KESWICK. A Winter Ride On The Train & Bus.

I would like to open an account in this Keswick bank.

The days are getting colder and shorter and daylight is becoming a rare commodity. That being the case I took myself off last Saturday on a ride up to the Lake District, to Keswick. I wanted a longish trip so I could enjoy the most amount of daylight even if it meant coming back mostly in the dark.

A very pleasant place to spend an hour or two ( or three or four or even more )

I took the train up to Lancaster then picked up the Stagecoach 555 service that runs right through the heart of the Lakes to Keswick. The Winter timetable is now in force so that means it’s an hourly service and the fast run up the M6 motorway doesn’t operate. It’s not a great problem but it cut down my wandering time in my destination. The upside was someone else was driving and I got a tour around the smaller villages as the bus threaded its way along some of the narrow roads that weave around the A6 as it strikes northwards.

Approaching Grasmere on the top deck on the bus.

The loadings on the bus were quite heavy, this will return to haunt me later, the weather was a sparkling November day so people were making the trip out to maximise the sunlight. I had stocked up on pies and sandwiches as I walked through Lancaster, the street market was on so no shortage of choice, so I enjoyed a picnic on the move as Kendal, Windermere, Ambleside and Grasmere all ambled past the bus windows.

I arrived in Keswick a little before three, the town was buzzing, again the market was on and doing a brisk trade. Finding a seat for a drink or food was tricky to say the least. I had a walk out to the lake, Derwentwater, it would have been a bit odd to have travelled this far and not walked the extra bit to take in the beautiful scene of the hills folding themselves around the still, mirror like water.

The Saturday street market is getting into it’s Christmas setting.

Evening gathers in on Derwentwater as the ducks chase for the last meal of the day.

The day was closing up shop by now, a quick look at the bus timetable followed by the train one gave me a choice of an extra hours strolling time if I jumped off the bus at Windermere and invested in a train ticket back to Lancaster for the train back home. I made a quick “To Go” sandwich and drinks stop and crammed myself onto the 555 back down to Lancaster. The bus was BUSY! In fact by the time Grasmere was reached stops were having to be ignored as there was no more room left on the bus.

Windermere railway station, waiting for the approaching dots of light of the next train.

I got to Windermere and left the bus, I checked that my train was still running, you can never be too careful these days and I had twenty minutes to wait. Luckily Booths Supermarkets have a branch in what was the old station building, so it was a quick food stock up ready for the train to arrive. It arrived, it was warm and I settled down for the run back to Lancaster.

The train made sort work of the journey and I arrived with time to spare for a drink in one of my favourite haunts, the Tite & Locke, the bar on the railway station and a mull over the days events.