Busy weekend

The Princess Elizabeth in Carlisle

Another busy weekend - they are the best after all.  We discovered two good things this week.  If you are a resident of the Dales (where we are isn't officially the Dales, but the postcode is good enough!) you can buy a special railcard so that you can travel anywhere on the Settle - Carlisle line for £7 in November to February.  This includes the line all the way to Leeds and also down to Morecambe.  Normally the fare to Carlisle is £22.50 so it is a great saving.  So Saturday saw us driving down to Settle and we got the train to Carlisle.  It is a very scenic journey, which includes 17 viaducts including the famous Ribblehead Viaduct which takes you across the Dales and the Eden Valley.  It was a 1.5 hr trip, but it went very quickly.  Tom was well behaved looking out the window. although we did have some ridiculous conversations about moving tunnels!  We got to Carlisle and saw countless spotters on one of the platforms.  Intrigued, we hung around and about 20 mins later a stream train arrived - The Princess Elizabeth which looked very beautiful and was full of more spotters (sorry enthusiasts).  It had come from Birmingham International and was due to go down to Settle on its return journey.  (Cost for a trip Settle to Carlisle on a steam train is around £65!)  Anyway a great bonus to see a steam train there.

We headed out to Carlisle, round the very good looking Citadel to the city centre.  It was HORRIBLE, full to bursting with Christmas shoppers (we had forgotten that we are well into the lead up to Christmas now).  Panic over took us and we quickly needed to get out of the crowds and find somewhere for lunch.  We found a Frankie and Benny's and dived in.  Matt managed to get a digital voucher on his phone so we had a pizza and a plate of pasta and drinks for not very much at all.  We then did some research and found that there was a park not far away and decided to go there, there was no way either of us would survive the shops.  So we found ourselves in Bitts Park which was really good - had a well thought out playground and a musical trail with lots of xylophones to play which kept all of us occupied for a while.

We then headed back towards the station where I found a very well stocked cake shop with all the bits and pieces I've been needing for the last couple of weeks - phew.  Next door to the cake shop was a cafe with a model railway in it (these are shops located in the railway arches).  Perfect somewhere for the boys to hang out whilst I shop.  Well, it would have been perfect if it hadn't been closing.  Oh well, next time we come to Carlisle we know what to do, head straight for the railway arches, the boys can eat and drink and watch the model railway and I can look round the cake shop in peace - everyone will be happy.

This was the only crocodile we could find

We got the train back to Settle and watched the sun set over the Eden Valley.  Tom had a quiet period where he snuggled into me, but he didn't fall asleep.  He was pretty well behaved though and kept us entertained.  A very good day out and ridiculously cheap - think we will do this a couple more times between now and February.

Sunday dawned clear but cold.  We decided we would go to South Lakes Wildlife Park - a zoo near to Ulverston where it is free, yes FREE to enter during winter months. How could we not visit?  We were expecting a small, average facility so were very pleasantly surprised to find it was a very well run zoo with nicely thought out enclosures. 

Riding a Rhino

It wasn't huge, but it had plenty to look at.  No elephants but pretty much everything else: tigers, lions, rhinos, hippos, about 6 giraffes (my favourite and they didn't disappoint - they were very tall), bears, penguins, kangaroos, lots of birds, monkeys etc.  We didn't find a reptile house, but you never know we may have missed it.  The bird enclosure was really good - had lots of ducks, swans, cranes etc, but also flamingos, and a couple of emus, all walking around with you.  The emus freaked out Tom - understandable though, they do look scary especially when they tower above you like they do to Tom.  The bird enclosure included an indoor area which housed some parrots, monkeys, kangaroos and a pond within which was a huge constrictor snake.  There was no fence between us and the pond, we only noticed the snake after we saw a notice saying 'beware of the snake' we thought it was a joke at first until I heard an exclamation from Matt when he saw a snake's head appearing from the pond!

We spent a good couple of hours in the zoo.  Apart from the Emus, Tom enjoyed it all.  There was even a little train for him to travel on - what more can a little boy need?

Lioness

We decided to leave when the heavens opened, and we had rumbling tummies (the food at the zoo looked very very average - however, we did find an indoor picnic area so next time we go we will take a picnic).

We headed to Ulverston and Booths where there was a cafe for lunch.  All in all a good day, can't believe it is free - we made a donation as we thought it was so good.  We will definitely return before they bring back the entrance fee again in March - when it costs £13.50 per person.