Hire cars and getting about a bit

The nice Enterprise folks gave us what has to be the best Vauxhall offering that we've ever had. A new Astra with a little 1.4 litre petrol turbo engine in it. (Remember that to an old M3/ M5 / 645 addict, anything with under 6 cylinders and lots of BHP is little). Sad that GM sold Vauxhall / Opel just when they finally engineered an OK car that isn't light years behind the competition - one that might sell rather than being given away.

What did we do with the beast? Well, a trip south to the dentist for the Captain and a run up to Largs to look at Trisheen, a Nordhavn 55 that our friends Alex and Gisele are tempted to buy. The crew and Gisele looked quite at home in her cavernous saloon area:

whilst the men were grubbing around the oily bits. We had seen her at the Southampton Boat Show several years ago under her former name, underway in the Tobermory area and we were on the same pontoon in Bangor (Norn Iron) for a day. Never had a good look around to try and help a prospective buyer though! Together with Phil from Nordhavn Europe, we had an excellent dinner at the Inverkip hotel and plenty of Craic too. We even got some birthday cake courtesy of the 80 year old lady on a nearby table.

Exploring the lakes was high on the priority list. Mary and Ian who came to see us in Kinsale a couple of years ago as they were on holiday in Ireland, happened to be in the area with some friends of theirs. So, we enjoyed a most sociable day and a long walk along the cliffs to St Bees where we fell upon a very late lunch in the local cafe. The place itself was not promising:

but the homemade quiche was superb and we were all very hungry after walking 9 miles or so up and down hills in the sun.


Kendal and Grasmere were duly walked around and enjoyed (apart from the enormous slow moving queue for coffee and a toastie in Kendal when we both needed food rather urgently. The staff were slow enough to work in a Waitrose cafe.....

Cockermouth was explored and enjoyed too - lovely little riverside town and one of the places named as a UK "gem town" with wonderful old buildings and architecture. The only downside is the tendency of the place to flood thanks to the river which was in a very tranquil mood after many days with no real rain:

It is the birthplace of Wordsworth, the poet and his house is open to the public on every summer day bar Friday:

Guess which day we went to town? For fans of the Big Bang Theory on TV, John Dalton the Atomic Theory guy was born nearby. For the anarchists amongst you, it was the birthplace of Fletcher Christian, the guy who led the "Mutiny on the Bounty". For sports fans,  Ben Stokes grew up here and played for the local cricket team. For normal people, it is a lovely little town with local shops, friendly folks and a nice feel about it.

A walk around Buttermere was well worth it too. Stunning setting, pretty lake and a great mid way stop at the Bridge hotel where we discovered that a small roast turkey from the menu is still enough for more than 1 hungry person. Walking around at more or less lake level was an easy 5.5 miles with a couple of detours for a missing bridge and closed paths. Typical Lakeland scenery:

Lovely lovely area.

On the social front, the ex Captain Rae, owner of the other Nordhavn 47 in Whitehaven (Albatross) joined us for dinner / gin / whatever. Naturally, as he has been featured in this blog several times before (and not always in a totally flattering light), he wanted to meet the other star, Patrick the penguin. They had an instant bond, of sorts. The image of their "coupling" still haunts us:

Somehow ex Capt Rae looked all too familiar. The question is, did he star in The Great Escape film a little earlier in his life:

 or is he really Ernst Stavro Blofeld:

who just happens to have swapped the cat for a small furry penguin?

If the latter, we apologise in advance to the UK secret services for providing food, gin and shelter to a sworn enemy of the country. GCHQ  - when you read this just look for the UK registered boat Albatross on Marinetraffic.