Europe 2015: Our Bad

The Lakes District is the "home" of Helen Beatrix Potter the famed children's story writer and we were interested to visit her residence.

When we drove into the area yesterday we saw a directional sign pointing to the Beatrix Potter Attraction & therefore noted where we would have to go today.

After breakfast we duly set off back towards Windermere where we had seen the sign knowing from our reading that tickets to her home sold out quickly for the day.

Arriving at Bowness we quickly parked the car, paid the £4.00 parking fee and went to the venue only to note it didn't open for another 15 mins and there was no queue - this started us thinking that we had come to the wrong location so strode off to the Information Centre.

The helpful attendant confirmed our fears - we were in the wrong area and that her home was across the lake at Near Sawrey and was a 45 min drive back to Ambleside and around the western side of the lake.

He suggested an alternative which was to drive a further 1 mile down the road and take the car ferry which crossed the lake every 20 mins and was then only a 10 min drive to Near Sawrey.

As we arrived at the ferry it was almost ready to leave and we were the last car on and over the lake we went at what I thought was a reasonable cost of £4.40.

The short drive to Hilltop as her home is known was through a rather narrow country lane but the scenery was superb.

We arrived, parked the car & went to the ticket office to find, luckily, that we could obtain an entry in 15 mins.

The entry to the property is dominated by a rather attractive garden with the house sitting up the slope, hence Hilltop

The house which was built in the 1600s was gifted to the National Trust by Potter when she died in 1943 - included in her gift were over 4000 acres she had accumulated in her lifetime.

Her will stressed that the house was not to be turned into a museum but was to remain as it was during her lifetime and was to have fresh flowers and a fire everyday.

Photography within the house is not permitted but I managed to take few shots

The house has a very realistic homely feeling about it and there are various of the books written by Potter open at pages where the illustration on those pages are of aspects or contents in the house - so you can look at the illustration and then look around that room and see the actual scene that has been illustrated.

After our visit it was back to the ferry, cross the lake and then a short drive to Windermere another of the delightful villages that make up this area

After a couple of hours walking around the town we drove back to our accommodation in Ambleside, had a quick cup of coffee and then went out walking in a back country lane nearby.

Again the scenery was superb