We don't have that here at all!" 

One popular food item is "Jacket Potatoes," which is basically a baked potato filled with whatever you like. A good deal, for sure. Took me a while to figure out what they were!

This one might be obvious, but football (soccer for us yanks) is extremely popular and is talked about all the time. Today I overheard a lot of guys talking about some big game with Liverpool that went down last night.

Most flats in our area have a quick turnaround, so new people are in and out all the time. The crazy British country folks have appeared to have left #3, and now our new Chinese flatmates have taken up the gauntlet and they too are singing (very badly, I might add) to Wake Me Up by Avicii. 

P.S I know there is a strange white highlighting behind some of the paragraphs. This is due to my writing those paragraphs on the train on notepad. Can't get rid of it! :)