wimbledon—coniston

We hit the disadvantages of travelling budget today, especially during school half-term break. We were on one of Richard Branson's Virgin trains for the first time, having booked return tickets for £32 each—a tremendous bargain for the 500 mile journey in a country where travel by rail is notoriously expensive. Unfortunately, they had massively oversold the trip. There were literally fewer seats available on the train than people, even after they finally “decomissioned” first class, allowing anyone to sit in that exclusive and nearly empty area. There were (other) people standing for most of the 3.5 hour journey.

Maybe the title for this entry should be: Wimbledon to Vauxhall to London Euston to (delayed departure) to Oxenholme Lake District to (missed connection) to Windermere to only part of the way to Coniston to (bus gearbox failure) to (unexpectedly) Ambleside to (a new bus) to Coniston. Which is why, wherever possible, we like to begin our travels in the morning.

We finally arrived at the Beech Tree Guest House at about 5pm, caught in a downpour in the short walk from the bus stop to the B&B that rendered us sodden, particularly after we tripled the length of the walk with a wrong turn. This allowed us to see a little more of Coniston (pop. 1000) than was strictly necessary at that precipitatious moment.

Dinner located at a local cafe after appropriate nesting completed. (Bronwyn decamps entire contents of her pack into well-organised drawers; Duncan plugs in iBook to charge.) Angus beef burgers, where Bronwyn's “healthy” baked potato has so much butter on it we conclude my excellent fries are probably lower in fat. Back at the B&B there is no TV in the room but craving the novelty—we do not have TV at home—we occupy the cosy lounge and channel surf till bedtime. I even let Bronwyn have the remote for half the evening. Tomorrow, the Old Man.