Across the Island!

After Alnwick (near the east coast below Scotland) we scooted across the island to get to the west coast side to the Lake district to stay at a town by the lakes called Kerswick. On the way we kept seeing signs for Hadrian's Wall (the 75 mile wall that was built in 122AD and went across the east to west of the country to defend england against Scot? or viking? invaders). Eventually we turned off to go down some obscure, windy, narrow country road to find it! And find it or a little bit we did!
After that, as we headed westward we hit the worse storm possible. Torrential rain, winds, cars and trucks going really slow with lights on! We kept thinking what the hell have we come too? It lasted for an hour before we got to Keswick, but was getting worse and worse in that time. Luckily we found our hotel quickly, parked up and by the time we got our bags out we were saturated. Once we were settled we then had to go out to find a pub for a meal - once again in pouring rain. We literally ran through the storm, into a pub that was warm and full of wet people! (and wet dogs too! they let dogs into pubs -even wet ones!)We were offered a seat at a table by two Australians, and then proceeded to have a lovely 2 hours chatting and drinking and eating. Just what pubs should be like! (forget the race back to the hotel in the pouring rain tho! yuck!)
the Lake District is suppossed to be one of the loveliest scenic places in England. Unfortunately we couldn't tell because all the moountains and lakes were covered in cloud and rain.
Today we woke up to cloud, mist but no rain. So we decided to go for a 3 hour car ride around lakes, down narrow roads, over hills etc to see the countryside. This is the place app. to sail on lakes, hike over the fells etc. We saw lots of water on the road, constantly going through huge puddles coming off the hills and onto the road. there are no gutters or ditches anywhere. I kept thinking we should be in a boat! Some were very deep, I thought the water would go through the door. Luckily the car kept on going. Down the hills were waterfalls and streams and rivers were flooding. We found out later our little storm in North East England made the headline news for flooding, and our town recorded the second highest rainfall over 24 hours!100mm. No wonder there was water everywhere! funnily enough it didn't stop the hikers from tramping all over the fields and tracks - all dressed up for the weather. Stupid I said! but it was in the weekend.
Anyway on the way back we found William Wordsworth's museum and cottage from when he was based around here - (he wrote a poem about Daffodils remember?)and then Beatrice Potter cottage so she must have been around here too.
We stopped at a sign that said Castle ring of stones, so we thought, can't be Stonehenge (wrong end of the country!) let's check it out. Check out the freezing look of pain on my face, wind-blown hair and the mountains in the background (can you see them?) the stones were spooky, set in a field high on a hill overlooking the lake and mountains, and were from the Druid age they think. I kept thinking of the stones in the 'Cross stitch' series of books so was a bit wary of going through them.
I think the scenic area of England sucks quite frankly! I'd rather have our own lakes and mountains!