After a hearty breakfast and passing the church building above, which seemed to have been converted into a house or flats, it was time to say goodbye to Kendal (the southern gateway to the Lake District) and the whole Lake District itself, as we made our way round to the train station:
Not being able to find a toilet at the station, I had to go looking for a suitable spot nearby to relieve myself (such is the state of modern-day Britain, sadly).
On the train journey south, we were able to reflect on our kind of circular, six-day (North-South) Lake District trip which had taken in:
* Passing through Windermere, Ambleside, Grasmere, Rydal etc.
* Keswick (Greta Hall and Derwent Water)
* A Keswick to Workington bus ride (passing Bassenthwaite Lake and through Cockermouth)
* A Workington-St. Bees train ride along the coast, passing through Whitehaven
* St. Bees (the Abbey, village, and first few miles of Wainwright's Coast-to-Coast Walk), the jewel in the crown of our trip
* St. Bees-Barrow train ride, again along the coast (seeing lots of mudflats) and Barrow-Ulverston bus ride.
* Ulverston for the Laurel and Hardy memorabilia and warm, photogenic town centre.
* An Ulverston-Coniston van ride, seeing lots of gentle hills, streams, hamlets etc.
* Coniston (Donald Campbell memorabilia, visiting the Sun Inn, a kind of wild camp etc.)
* And finally Kendal with its great architecture and Wetherspoons
After passing through Preston, the landscape started to become much bleaker and when I got off at Bolton (heading for Bury), the demographic disaster of modern-day Britain came into full view (my friend, Dave, stayed on the train until Manchester Airport (heading back to Ireland).
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