Life Lesson #21 - Not an Asset to the Abbey

Today I learned that Alzheimer's can come on early.

At the Lakes, most people stay in Windermere. We didn't, we stayed in Barrow. It's about as exciting as the name sounds (nearly as good as Palmerston North!), and well over an hour away from Windermere. Which basically means staying there cost us two and a half hours driving in a manual. Now that's rough!

But the main reason we did it was to go to the Furness Abbey. This place is meant to be amazing. Like, could-only-be-better-if-Maria-was-there amazing. We made plans to visit first thing after checking out, while the weather was still awesome.

When we got in the car we were still psyched out about the whole fire alarm thing. I asked Paul to direct me to the Abbey, because I'm still sketchy in a manual. About forty minutes later we're happily driving along, almost in Windermere, when we both realise we forgot to go to the abbey. 

We have no idea how it happened. But it meant we drove 2.5 hours to the most boring part of England for absolutely no reason. #$@%!!

Life Lesson #20 - Fire

Today I learned that you should always take signs seriously. Even ones that seem silly. Say, for example, there's a sign by the bathroom in your hotel advising you to always keep the door shut when showering or the fire alarm will go off.

You should never see such a sign and think to yourself "I bet it wouldn't", "well that's a crappy fire alarm then" or "there's not much steam anyway".

Because if you do ignore such a sign, the fire alarm probably will go off just to spite you. The entire hotel will be filled with blaring sirens for five minutes, while you try to hastily pack your things and make a sneaky exit.

And when the steam begins to clear, the siren won't just stop. It will instead belch for half an hour like a homage to the van in Little Miss Sunshine.

If this does happen to you, take the back exit and run.

Onwards and Northwards

Our hostel in Manchester is in Castlefield, which is a really cool area right by the canal. Manchester somehow manages to pull off being an industrial graveyard and still be charming. We walked through the city to the Art Gallery in the morning and loved seeing all the train bridges and other signs of the industry that once existed here. Thomas the Tank Engine now makes even more sense to me.

Our hostel in Manchester on the right, the canal on the left.

After leaving the Art Gallery, we headed straight on the road North to the Lakes, wanting to make sure we got as much time there as possible.

We pulled into a quaint little town called Ambleside, and despite the greying weather (and bad pub food), loved it. The town was a welcome relief from stalling and bunnyhops! It felt like the sort of place they created the word "quaint" to describe... no surprise that it's where Beatrix Potter comes from.

A quaint little house on a bridge in quaint little Ambleside.

AA