Getting launched is an important aspect to any travel itinerary. Every year I give Meredith a guidebook for Christmas which lets her know which European country I picked for us to go to that summer. This last Christmas, I gave her a book on Poland, and we were excited by that prospect. Then the price tag hit – Poland’s airfare stubbornly stayed up around $1,000 each, over several weeks, even five months out. When I stumbled across tickets to Scotland for $470 each, we made the reluctant choice to change our destination. While Meredith has her own rule that we can’t repeat a summer-trip country, and we had been to Scotland in 2017, we decided to use Glasgow as a launching point to go to Wales, which is new to us.

But, Wales is a haul from Glasgow – five hours away or so. That’s a long trek on no sleep, so we decided to throw in the northern Lake District town of Keswick, England, into the tour. It’s only a two-hour drive from the airport, and we had never been to the Lake District before. As a bonus, our friend Dubbs, who is studying for yet another master’s degree over in England, agreed to meet us in Keswick, bringing along a fellow student and friend, Candice. So we are all here in Keswick until Wednesday morning, when we all go to see Dubbs’ university town, Lincoln, for two days. Then we finally head to Wales for ten days.

The Cuyahoga Falls to Toronto airport to Glasgow airport to Keswick was largely uneventful, although there was an hour delay for the plane to take off due to some paperwork not being filed. That got us to our B and B around 11:00 local time after our having been up for about twenty-two hours. Wonderfully, our room was ready, and so we went to bed for three or so hours. After showering, we were ready to head out with Dubbs and Candice about 4:00. Any touring on an arrival day is bonus, and so we got launched on our touring by going to the local lake boat launch.

There is a boat service that pops around Lake Derwentwater, stopping at several points to drop off or pick up people. I expect it is used by hikers often, but it is also an easy way to see the lake and the surrounding hills. I think our boat was the penultimate one of the evening, and with the overcast skies and some luck, we ended up being the only people on the boat for the first half of the run (we picked up a small group of people half-way around). Mer and I are fond of what we have coined “butt-sitting tourism,” especially on a long travel day. The boat tour lasted about fifty minutes, and we did have some misting rain at times, but it was still a very pretty cruise.

After that, we wandered in a park next to the boat launch before heading to supper at a local tavern in the pedestrian area of town. That was a welcome stop, and then we swung by the B and B to reorganize. Meanwhile, the sun mostly came out, so when we went back down to the lake to hike out to Friar’s Crag, it was very picturesque. Friar’s Crag is at the end of the main walk that goes past the boat launch, and it looks south over the lake and hills. While the sun was shining on us, there were clouds on a few of the hills, and the clouds spilled down the slopes into the valley, giving a dreamy look to some of the edges of the lake. We lingered there for a bit, and then walked back to the B and B. Dubbs and Candice went to a store to get some ice cream, but Mer and I went back to the room in the hopes of getting launched on a good night’s sleep.