Day 6: Kendal

We set off for Kendal by a back route, just for the fun of it.  A winding road with grass growing down the middle and some diving into the hedge to avoid oncoming traffic (two cars actually).  Then we were completely stopped by a small farm vehicle loaded with sheep dogs parked smack in the middle of the lane.  We waited patiently as befits city folk not wanting to appear pushy and eventually the farmer jogged down the road from the gateway where he had been having a chinwag with a mate and gave us a wave and a sheepish (ha) grin.

I'm not sure if we've been in Kendal before, we certainly went to the Abbot Hall museum about 4 years ago.  Just to make sure we parked near the museum in Peppercorn Lane car park and had a walk round.  A busy town with some fine architecture left over from its days as a rich wool town and a myriad of 'courts' or alleys leading off the main street and several large archways leading to what would have been coaching inns.    We had coffee and read the papers (and I must confess to a toasted teacake) in an old coffee/tea shop.  Very old!  The shop's account book going back to 1800 was on display as well as the original tea containers.

Tea containers

The coffee department

A bit of humour

A street in Kendal

We were going to have lunch in the museum café but they only had one bowl of soup left and we decided against a bread based lunch...so instead we wandered back to the main street and found a greasy spoon (aka a café were almost everything is fried!) and Peter had quiche and chips and I had sausage, egg and chips!  We would have been better off with a sandwich after all...

Then we went back to the museum, only to find that they were between exhibitions so although we enjoyed a small collection of water colours and some fine pictures by Romney there wasn't a great deal to see.  The Barbara Hepworth's for the coming exhibition were in a dark corner, firmly shrouded and marked 'No photography' though what harm a picture of a cloth wrapped shape would do I wasn't sure.  However I obeyed the signs.

We returned to Askham by a more orthodox route and made a supper from left overs and more rhubarb from the garden.