Doing The Tourist Thing...

So... What do you do in the Lake District if it's too wet for walking???

The answer is, of course, to do all the usual tourist things that we always mean to do and never get around to.

Ever since we started visiting the Lakes, J has always said, "We should take a trip on the Ullswater Steamers'. We never have, of course, until last Sunday, when our boots were soaked through from Saturday's walk, and the weather was, um, well, terrible.

So terrible, in fact, that this was the view across Ullswater.  It's meant to be a majestic scene, with the imposing peaks of Helvellyn, Nethermost Pike and Dollywagon Pike in the background.  There's no sign of any of these peaks in this image - the pointy peak at the right-hand side is Catstycam, which sits just in front of Helvellyn, so you can see how lousy the conditions were:-

But the steamer trip was fun.  There are four boats in all, the oldest one built in the 1870s, the youngest in the 1940s.  This is the Motor Yacht Raven, built in the 1890s and the boat we sailed on in a return trip from Pooley Bridge to Glenridding:-

It's a lovely area, and one we should explore more often.  There look to be some very nice walks round there, and the views are - when the weather clears- spectacular.  Here's a view from Pooley Bridge:-

And this is what the view should have been like all along!  In the afternoon, the weather cleared, and this is what we saw.  The big chunky mountain in the background is Helvellyn:-

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