Our #budgetholiday ......... Keswick

Gosh my holiday seems so long ago now but I just remembered I barley made a dent in telling you all about it.

So Saturday, when we went to Grasmere  we also took a trip to Keswick to visit another place I remembered visiting with my mum ... The Pencil Museum.

The museum is home to the worlds first pencil, the longest coloured pencil, a giant, an escape artist’s
pencil and much more.  The museum explores, as you would expect the history of pencils and in particular the famous Derwent pencils.  Hubby really likes history so the displays were right up his alley whilst me and the boys completed an activity form (with our free Derwent Pencils).  They enjoyed playing the games they found and exploring all the different types of pencils including watercolours.  They requested some in the shop but the cheapest ones in store were around £20 and therefore a little out our price range!

Our #budgetholiday ......... Grasmere

image from Wikimedia Commons

Grasmere is sooo cute, it is the prettiest little village with just a handful of gift shops, galleries and cafes and probably the most amazing gingerbread you've ever tasted.

It's just 4 miles from Ambleside and accessible by bus or car, Grasmere was made famous by William Wordsworth.  Dove Cottage, his home from 1799 to 1808 with his sister Dorothy, is now a tourist attraction and brings in crowds of tourists every day.  William and Dorothy's graves are also in the village alongside his wife, Mary, and children, Dora, Catherine and Thomas.

Our #budgetholiday ......... Ambleside

Ambleside is a must when you are in that part of the lakes, especially when, like me, you lived there for 3 years.  It's more a town then a village with more outdoor shops than anyone will ever need, quaint little cafes, tons of B&B's, a large park and a good sprinkling of pubs, not to mention a Boots The Chemist (where I worked in my student days), a Tesco Metro, Co-op and Spar shop.

Sob - we've returned from our #budgetholiday

But here's an overview of what we got up to...........it involves quite a lot of food :)

It's going to take me a while to write a post covering everything but when I do get them written I will link up to them from this post.




Friday

Was mostly spent travelling, which was a breeze thanks to DK Books.  We checked in at Park Resorts, Fallbarrow in Bowness and had a quick cup of tea before heading out to see how Ambleside had changed in the few years since we had last been.
  Tea was a lovely meal in the Ambleside Tavern (formally The Sportsman/ 'Sporties' my old dancing venue when I was at University there)