Peter Etherington's Visit to Threlkeld - Summer 2007.

This is part of Peter's e-mail describing his holiday in Allonby - sent spontaneously to the Webmaster. I may have put the odd comma or paragraph break in but any emphasis is his.

The weather god was smiling on me again, even if the travel god wasn’t, as I planned my trip to Threlkeld.
It takes some place to get me to travel for a total of three hours, including a 55 minute “just missed a bus, wait for the next one” kicking my heels stop in Workington, on three buses but Threlkeld is exactly that – SOME PLACE!
I’d passed through Threlkeld three years earlier on the Penrith to Workington bus when I was having a few days break in Keswick. I thought then how beautiful it was just from looking at it through a bus window and, knowing that I wouldn’t have time to actually visit on that trip, I vowed that one day I would.
It’s great when you achieve something you’ve promised yourself you would do isn’t it? Okay, it wasn’t the most unattainable thing in the world to visit a village on a main bus route but I was so glad I did.
I deliberately got off the bus the stop before I needed to so I could walk slightly uphill into the village to take in all of the sheer beauty of it.
Set against the dramatic backdrop of Blencathra, the peace, quiet, tranquillity and colours of Threlkeld mean to me that, if it is not the most beautiful place in the world, then I want somebody to take me to the place that is and then die, because that place could surely only be heaven.
I’m a big softie anyway but the old lachrymal glands were severely tested as I sat on a bench in the village just taking in the absolute beautiful magnificence of it all. Then I remembered I was hungry and thirsty so off to the Salutation it was for my dinner.
I’m glad that us Northerners still call the meal you have between about midday and mid afternoon 'dinner' rather than the Southernised 'lunch'. Does my head in that!
Ice cold Fosters, very reasonably priced turkey sandwiches and a pool table – heaven indeed! Dave and Linz where are you when I need you?
Suitably fed and watered it was off to Threlkeld’s other pub, the Horse and Farrier to …..errr…..get fed and watered again!
Part one of the plan failed though as the beautiful Polish waitress informed me that she had just stopped serving food. Never mind, cold beer would suffice. The Polish lass (never did get her name) added to my growing love for Cumbrians (you know what I mean) and their friendliness by regaling me with tales of her home town of Torun and it’s fame for being the birthplace of astronomer Nicholas Copernicus. I’ve never been to Poland but if I ever do I must make a point of visiting Torun. Sounds beautiful.
One of the leaflets I picked up in the Horse and Farrier informed me of a 40 minute walk through the village, past the school, up toward Blencathra and down again. Time constraints and a full belly meant I would have to leave that walk for another time. Pity. It sounded so beautiful.
It was with heavy, yet paradoxically joyous heart after my all too brief visit to heaven, I boarded the bus for the first leg of the three hour journey home (because I did now consider it my home) to Allonby.