Visiting Beatrix Potter's world

Although Ian was ill in the early hours of the morning - too many rich meals catching up with him - we had a great day visiting Beatrix Potter's home, Hill Top. A second highlight was our move to a room in the hotel instead of the annex (due to a problem with our shower) - a more spacious room with much better access to wifi!

Hill Top is near Sawrey village on the west side of Lake Windermere and we had quite a complicated trip to get there. We turned the wrong way on leaving the Queen's Head carpark and had rather a nerve-wracking drive to Ambleside via a route known as 'the Struggle' - a very narrow road with stone walls on either side. At Waterhead, past Ambleside, we took a cruise around Lake Windermere to Bowness, then a ferry across the lake to Ferry House where we caught a bus to Hill Top. There we were booked into the 1.05pm tour of the house and ate our lunch of cheese, biscuits and grapes in the garden while we waited.

Hill Top with Beatrix's 'foundation stone'

Hill Top garden

Hill Top house was fascinating, especially seeing original letters and drawings in Beatrix's own hand and also seeing items of furniture and ornaments which she used as models for scenes in her children's books.

We walked back to Ferry House, arriving just in time for the ferry, then rejoined the cruise back to Waterhead. As a special treat for me, we walked into Ambleside to visit a china speciality shop, Hannah Robinson, where I spent some time choosing two Lilliput Lane cottages (and scoring a free one) to add to my collection of minatures.