It’s always been my favorite time of the day. The most beautiful view that is always warm my heart. Thus, little girl named like she is.
Category: Places
Got Lost in (Small Parts of) Cotswolds
Beside Lake District, another point of must visit in UK is the beautiful villages under the name of Cotwolds. Cotswolds consist of many beautiful villages and AONB areas.
We couldn’t visit them all and chose which one that suited our preference and of course, budget. Although tourism is currently trying hard to return to bussiness, traveling in summer is as expensive as the pre-covid situation. At least, for me.
For the same hotel, the price for one night in summer is three times than it is in the autumn. But, since there was one full week off schedule from the doctor, summer holiday was only one week to the end, so off we went.
The Map of Cotswolds
Our trip started from Cirencester-Bibury-Bourton on the Water-Stow on the wold and went back home from Moreton in Marsh.
I found a good offer to ride on the bus to Cirencester, which is considered as the capital of Cotswolds. One way ticket for three at £19 was too good to be missed. More, for some place that only took 2 hours from London Victoria coach station. Even better, a local bus from our flat took us directly to the bus station.
Just like last trip to Lake District, we went to many places but this time it was less uncomfortable because we didnt do car hire. We would rely on the bus and taxi. It was actually more expensive, but choice was limited.We stayed at two different hotels, one in Cirencester and another night in middle of Bourton on the Water and Stow on the Wold.
We arrived in Cirencester at noon and it was still another three hours for check in. So we waited and visited Abbey Ground Park in the city centre. There was a playground and a picnic table for us to enjoy our packed lunch. After an hour, pouring rain came and we had to keep going. Fortunately, it didnt take long and we also could do the check in before 3 pm.
It was nice to let go all those bags from the back. My age doesnt fit with backpack kind of travel anymore. Cotswolds was an exception.
We had short rest and prayed in our nice room then continued to explore the town after that. It was slightly bigger than Penrith. More tourists were seen but very far from crowded.
There was nothing much to see there. The church, the beautiful village houses and its lovely garden, and the little shops. We missed to see Cirencester Park, as it was closed at 5 pm. We arrived there five minutes before it was closed.
After that, we had dinner at a Thai restaurant and it was pretty good. The better thing, we chose a perfect time to travel. UK government made a campaign Eat Out to Help Out to help food and beverage bussiness. Dine in for 50% discount every Monday-Wednesday in almost every restautant across UK. So, we truly only paid for half than the usual price for our dinner that night.
We planned to revisit Cirencester Park in the morning, but the weather said no. It was heavy rain from early morning and our plan for that day could fail miserably. But, the show must go on, right? We took taxi to Bibury from the hotel. It took only 20 minutes riding. Bibury has one most photographed street called Arlington Row.
These houses belong to the real people. I couldnt imagine how much the tourists caused them disturbance all year long. Since it was raining that day, there were only one or two groups of tourist while we were there.
I felt less guilty since it was raining so we only spent no less than 15 minutes there. Funny that it had been sunny and burning hot for the last two weeks but it was rain hard right when we visited. We only stayed for an hour in Bibury since it was almost nothing to see other than the famous row. In the planning, we would take bus to Bourton on the Water but we missed it and had to take taxi again instead.
It wasn’t as near as expected and paid pretty expensive taxi fare was unavoidable. But, that day, the weather wasn’t on our side. It was even raining harder in Bourton on the Water. That became my concern since Bourton on the Water was the highlight of this trip.We stopped at one of the small restaurants to have some warm drinks and snacks while waiting the rain stopped.
After an hour, the rain seemed showing no good intention to let us wander without getting soaked. So, we had no other choice but to proceed to the next hotel by catching the next available bus. The next bus would be within 30 minutes since we finished eating.While we waited for the bus, we looked around the small shops near the bus stop.
I always found little shops in the small town charming. If we looked carefully, one or two usually have something unique that you couldn’t find anywhere else. It wasn’t comfortable window shopping with all the heavy bags on the back and shoulder, almost no picture taken since the other hand was busy holding the umbrella. I was quite dissapointed that we just missed Bourton on the Water like that. Because we might never comeback twice here.
The hotel was only 15 minutes bus riding from centre. It seemed near, but we couldn’t do it by walk because there was no space for pedestrian. We had to pass a big road that was impossible to walk there. We spent the rest of the day inside.
Maybe the rain understood the price of the hotel so it made us use it very well by staying there as long as we could.The idea of returning to London without paying proper visit to Bourton on the Water was too unbearable. So, changed plan was made.
We supposed to visit Stow on the Wold city centre in the morning before heading to Moreton in Marsh station for the train to London. We dropped it and decided to return to Bourton on the Water once again.
The weather was on our side too that day. It was sunny and warm.We became the first one who showed up at breakfast lounge and left the hotel right after breakfast by taxi. We arrived at 9.10 am and had asked the driver to pick us back around 12.10.
We had at least three hours in Bourton on the Water. Bourton on the Water is always on the top list in any Cotswolds article. It is considered as the Venice of Cotswolds. It’s a very beautiful village with the water view and little ice cream shops by the river. Lovely is such underrated word to describe it.
So grateful for such weather and a chance to enjoy Bourton on the Water in a sunny day, although with the price of skipping Stow on the Wolds.We couldn’t just get everything, right?
We came and left Bourton on the Water at the right time because when we arrived it was quiet and peaceful and when we left, more crowd and traffic seen around the city centre.
This might be one of the less comfortable trips we had so far. It had the feel of day trip with the weight of stay overnight trip. Traveled without luggage and took our backpacks only. We carried them everywhere just like backpacker. It was uncomfortable, especially when you’re no longer a teenager or in your 20s. But, it could be a good thing for the little girl.
We heard more of her nagging and whining on this trip. Moving places without car hire, bags on the back everywhere, long walks in cold and rainy weather, sunny and sweaty without scooter, and many more. It was even more uncomfortable since she is now having her own opinion, wants, preference, and knowing she has to adjust hers with others too. She has to compromise, wait and understand that sometimes, or many times, she just couldn’t get everything.
Facing many more uncomfortable situations on her own in the future are obviously unavoidable.Thus, no other way than to prepare her for the job. It’s ten times harder on the trainers.
Who is happy watching the child ‘suffer’, listening to the whining and nagging?
We’re not. But, we must.
I
It was short, a trip with a bit of unpleasant weather, yet I still found it was worth all the hassle and money.It was a good decision to go on the beginning of the week.
I learn that the elder needed equal rest days at home as the days spent on the road.
Go when you’re young. Don’t wait.
Saturday Around The City Most Favorite Icon
Few times visiting and still haven’t granted a chance to witness this beautiful landmark in the dark full of light mode.
Maybe next time.
Lake Distric Trip : Derwent Water-Saint Bees-Lingholm Estate-Crummock Water-Buttermere
After the first day of Lake District Trip : Penrith-Windermere-Grasmere-Stone Circle, Some expectation has been adjusted for the second day. I clearly said that I didn’t really need so many places to stop by. I just need my picnic by the lake. It would be too dissapointing visiting Lake District without it. A chance to return to such place would be too small in the future.
I had one strong reason about being so annoying about this picnic thing. I was once having this kind of thing during the two months in Manchester back in 1994 with my family. You don’t underestimate how powerful happy childhood memories is. It stays longer more than you could think of as confirmed by Meik Wiking in his book below.
Blur picture, vivid memory : Picnic in Peak District 1994
After being grumpy a whole previous day, in our first stop my wish was granted. We had picnic by the lake in Derwentwater. From the lake, we could see the hill where the sheeps were enjoying their time, munching grass or just lazing around. The wind was pretty strong and it was cloudy at that time.
Done with enjoying the right amount of picnic, we proceeded to the next stop : Lingholm Estate. This is an itinerary arranged for the little girl. Here, we had a tour with alpaca, the cute little creature, a cousin to camel.
Lingholm Estate was a big estate by the lake where people could do trekking or eating in Lingholm Kitchen. We booked a session in 12.45 and since it wasn’t a normal situation, there were only two small groups of people with our own guide. We paid for 2 adults while the little girl paid none. So, we got 2 alpacas to walk around with us.
Popeye and Jahraz were the two Alpacas given to us. Me and Langit went with Popeye. He was a very nice and lazy alpaca who loved stopping and eating grass every few meters. We walked for an hour through the lake, forest and around the estate. It was beautiful.
Ste was our guide that day. Within an hour, everyone who met him would clearly see his huge love for his job. The way he explained about the Alpacas, the way he talked to them, the sparkling eyes and genuine smile were too obvious. When normally we have a dog person or cat person, then Ste is obviously an alpaca person.
He told us that he started as an ordinary guest just like us when he had totally fell in love with these creatures. He visited on March then by June, he had already landed at this job. I always have big respect and admiration to this kind of people. They know what they want, have the courage to pursue it, no matter how far from flashy it looks.
We had lunch in Lingholm kitchen and prayed in the car then continued the trip to Saint Bees.
Saint Bees is a less famous coastal beach in Lake District. We were so lucky that day the weather was so fine. The blue sky and sunshine were available throughout the day.
Not so many people in Saint Bees that day. Most of them were the elders or maybe local people. It wasn’t the beach for swimming but a perfect one to enjoy the sunshine, blue sky, the sound of the wave, and the beautiful hill next to the beach.
Honestly, there were so many times where the heart felt like being pinched watching these beautiful views. Saint Bees was one them.
It was 7 pm when we left Saint Bees and still had one last itinerary.
To the famous Buttermere.
Similar to the last trip to Scotland, the last itinerary was the highlight of the trip. SATNAV, the map tool, directed us through some narrow streets instead of big one. But then, the view out there was so breathtaking.
It was so quiet, peaceful and serene. It felt surreal to see all these beautiful nature and how different it was with the city landscape.
Maybe I was too grumpy about the picnic on the previous day until the next day, I was granted not only one but two picnics by the lake.
The second one in Crummock Water was way more beautiful than one in Derwent Water. The silence, the almost sunset view, the sound of the sparkling water. Such place does really exist in this world. We had our dinner in Crummock Water and Langit had some time throwing stones to the lake.
We still had Buttermere for our very last stop which only few minutes away from Crummock Water. Buttermere is a small village by the lake and often considered as the most beautiful Lake in Lake District. Crummock Water is actually also a part of Buttermere. The stunning view level is obviously higher than the lakes we visited on the first day.
We practically had the whole lake for ourselves in Buttermere. The hands couldnt stop taking picture. More with my favorite time of the day, made everything look more photogenic.
How ungrateful the heart was on the first day and how much it filled with gratitude on the next day.
To be granted a chance to travel safely after five months in this unusual situation, and many more, sometimes, other than being extremely grateful, I am just too scared to receive so much.
May the heart always stays low when life is on high paces and be patient (which is so hard) during the (s)low times.
Lake District Trip : Penrith-Windermere-Grasmere-Stone Circle
We arrived at Penrith Railway Station on Friday afternoon around 14.30. Check in was still one and half hour away so we visited Penrith Castle right in front of the station. It’s more of ruined castle and there was nothing much to see. We had quick lunch on the bench before continued walking to our guest house.
I booked a guesthouse 10 minutes walking from the station and it is located near the supermarket since we traveled without kitchen. Our room was a triple bed in the attic. It was nice and clean.
Right after checked in, we went for a walk to see around the city center of Penrith and since it is a small town, we could just walked around for two hours. More, in the current situation, almost all the shops were still closed. The streets were empty and people were rarely seen. We just went home after a short visit to Sainsbury to buy some snacks and water.
As it is another nature trip, we booked a car for the next 2 days. Day one turned out to be one of the grumpy days in my traveling diary. We were ready to go according to the appointment with the car hire person and took a cab to the office. We were a bit early so we waited first. Until 15 minutes, there was no sign it would come so I asked the trip planner to call them. It turned out they would be late because of so many things and the earliest they could arrive was 11 am.
The grumpiness started.
It was 10.20 and we decided to return to the guest house as we left something too. We called the same cab to send us back and asked the driver to pick us once again at 11.10. The car office was only 7 minutes away. Not long after we arrived at our room, the car person called that they had arrived. We practically wasted 10 pounds on cab. The car hire company agreed to give us some compensation about making us waiting for them without a prior notice.
After everything was clear, we’re good to go and I was so ready to execute my most wanted itinerary. But, as the wise words said : bad things never come alone.
The first destination was Ullswater and it was only less than 30 minutes away from Penrith. But, when we arrived there, parking spot were packed. Not only that, the parking along side the road were also full. The city people were spending weekend by swimming, hiking, and camping. Apparently, my picnic plan should wait a little bit longer.
We proceeded to the next stop to Aira Force. Small waterfalls near Ullswater and it said we could have some picnic too. I wasn’t really sure since I had a very specific picture about kind of picnic that I wanted to do and it was certainly not a picnic by the waterfalls. Arrived in Aira Force, turned out another jammed parking spot so we just stuck there for few minutes and continued.
The grumpiness level was rising.
We only had two days in Lake District and had spent more than half of the first day in car.
As we already had a booked boat trip in Windermere and it was impossible to miss it, we had no choice but heading directly there. We arrived an hour early and thankfully, no more parking spot struggle. While waiting for the boat, I saw a perfect picnic spot on the other side of the lake. But again, it was impossible to go there within an hour. I should accepted my picnic ransum to be finished inside the car instead by the lake.
My mood had been so awful for the rest of the trip. Even the slightest thing irritated me and my heart almost lost all interest in everything. The beautiful view of Windermere outside the boat window couldn’t make the eyes wide opened and they chose to sleep along the trip. The weather was quite fine. Some blue and grey skies took turn. The trip took an hour back and forth.
The next destination was Grasmere where there was a famous gingerbread man store which only opened until 5 pm. On the other side, we had already promised the little girl to go to playground. We had Brockenhole in our itinerary where there was playground. We supposed to go there before the boat trip. Since the plan changed, so did the itinerary.
We accidentally found a pretty decent playground on the way to Grasmere. We made a stop there and let the little girl played for a while. There were quite few people, big group of moslem families to be precise, doing picnic and barbeque although there was a clear sign of no camping, no fire, no barbeque. Shame on them.
One of the advantages of summer trip is the long daytime. So we proceed to Grasmere and when I saw the little vilage from the car, the hope to have a picnic by the lake soared. Grasmere is a beautiful little village, the town was slightly busier than Penrith. I always love town walking trip. But sadly, we couldnt do that in this trip. Also, most of the shops were still closed.
We bought dinner from one of the restaurant and still tried find a spot for picnic but ended up with nothing. At that time, all I wanted to do was went home and sleep.
The mood was slightly improved when we visited our last itinerary : Castlerigg Stonecircle. It looked just like mini Stonehenge without entrance ticket and the crowd. It was located on the top of mountain with incredibly stunning view. The view reminded me of the Heidi and The Swiss Alps book.
Albeit all the beautiful landscapes, day one spent with heavy heart and dissapointment.
First time after Five Months : Penrith-Lake District
As UK travel ban lifted and hospitality bussines started reopening last week, also following the advice from RCOA for his staff to have a break (also, Frederick Square staff needed some break too), we carefully chose the destination.
Lake District has been on my bucket list since it was Naomi and Danny first virtual dating place in Summer in London (again, it’s from a book). They described Lake District as one of the most beautiful places in England. It has list of many AONB places, An Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. We picked Penrith as it is one of the towns to enter Lake District.
After five months, resuming traveling gives a whole different feeling. Couldn’t help feeling anxious, cautious, mostly because people here not really taking mask seriously. Luckily, mask is still compulsory in any public transportations. I am waiting for the time when not wearing mask can cause one a huge fine until vaccine is widely available.
But then, it also has one silver lining :
No more aisle seat and a chance to seat next to stranger for hours. Everyone should go by the window seat.
It was quite sad watching all the closed shops and the empty streets. Even a city as big as London, let alone the small cities. Some crowd seen in car park where people would go camping and trekking. It really took longer than expected for everything to recover. Hopefully, we would arrive there safe and sane, one day.
The view on the way to Penrith :
Four Months in Four Minutes
After three months watching the whole world in pause, currently, in the fourth month after UK official lockdown, everything is trying to have slow recovery. Personally, for certain things, I don’t want them to return to the way they used to. Like sitting next close to stranger in public transport and the way school operates.
It could be one of the biggest changes in many ways of life that we have been through in the life time.
It’s almost impossible to just let all the things happened in the last four months being forgotten without a proper memoire.
Four months in four minutes to remind me that I once got through something as extraordinary as this pandemic period.
Luckily, in this city.
Lockdown in Rotherhithe.
New normal in London.
Summer Time
Summer is here. My least favorite season of the year, which for some people it’s the most enjoyable period when the day is long, sun is out, and it’s holiday.
The toughest part of summer is the praying schedule. Having subuh as early as 2.40 and isya as late as 10.43 is quite hard. But, it will slowly getting better. The temperature keeps rising for the last few days and it reached 30 celcius for these two days. The weather seems sending the signal to the body and mind to remind that they will soon deal with such temperature again. Yes, the end of this long holiday is near.
More and deeeper rants about that later.
As summer comes and curve flatenned, the UK government has announced another stage of easing lockdown yesterday. Start from 4th July, almost every bussiness could reopen their door. Hairdresser, library, children playground, pubs, museums, galleries, hotel, campsite, and dine in restaurant. After three months, it’s nervously excited to have all those things back.
Resuming holiday still takes lots of doubt. Because things will never be the same again after this. The anxiety is still bigger than the excitement. It feels like torn between keep being safe at home just like what we have for these three months and the longing for being in a new place once again.
While the other countries have started to slowly enjoy old normal life, Indonesia forced itself to join the crowd when more cases are available. Still, the shameless government keeps doing NOTHING significant to improve the situation. Three months have passed without any clear strategies.
Have I told you lately that we’re hopeless? I have and will be telling that again and again. It’s heart-wrenching knowing that going back to the place with stupid, ignorant, useless government is unavoidable.
Six out of twelve months have passed. Hopefully things will get better in the next six months.
Greeting Hello Summer with soft whisper and loud prayer.
Sunset by the Thames
10th : Life in the Time of Corona
Passed two months after lockdown policy first announced, UK has been easing the lockdown as numbers of new cases and deaths are continously falling.
Right now, outdoor picnic, travel inside the city without using public transportation, even meeting one people outside the household is already allowed.Bus is getting more crowded, the queue at the supermarket is getting shorter although it’s still crazily long on weekend. So we just have to know when to shop. But, essential things are all stocked up. No more worries about searching for eggs or rice. Last week, even baking essentials which have been unavailable for weeks were all back in stock.
We had picnics on the day of Eid and the day after. It was nice to be freely and legally outside while the temperature is getting high. We had the Eid picnic on the park nearby and the following day we went to the Southwark Park by bus.
School is planned to reopen by next week. We are still unsure to send the little girl back by next week. Still waiting the strategies from the school about this.
May everyone keep safe and healthy!
A Penny for My Pensieve 