Five Countries Four Marlboroughs: A day in the beautiful Lakes District and back to the Castle

After breaky, we hit the road for a day out in the Lakes District. First up I had a surprise for Terry – a trip down memory lane with a visit to the Lakeland Motor Museum in scenic Leven Valley. With over 30,000 exhibits including 140 classic cars and motorbikes, Terry was in heaven. Or as he joked, his ‘PC World’ (The kids still think that PC World was the best place on the trip – they are staying with you next time mum!)

Terry slowly walked along, absorbing and loving every second he was there – he could have stayed all day. The kids strolled through and made it to the end in less than a minute. I then worked out there was an upstairs level so I took the kids up to give Terry some time to drool by himself.

We found some old style pinball style games that were over 50 years old. Car games where you had to wind the wheels to race each other and a marble maze. For 20p you could have a turn and if you managed to get the marble from one end to ‘Home’ without getting ‘Lost’ you would get back your 20p. Quickly the boys mastered the marble game and James worked out that sometimes you would get 40p or even 60p out instead of 20p. In the end I had to drag him away – he was in it to win it and make a profit!

We then got to see Donald Campbells Bluebird exhibition– ok, so I hadn’t heard of him – but we watched a short film and I had my chance to learn about his passion and dreams of breaking land and water speed records. We saw the actual Blue Bird car, Blue Bird Boat K4 and a replica of the 1967 jet hydroplane Bluebird K7 that Donald was killed in.

Dragging Terry kicking and screaming back into the car, we made out way to Bowness-On-Windamere. We drove for miles under the beautiful, green, arched canopies of the tree lined country roads, complemented with perfect stone walls. And the houses – some of the houses can only be described as castles or mansions!

Bowness-On-Windamere was a small touristy town set over looking the Lake Windermere. Once we arrived, we thought it was a bit too windy for a cruise on the lake so we opted for a walk around the town and had lunch. The sun was out and one crazy couple had T-shirts and shorts on – it was freezing, we were rugged up and Terry had his beanie on!

We continued our drive on to Keswick for coffee and cake, and had a stroll by Derwent Waters. We then made a short detour to Castlerigg Stone Circle, an ancient stone circle probably built around 3000BC during the Neolithic Period. There were 38 stones in a circle of approximately 30 metres and it is one of the earliest stone circles in Britain.

Knowing the light was quickly starting to fade, we made our back to the castle. As we drove through the tree lined path leading to the castle, we found a pair of little red squirrels happily harvesting their acorns. A big day out in the Lakes District and we only just touched the surface