Dublin and Lake District trip

We just got back from a couple weeks in Dublin and a week in the English Lake District. Here's a summary of our trip & photos (Dublin & Lake District).

Dublin

Apartment

We rented an apartment via Airbnb near the Google office and commuted on bikes along the canal, often in drizzling rain. We were surprised that it was quite cold.

Work

We both met several people on our teams. Li gave a couple tech talks and Cat worked on a few projects. We had a few "mandatory fun" team outings, like seeing "The Avengers", playing badminton, and gathering at some nearby pubs.

Weekends

We went on some great tours in Dublin. A free walking tour of the city itself, a tour of Trinity College, the Jameson Whiskey Distillery tour, and the Guinness Factory tour. The tour guides were passionate and all-around excellent. The Trinity College tour ended with a viewing of the centuries-old Book of Kelles and the beautiful Long Room. The Guinness Factory tour was kind of like a Disneyland exhibit, which is not a compliment, but Li learned to pour the perfect pint of Guinness, which made it worth it.

Cat's teammates Keyvan, Adam, and Axel took us on an excellent hiking trip on Saturday. We started with a fun hedge maze, where Axel and Keyvan did their best to get us lost. Then we went hiking in the beautiful Glendalough, which means "valley with two lakes". Li learned that "hiking" for Axel means "go anywhere but the trail". One time, we clawed for an hour through dense forest only to realize that we had been parallel with a fire road the whole time. We had planned to camp at night but we instead spent the evening at a pub and then drove back to Dublin. Over dinner, we got introduced to the board game Small World and Keyvan's zealous "big bucks, no whammy!" dice rolls.

English Lake District

A day before leaving Dublin, we decided to spend our week vacation in the Lake District in northern England.

Driving

We rented a car from Heathrow and Li drove 5-6 hours north, with Cat reminding him to "stay on the left" after every turn. It was surprisingly difficult to find a sim card with data or car navigation gps, so we navigated the old-fashioned way: using a paper map from a gas station.

Fell race

Online, Cat had found a running race for us to join on the day we arrived in the Lake District: the Borrowdale 21-km (13-mi) trail run or "fell run". Fell means mountain or hill. ("In old english?" Li asked one local. "No, just regular english.") What a beautiful race! We took a small wooden ferry to the race start. 

The organizer sent us on a path along the lake shore, sheltered by trees. After a few miles, we left the lake and climbed two big hills, passing walkers and sheep. Li's original goal was to run the whole way, but the second hill seemed to never end (it was 1.5 miles). The loose, uneven rocks and steep grade on the downhills required constant focus on each step. We almost twisted our ankles probably 20 times. (Oh, that's what that waiver was for!) After the race, we were sore for days, and in weird places like the sides of our shins, which keep the ankle straight.

We learned later that fell running is its own sport with technique, training, and amazing athletes who fly down hillsides at 3:45-mile pace or who run 48 hours straight. Li is reading a book about it now.

Weather and time of year

We expected cold, rainy weather, since that's what we had in Dublin, but we happened upon a sunny and warm week in the Lake District. Every day was t-shirt and shorts weather and it never rained. We applied sunscreen but still managed to get darker than we'd like.... 

Spring turned out to be a great time to visit the Lake District because of the cool temperature (relative to summer), sunny weather (relative to winter), and few people (summer is the high season). Because it was spring, we also saw wildflowers blooming everywhere - purple, blue, pink, red, orange flowers. Such a wonderful treat!

Lake District only has one lake

We learned from a local that the Lake District's only lake is Bassenthwaite Lake. The rest are called "waters" (e.g., Derwentwater) or "meres" (e.g., Buttermere), but they're all the same kind of thing.

Grasmere hike

We intended to take just a short, 3.5-mile stroll to recover after the fell race, but it ended up being 7.5 miles. (The guidebook must have had a typo.) We walked around Grasmere and Rydal Water, admiring the wildflowers, ducks, cows, and sheep. We visited the house and garden where the poet Wordsworth lived in the 1800s. The Old Coffin Trail (so-called because people used to transport coffins along it) offered panoramas of the lakes on our way back.

Ullswater guided hike

Cat found an online "National Trust" site listing free daily guided hikes around the Lake District . We joined guides Malcolm, Linda, and Geoffrey and 10 or so others for a 7.5-mile hike from Glenridding (on Ullswater) to a peak called Catstycam (pronounced cat-stee-cam). We learned a bunch from the guides about sheep and mining. Li was happy to be able to finish the hike. He had a stomach flu, probably from some salmon he ate the day before.

A hike around Ullswater was the inspiration for Wordsworth's famous poem "Daffodils", which starts with "I wandered lonely as a cloud". Wordsworth's sister saw the wild daffodils by the lake and told him about it.

Buttermere hike

Cat read that the favorite hike of Wainwright (who wrote detailed maps/journals about the Lake District) was called Haystacks, near Buttermere, so we went there for our last hike. It ended up being the hardest: 12.4 miles, climbing 7 peaks in 7.5 hours. We almost turned back because of exhaustion and lack of water before reaching Wainwright's favorite spot, but we pushed on and were rewarded with the most beautiful tarn (mountain lake) of the trip. The ice cream truck at the end was a delight for us, having depleted our water hours before.

Picnic by Rydal Water

On the last day, we picnicked by a stream connecting Grasmere and Rydal Water, reading and munching on blueberries, baguettes, and cheese. Unfortunately, the unwashed blueberries apparently gave Li food poisoning. Cat wasn't feeling too hot either.

Howe Keld
If you're interested, we stayed at a bed-and-breakfast called Howe Keld in Keswick. It was recommended by Lonely Planet -- great breakfast, good price, near a grocery store for meat, cheese, and baguettes for a pack lunch.