The breakfast at the Aphrodite (the hotel we ended up at) was amazing. Tom got a really fancy version of the traditional full English breakfast and I had eggs on toast on top of all the cereal, fruit, pastries, yogurt, etc that they had. (They even had champagne for breakfast!) After we ate and checked out, we took a hike up to the hill above Windermere called Orrest Head. It was a beautiful overview of the whole area.
After this hike, we drove up to Grasmere to see Dove Cottage, Stock Lane, and this tiny and amazing (world famous) Grasmere Gingerbread kitchen. It's so old and original, the store only fits two people and they pretty much only sell their gingerbread in 6 piece and 12 piece bundles.
We drove out of the Lake District and drove on our absolute favorite drive in all of the UK so far to Malham Cove. The road was small, but high up with open fields to either side and amazing views in every direction. We're not entirely sure where it was but it wound through Giggleswick, sort of side passed Settle to Langcliffe where we turned on the tiny Main Street in Langcliffe which turned into Henside Lane and Cove Rd and led us right to Malham Cove. (We followed the satnav's directions, and the way it took us in to Malham was a far more spectacular drive than the way it took us out. We looked at the map later to figure out which way we went in, which is why we're recording the streets here, so if we ever go there again we know which way to go.) It was down a single lane road with piled stone or shubbery fences through sheep pastures. The terrain was typical green rolling hills but strewn about with rocky outcroppings. Then there were the old stone fences separating the sheep pastures. We were going up and down steep hills and sharp curves on this tiny little road.
Malham Cove is a big limestone sheer cliff. We walked up to it and then hiked up to the top. The top is called Limestone Pavement - the slightly acidic rain water has cut through the softer veins in the stone at the top of the cliff to look like stones with big ravines between them. It was a very rippley stone formation. It was very cool, though somewhat difficult to walk on because it was so uneven. (This is where Hermione and Harry camp on the cliff in the Harry Potter 7 film.)
We drove to Harrogate to our B&B. Again, no one answered, so we called and left a message and went to dinner (it was only 6pm this time at least). When we got back at 7:30, she was here and waiting for us after getting our message and since she doesn't actually live here and no one else was booked, we have the entire home to ourselves! And it's gorgeous! And it was pretty cheap because we have to share the bathroom with other guests (which tonight, is NO ONE!). For dinner, we went to Harrogate town centre and ended up on an Italian restaurant road. There were like 10 Italian restaurants, it was hard to choose! My pumpkin ravioli with brown butter sage sauce was really, really good. Now we're enjoying our empty home and after two hikes, we're pretty tired!
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