E-Mails from Europe

June 28, The Lake District

Derwent Water

Hi, everyone!

My first e-mail from other parts of the world!

I made it with no problems to the Lake District, except the exhaustion of traveling for 24 hours! And except the trains were not running for "engineering" reasons which means fixing the tracks. That was a little dicey since I was so tired.

Ambleside is situated in a beautiful spot and I have a view of the hills from my window at the Salutation Hotel which Margaret stayed at 32 years ago. I did have a nice view but decided to upgrade to a bigger room and it is splendid! I joined up with a guided hike on Monday afternoon after sleeping easily all morning which is the middle of the night in Denver.

Salutation Hotel

Hotel room at the Salutation Hotel

View from the window

Tuesday I walked to the next town, Grasmere, and saw two of Wordsworth's three houses and his gardens. The walk was around two lakes. The one called Rydal Water inspired Wordsworth and I can see why as it was very lovely.

Since I overdid it with the walking yesterday, today I am taking a boat on Lake Windermere and going to another town. The weather has been agreeable and the walks fun.

Windermere

Pastoral Scene

I'll be going to London Friday for my conference and then on to Paris on July 6th and then to Chamonix on July 10th. Jim will be joining me in Paris and we will have 9 days to hike and walk in the French and Swiss alps. Then on to Amsterdam on the 20th and home on the 23rd of July.

I found this Internet connection at the youth hostel. No telling where I will find one in London. Maybe they will have one at the convention.

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Garden on the street in Ambleside

Bridge House in Ambleside

Until next time,

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/    \^^^/   \***/   \^^^/    \***/    \
Roz Dudden and Jim Mills
From our hotmail.com e-mail address while traveling abroad!
Accessed irregularly from mountain tops and cafes
in England, France and Switzerland.
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Jun 30, London

Hi, everyone!

I'm now in London at an Internet Cafe. It has about 100 computers, rock music and a coffee bar that serves instant Nescafe, not Starbucks, but you can take your coffee to the terminal!

My days in the Lake District were relaxing and I got about 5 walks in. I went to Bowness by boat and to Keswick by bus. At Keswick, I didn't have enough energy to walk the 7 miles out and back to see the neolithic stone circle so I took a taxi out and walked 3 miles back to town. The views have been beautiful and the walks pleasant. My favorite lake was Rydal Water which was less developed than the others and only had ducks and swans on it.

Castlerigg Stone Circle

Slate Slab Fence by the path

The Lake District is a favorite holiday destination for the British and all other foreign visitors so there were plenty of tourist on the streets. The stores all close at 6 and the restaurants at 9 so it early to bed to go walking the next day. Out on the paths there were not so many people. In Keswick, I also went to a pencil museum. The pencil as we know it today was invented in Keswick in the 16th century!

Roz in the rain near the Castlerigg Stone Circle

  /\        /\   *   /\        /\    *   /\
/    \^^^/   \***/   \^^^/    \***/    \
Roz Dudden and Jim Mills
From our hotmail.com e-mail address while traveling abroad!
Accessed irregularly from mountain tops and cafes
in England, France and Switzerland.
^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\