The long road to N. I.

The day finally came for our departure to Northern Ireland – a destination, long in the making. The drive from London to the ferry crossing at Cairnryan, Scotland was always going to be long. So Mum and Fiona made plans to stop along the way.

First stop, the Lake District. That was also a destination we had planned for 2020 – the year that never happened. Like everyone else, we’re just making up for lost adventures during the months of pandemic lockdown.

After about a five hour drive, and just as the sun was going down, we arrived in the Lake District and we saw the first lake … Windermere.

All along the way, it was one beautiful scenery after another. Mum was excited to be finally back here. The last time she visited the Lake District was more than forty years ago when she wanted to see the beautiful landscape as described by William Wordsworth.

As the sun was setting, we arrived at Rothay Manor – on the northern shores of Windermere.

Dogs are most welcome and there are a few dog-friendly rooms. And we could dine with them in the Brathay Room.

Missy stayed with us as there was only one dog-friendly room left when Mum made the booking.

The next morning, before we headed to our next stopover, Mum wanted to revisit Hill Top house, Beatrix Potter’s 17th century farmhouse and a time capsule of her life.

I posed on the very stone wall by the white fence that Beatrix Potter had drawn in The Tale of Tom Kitten.

Can you see me? I’m on the wall where Tom, Moppet and Mittens were sitting.

And for old times sake, we stopped at William Wordsworth’s house, “Dove Cottage” in Grasmere.

It was here that Wordsworth spent some of the happiest years of his life, and they proved to be the crowning years of his work. And daffodils everywhere reminded us of his poem “I wandered lovely as a cloud” –

“… When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host, of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

And then my heart with pleasure fills,

and dances with the daffodils.“

Enroute to the north, at the top of Ullswater lake, there was literally Another Place, The Lake that Mum wanted to check out. This was where we had hoped to spend New Year’s Eve 2020. That never happened. But it was a perfect place to stop for lunch at the Living Place, a dog friendly restaurant in the hotel. I think Mum was right about this place –

I think we would have enjoyed it very much. Definitely food for thought for another time.

Time to carry on to our destination for the night before the ferry across to Belfast the next morning.

As we crossed the border to Scotland, Fiona had another idea.

It was Mothering Sunday in the UK, and wouldn’t it be a lovely surprise to visit Missy’s mum, Olive who lives in Dumfries – which was enroute to our next destination. The idea was greeted with much enthusiasm on the other end of the phone!

It was a perfect little reunion.

And we met the other members of the Olive’s family …

What a lovely visit that was!

Next stop – Portpatrick, a small harbour town, just to lay our heads before the ferry crossing the next day to Belfast.

The next morning we would be crossing those waters!

Just after two days on the road, we felt we had already had made so many memories.

May’s comment: We were finally on our way to Northern Ireland. After two years of planning, both times interrupted by the pandemic lockdowns – the first one in March 2020 and then in 2021, all the uncertainties made it difficult to travel. It was a trip planned with Darcy. It would have been her 27th country but alas, she never made it.

But now I take this journey with George, along with Fiona and Missy.

Even the stopover in the Lake District was a planned journey with Darcy. We were scheduled to spend New Year’s Eve 2020 at Another Place, The Lake – of course that got cancelled. But we finally made it there.