Thursday 2 January 2014

New Year 2013/2014

Thirty One people arrived in Grasmere  spread over two hostels to let the New Year in.

 Some of the ones who booked 2 bed rooms ended up in four bed rooms so they were lucky to have bottom bunks each. The evening meal in the hostel was to a high standard and I think the Chicken Balta came out tops. In the evening we went down to Tweedies bar where we spent many nights there sampling the every changing beer.

Sunday was going to be the best day for the weather for the whole holiday time. Three groups went out on different walks. A fourth group joined the Fairfield group later on as they set of early.  Another group did Helm Crag.

We woke up on Monday to rain and this was going to be a very wet day. One group went to Ambleside by bus and returned by bus. Another group walked to Ambleside by grasmere lake and spent most of the time in flooded roads and paths. Or paths that turned into fast flowing rivers. So wet feet when we got to the pub in Ambleside. Then we had a choice bus back or walk back.  So we went for walk back which was the best option as the ones who said bus had to wait in the cold for the bus that was over a hour late due to the flooded walks. So we were back before them.

In the evening we went to Tweedies for a meal and they got 26 meals out in time a spot on for the taste. The scallops with pork Belly,  Cumbrain Lamb and Venison seem to be the best. But you could not fault any of the food choice.




 Peter and me could have done with a slice of bread to mop up the red wine jus on the lamb dish. At the end the bill was hard to work out as there was a 10% surcharge added to the bill and some people only paid the correct amount for the meal.




New year Eve day had three groups out. Elterwater, skelwith Bridge.  One group went to Sticlke tarn and the final group was around Loughrigg fell area.  In the evening few put on their best glad rags for the buffet in the hostel. This time it was a lot better then Borrowdale with more choice to choose from. More hot items then last year and the amount had increase, but then the price did as well. But every seem to enjoy it and looked stuff at the end.  We then went down to Tweedies where had tickets for their party. We was not sure what we were going to get as last time were here we had the disco to go to as well. This time we were not allowed in the hotel and that was going to be a Jazz band in there. We could only go in the bar area where the singer was going to be. There was no seats at first but slowly we picked up odd ones as the night went on.



The singer who was on just played from 9.30pm non-stop to midnight and came back on just after midnight to 1am. He just played full range of hits that had the place rocking all night long.




New year day everyone just packed up and was going to wander round Grasmere or Ambleside window-shopping. We did 5km easy run around the lake before heading into a café for hot drink and toasted teacakes.