After two days of intensive hiking, we thought we would take some time out, give the old legs a bit of a rest. We sauntered down to England's largest natural lake, Lake Windermere (although please note that mere itself means lake, as it does in Grasmere), and caught a ferry across to Lakeside. The weather turned out nice after an early tantrum of rain as you can see above.
From Lakeside we hopped on the Lakeside & Haverthwaite Railway which, as far as I am aware, does not really take you anyplace special. So we enjoyed our chuff-chuff steam journey in one of the old train's private cabins and then stayed put for the return journey. We wandered around Fell Foot Country Park on the opposite side of the lake but got rather bored (a well-managed park cannot compete with a raw hike).
Getting back to Ambleside, we made a beeline for the Novel Cafe that was nestled in the Ambleside Artists' Courtyard just a few doors down from our hotel. Practically every wall was obscured by books. The coffee, I have to say again, was pretty good. Aki, with piqued curiosity, popped into the pottery shop at the end of courtyard, made friends with an Alsatian called Cleo and made a small purchase.