The Lake District, Sunday

Today was Rachel and mine's last day in the Lake District. Our plan for the day was to go to eat at a cute restaurant for brunch, and then visit a castle before catching our train back to Oxford. It was quite an adventure-the bus system does not run very frequently on Sundays.

First we had brunch in Windermere and wandered around the town since nothing opened until noon. Then we started our adventure. We took a bus to Kendal and then had to change our bus because on Sundays the buses do not run the full route. One bus runs half the route and then another bus runs the other half. We  had to wait an hour and then caught our bus for the Sizergh Castle. So we ask the driver to let us off at Sizergh Castle, and he does, sorta. The bus stop is on the side of a four line highway. That apparently we need to cross because we see a sign pointing to the Castle down another road. After playing Frogger and dodging the cars, we started walking down the road and admiring the cows. Eventually we made it to the castle (I was pretty positive we wouldn't make it there before we needed to go back and catch our bus). The best part of walking to that Castle was everyone in their cars that stared at us as they drove past. What can I say, I must have looked like a crazy backpacker (I did and it was REALLY hot).

The Castle was wonderful even if we didn't have that much time. We could only go in part of it because the owner lives in the other wings. At the cafe in the castle we were able to buy the famous Kendal Mint Cake we read about. By the way, it's not cake. It is an energy bar that early English explorers took to the Antarctic or up Mount Everest. It is only sugar, oil of peppermint and water. Literally just sugar. We still bought it to try and brought some home to share. It tasted pretty good-like a peppermint candy-but I would not want to eat a whole bar. It would make you sick and really hyper.

After the Castle we wandered out to a bus stop on the other side of the street. We weren't sure if the bus was actually going to come pick us up, but it did (whew!). We then took it back to Kendal and caught out train from the Kendal bus station. And then we had an uneventful journey back home. In Birmingham we actually met up with some of the guys from UGA who went to Edinburgh, so we rode the rest of way with them.

I would totally recommend visiting the Lake District if you ever end up in England. See more pictures below:

Road to the castle

There are some cows

Sizergh Castle

Kendal Mint Cake

Our bus stop