Winsome Windermere

I don’t yet definitively know if Windermere fully qualifies as winsome. I’ve only been here for half a day. But I’m in Windermere, and “Winsome Windermere” is alliterative, so “Winsome Windermere” it is.

I will say that my initial impressions are that it is at least largely delightful, but I reserve judgment in case it scores any negative points during my stay.

I arrived here a little after noon, after spending just shy of a week in Edinburgh visiting a dear, much-loved (by me and others) relative. I say that not just because she reads this journal, but because it’s true.

I don’t usually journalize visits with friends and relatives, so you won’t find any pages on that time here. If you are looking for words about Edinburgh that you can waste your time reading, you can click here to visit pages journalizing a previous, strictly tourism visit to Edinburgh of mine.

Despite not writing about Edinburgh on this trip, there are a couple of towns and a couple of sights that the guidebooks tend not to mention, but that are easy trips from Edinburgh. I’ll mention them here to remind myself of them and to highly recommend them.

The two sights that are near Edinburgh (and may even be part of Edinburgh, as far as I know) are Craigmillar Castle and Dr. Neil’s Garden. Craigmillar Castle is an evocative, largely intact castle ruin. Dr. Neil’s Garden is a lovely landscaped area on the side of a loch. (Oh, yes, I can also highly recommend the Edinburgh Botanical Garden, but you probably will find that in most of the guidebooks.)

The two towns I visited are both seaside, both charming, and both have spectacular seaside walks: North Berwick and Dunbar. Getting to either involves a short train ride from Edinburgh.

I wouldn’t have known about those sites or towns had it not been for my relative. She guided me to and through the towns. I took in Craigmillar Castle and Dr. Neil’s Garden on my own, but at her suggestion. So I thank her very much for all of that. They were all terrific. If she ever becomes a tour guide professionally, add a five-star review to her online listing.

Windermere

But enough about that. That is to say, it’s not enough about Edinburgh because Edinburgh is fantastic, but it will have to do for this post. The point is, this is about Windermere, England.

Except for the on-and-off rain I experienced this afternoon, it is charming.

I planned to walk from the train station to my hotel. I seemed to recall when I checked it before arriving in Windermere that the walk should take a little more than twenty minutes.

It wasn’t raining when my train arrived at the station. I pulled out my phone to get the route to my hotel. My cell service kept going on and off, and didn’t stay on long enough for me to open up a local map in either Apple Maps or Google Maps.

There was some wifi from a local mobile phone company, but it required me to receive a code via text message to access it. The message didn’t arrive despite two attempts. Then the rain started.

Fortunately, a few taxis waited eagerly for passengers at the station. This resolved the mutual problems of not wanting to walk with my suitcase in the then-heavy rain and not having any idea as to what direction I should be walking in.

It’s a conspiracy by Big Taxi to drum up business, I tell ya. First, they block reliable cell service at the train station. Then, they seed the rain clouds so people have no rational choice but to hire a cab. It should be against the law. Someone desperately needs to investigate this, preferably someone who currently has an empty shell of a life and nothing else the least bit productive to do.

When the taxi arrived at my hotel, the rain had stopped, and I had full cell service. Of course. They no longer needed to entice me into a taxi. My hotel also has Wi-Fi. I used that to download an offline Windermere map into Apple Maps in case I run into another cell emergency while I’m here.

Windermere by Foot and Boat

Windermere, the town, is on Windermere, the lake, in England’s Lake District. It’s nestled in some mountains, some of which are not much more than tall hills, but some are indeed low mountains. It’s all very lovely.

After lunch, I took a walk down from the cafe, which is a piece up on the same hill as my hotel, down to the lake. The scenery is quite lush. Until I got close to the lake, I walked through residential areas. Housing types included row houses, semi-detached homes, and fully detached houses. Most of them were two or three storeys tall. And, in that part of town, I didn’t spot any structures taller than three storeys.

I should interject that Windermere has an immediately adjacent town, Bowness-on-Windermere, often shortened to just Bowness. I don’t know where one begins and the other ends. Unless I know for sure it’s Bowness, I’ll call everything Windermere. Sometimes, that will be a mistake. Sorry about that.

Windermere’s quaint commercial district is close to the lake. I don’t know where its ugly commercial district is. It might not have one.

After walking around a bit, I bought a ticket for a 45-minute boat trip around the lake. When I bought the ticket, it wasn’t raining. While waiting on the pier to board the boat, it started drizzling. By the time I got on the boat, it was raining full-on.

The boat has two decks, an open one up top and a fully enclosed one with large windows below that. I, and pretty much everyone else, stayed inside. After we had been out on the lake for a while, the rain stopped, and I went to the upper deck so I wouldn’t have to take in the views through rain-speckled windows. The boat company had graciously provided a single, communal facecloth to be used to wipe the water off the seats.

The lake is gorgeous. There are a few islands in it, all of which are verdant. Only one has any inhabitants on it.

The mountainous/high, hilly shores are also lush, with some structures scattered here and there. There was a commentary on the boat that described the lake, some facts and figures about it, and some of its history. All I sort of vaguely remember is that the tallest of the mountains around the lake is two or three thousand feet or so tall (I forget) and has a name that I’ve forgotten. You’re welcome.

After the boat tour, I walked around a little more before heading back to my hotel. It made for a very enjoyable afternoon.

I’m in Windermere for four nights, which translates into another three full days. Here’s a bit of a spoiler for that time: Rain, boat trips, and boat trips in the rain will probably be recurring themes. That’s based on what’s available to do here and the weather forecasts. Weather forecasts have been known to be wrong. And I haven’t made any certain plans. So, it might turn out not to be a spoiler, but rather misinformation. We’ll see, dear.