Day 7: Ullswater and the Howtown Hotel

On Ullswater

A very sedate day today...we drove to Pooley Bridge and parked the car and walked to the Ullswater Steamer dock.  The Victorian boats that ply up and down the lake used to be steamers and despite the fact that they were converted to diesel in the 30s, the name has stuck.   It was a dullish sort of day and as we set off we realised that there was a marked distinction between the dress of the younger and older passengers with the older passengers, us amongst them, wearing layers and coats and the younger ones in shorts and t-shirts!  There were a few goose pimples!  But not ours!

At Howtown we disembarked (!) and walked the short distance to the hotel.  Peter had phoned to book a table in the morning.  Can we have lunch at about 12.45?  No, we serve lunch at 1.00.  We should have remembered.  This is the oddest hotel.  We went there for lunch with Eliot and Nancy when Abe was a few months old.  We were the only people asking for lunch then and they made a polite fuss about not knowing if they had any food.  In the end they produced soup and cold meat and salad and some kind of pudding.  It was eerily quiet and we had coffee afterwards in the pale green and silent lounge.

On this occassion we arrived in time for a drink and went round to the public bar where the light was good enough to read the paper. 

The public bar

The other side of the bar

This is an old fashioned hotel with pleasant old fashioned service and a smell of beeswax in the air.  The gong may have sounded for lunch but we were already on our way round the outside (no access from the public bar to the rest of the hotel - this is designed to keep the muddy boots of the walkers off the carpets). This time the dining room was almost buzzing.  A couple of guys in pink shirts, another couple about our age, a softely spoken trio of elderly folk leaning in to hear each other and a party of people who spoke in plummy voices that could have carried right across the lake, and probably did.    Again, no menu, just soup or fruit juice and cold meat (beef, ham, chicken, duckling, pork or salmon), salad and hot potatoes.  The salmon was delicious. Peter opted for the beef.  I had plum tart and icecream for dessert and Peter had fresh fruit. We partook of coffee in the garden and then Peter went in search of someone in order to pay our bill.  Quite a difficult task, but in the end he got the barman to sort it out.    Back on the steamer and a quick dash to Penrith to pick up some bread and a gift or two then back to Curlew Cottage to run the vacuum cleaner over the carpets and get everything ship shape in time for Joe and Helen's return at 5.00 pm.  A nice cup of tea, followed by a bottle of wine and much catching up.  Dinner in the evening at the George and Dragon.

Helen and Joe

And so ended the holiday.  An excellent and relaxing week.