Parking is very straightforward in Grasmere, turn off the A591
and to the right is a big pay and display car park with space for coaches. I did take the liberty to park next to the
most glorious vintage silver Bentley. There were teddy bears on the back seat which
was cute. It’s such a delight to see these cars out and
about. It makes such a change from the hordes of Ford Focus’s and Vauxhall
Corsas on the roads.
There is a free public toilet next to the car park, but they
weren’t the nicest. There was a bit of a
pong and they weren’t that clean as they’re heavily used.Grasmere is definitely a tourist destination. It has the Wordsworth Museum, which to be honest we swerved. I’ve never been a fan of his romantic ‘I wandered lonely as a cloud’ sort of stuff and I don’t really get the whole traipsing round a house caught in a time warp with dusty papers under glass. It’s probably a great museum, but I just wasn’t feeling it.
We wandered into the village where there were plenty of hotels, B&Bs and rental cottages. If you wanted to live here I bet it must be very expensive to buy a house.
The village is full of independent shops geared for the
tourist. There was one shop called The Good Bag Co
which sold nothing but jute shopping bags with catchy slogans for all
occasions. Herdy is a shop that sells products
featuring a cute sheep motif. I like the
fact they use a simple idea and roll with it doing mugs, aprons, bags and
anything else you can think of. It’s the
sort of place that could only work in a place like Grasmere or on the
internet. In actual fact it does both. We found other places of interest like the
bookshop, the antiques place and the galleries.
Really it’s a classy shopping experience.
St Oswald’s church is a big draw for tourists as William
Wordsworth is buried in the graveyard.
You really don’t have to search the graveyard for his grave, just look
round and see where people are congregated as that’s where you’ll find him. It’s quite an unassuming resting place for
one of the poetry greats.
Grasmere Lake isn’t that close to the village and is supposed
to be about half a kilometre away according to the guide books (10 minute walk).
We went in the wrong direction and
couldn’t find it. Unfortunately time was pressing and we had to
head back to the car.
This place is in a stunning location and is overlooked by the
rocky Helm Crag. We were very lucky to
catch this place on a beautiful day. I
can understand why it has been so inspirational to poets and artists. I also completely get why Grasmere has
developed into a middle class tourist ghetto.
However most of all I appreciate the way this place reconnects you back
to the wonder of nature. We will be
back, but next time we’ll find the lake and have a glass of wine down the pub.
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