The Daily Diary of a Wandering Restaurateur
The Road to the Lakes

Traveling is a wonderful thing. Packing and repacking ... not so much. The only good news in moving about is that you can pack a lot less carefully when you just have to lob everything into a car and drive away. Today is the last time we can be quite so cavalier about the amount of "stuff" we lug about as we're just going a bit north to another rental cottage. After that, we first stay with some host members of the Affordable Travel Club, then drop the car and take the underground into London.

Somehow it seems that the debris we are lugging about has increased in the last week, although all we've really added is some basic kitchen items (paper towels, some condiments, bread and such), all of which we will likely leave in the cottage when we go. We managed to come over with all carry-on luggage but we're seriously thinking about checking the larger bags for the trip home and traveling a little lighter. It would also let us bring home what's left of the "magic water" from the Chalice Well. There may be end-of-season sales in the Lake District since the economy is driven largely by tourism. Perhaps we'll find a deal on another (bigger) bag, just toss everything in there and check it!

But for today, pack and travel we must. Our last stop before leaving Wales was to check out Conwy Castle, one of the largest (and certainly the closest) to our temporary home in Colwyn Bay. We stopped in a local tea room for coffee, wandered around the small town a bit, then pointed ourselves north toward the shire of Cumbria in northwest England, an area known as the Lake District.

Our last rental house on this trip will be in the southern lakes district in a small Victorian town called Ambleside. Housing development in the area really took off in the early 19th century when the railway was extended into the lakes, making it accessible for holiday travelers. Summer is the obvious peak season, with smaller surges around fall and spring holidays. One worker I spoke with said that in January and February it is a total ghost town.

Not surprisingly, the town of Conwy is dominated by Conwy Castle, another shell of a building with too much climbing for us. It does have an active harbor and I can imagine it is packed in the summer. Along the seafront is the smallest house in the UK ... and it seemed to have a steady flow of visitors, each paying a pound to take a look. Yesterday we saw a bar in Caernarfon advertised as the smallest pub in Wales. It reminded me of the value of being able to claim a unique position in the market. Being the smallest or largest or oldest gives potential patrons a reason to check you out.

Blue Hill Cottage in Ambleside is our last rental house of the trip. It's one of several small distinct units in a larger building. If it was intentionally built this way, it would be like early condos, but it could just be additions over the years. It is certainly the coziest space we've stayed in on this trip but has a certain comfortable charm. The bedrooms and bath are on the second floor and with barely enough room for a steep staircase, the meeting of stairs and rooms is unique. As you look down the stairs from the second (twin bedded) room, the bath is to the left and the main bedroom is to the right. Watch that first step -- it's a doozie! There are grab bars on both corners to help you make the leap with less risk of taking a header!

The little village of Ambleside is starting to empty out after the summer. I borrowed the middle picture because it gave a decent flavor of the downtown area but it was obviously shot during the warmer months. Right now things look more like the first photo!

Margene and I needed our pizza fix and it appeared that Zeffirelli's was not only the best (perhaps the only) pizza in town, but also had a reputation as one of the areas best restaurants. What was more surprising to me is that the whole place also happens to be vegetarian. Italian vegetarian ... now there's a new niche.

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