The Daily Diary of a Wandering Restaurateur
The Lake District

Basically, we did little or nothing today. We are travelers, not tourists, and our idea of getting away is not always to be on the go, guide books in hand, seeing all there is to see through the lens finder of a camera. But since you've come here looking for some sort of a tale, I'll do my best to accommodate.

One of the great conveniences of a rental house or apartment is the ability to do laundry. It lets you pack lighter, travel fresher and generally avoid many of the inconveniences of an extended trip. Sometimes, though, it doesn't seem like quite as much of a good thing ... like today. The operation of European washing machines does not seem to be an intuitive act for the American mind.

This is the last place on the trip we'll be able to do a load of wash without taking it to a commercial laundry, so this morning, Margene diligently read the instructions on how to operate the washing machine, popped in a load of laundry and pushed the magic button. Six hours later we finally had clean clothes!

In between, I had opened the door when the "End" light came on, promptly dumping soapy water on the kitchen floor and apparently interrupting some cycle or another. Margene tried something else which didn't work either ... until it suddenly did! All's well that ends well, though. Chalk it up to the old learning curve.

We hung the laundry to dry (clothes dryers are not that common in Europe) and headed off to see a bit of the area, driving a short way south from Ambleside to Windermere along the lake just to see what was there. The drive was pleasant but being a weekend the traffic was heavier than we're used to seeing.

Our first stop was in Windermere. I found a wine shop with a small but interesting selection and picked up a bottle of Primativo (Italian Zinfandel) to take to our first ATC hostess on Monday. She's preparing dinner for us the night we arrive and I wanted to contribute something a little better than the standard supermarket selections. We did a bit of minor grocery shopping (more soap for the second load of laundry) and after a quick amble around town, headed back to Ambleside.

Windermere had some interesting architecture and there were a fair number of people on the street, but for some reason it didn't strike either of us as a place we'd feel comfortable for any extended period. I was surprised that the selection of shops was so much different than what we had in our little village. Beautiful downtown Windermere tended more toward art galleries while Ambleside leans heavily in the direction of outdoors shops and sporting goods. The two towns are less than five miles apart but apparently appeal to radically different markets.

The Lake District still has a quiet rural air to it -- small 19th century stone villages, grazing sheep, that gorgeous lake and the occasional surprise sunset. The weather has been overcast with, as we say in Seattle, "occasional sun breaks." No rain, though. Gotta love that.

We had no real plans for dinner, except that it would be our main meal today and that we should probably eat before heading back to the house or we likely would never get out at all. We looked at a few menus on the street (posting menus is a very civilized idea) but nothing sounded that intriguing. Finally we just went for pub grub at the Ambleside Tavern, the only real pub we've found in town. I went for the steak and ale pie and a pint of San Miguel, Margene tried a bacon roll and a glass of Foster's. It was fairly typical tavern fare but it was just what I needed. Then it was back to the cottage for Margene to attack that second load of laundry (much easier once she got the machine figured out!) and a chance for me to finally get current with all my trip reports.

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