Day 13 - More of the Lake District, a High Mountain Pass, a Castle, and a Really Delicious Meal

Today we started off the village of Grasmere.  This is not only home to the famous poet, William Wordsworth, but also Grasmere Gingerbread.  We visited the churchyard to view the exquiste architecture of the old church and Wordsworth's gravesite.  We discovered that John is quite the reciter of one of his favorite poet's work.

And of course we had to buy some gingerbread.  Made and sold ONLY here.  Delicious!!!!!

It appears the family was quite progressive...refreshing!

The village is small and full of quaint hotels, inn, B&Bs, shops and cafes.

Do you know the White Swan?

From Grasmere John took us on a beautiful drive through the hills.  Our destination was Muncaster Castle...but there was a bit of a "hill" to conquer.

Many wonderful farms and inns along the way...and many very NARROW lanes to drive.

Meaning "lots of trees overhead."

And then the really interesting part began.

The highest pass in the UK.  One lane and very busy.  This made pulling over on the shoulder to allow another to pass quite an experience.

At the top we found the ruins of a Roman fort.

Uh, then it was down...yikes!

We reached Muncaster Castle and its fabulous gardens.

The Fairy Trail.

There's certainly a story here in so many ways.

Fabulous building dating back to 1209 and in the same family to this day.  Very Downtown Abbey.

And then a special treat...the flying bird exhibition.

We headed back to the car park enjoyed more views of the mansion.

John treated us to a traditional pub dinner in the village of Broughton.  The name of the pub set the mood for the rest of the evening.

 Really delicious meal.