To Cumbria - The first three days

The thought of driving up the M6 filled me with dread. I didn't expect the A1 to be so dreadful though. Never mind, we went across the top of England on the A66 and it was glorious. We topped up the car's battery while we went shopping in Kendal (no mint cake there!) and arrived at our lodge a while after our daughter. She was in her lodge, and had put the kettle on in ours. And jolly nice it is too, modern, well equipped and comfortable (the lodge, not the kettle). After a supermarket lasagne and cream cakes for tea we had a restful night. Saturday - we resolved to go for a walk above Borrowdale, but we didn't. I do not know what happened, but it wasn't me this time. The sat nav sent us completely in the wrong direction and by the time I'd realised we were in Ambleside, so we parked the car to have a walk round. We dropped into a cafe for coffee and looked at the lake and the boats. After that we drove to a small car park on the other side of Windermere where we had a nice lakeside…