A guide by onlyagame
One of the many pleasures of eating at The Jumble Room is the feeling that you are almost sat in front of the telly with your food on your knee.
There's no TV, I hasten to add, but the knockout indulgence is all there with the added benefit of the food being amazing, heartwarming and restaurant quality. The staff are so friendly you may start thinking they are actually long-lost relatives and scratch your head a bit when they ask you to pay the modestly priced bill.
Langdale Road, Grasmere, LA22 9SU
015394 35188
www.thejumbleroom.co.uk/
Best B&B in England. Just across from lake with wonderful views. Full English breakfast delicious, but the owners are the reason that I have travelled to Grasmere from the US for 11 years. They embody the spirit, the heart and the soul of the Lake District. They make the impossible a reality for so many people; whatever the dream, they seem to make it come true whether it's viewing a manuscript of Wordsworth's, going up Helvelyn in a wheelchair, or getting to some remote place without a car, it has happened. Grasmere hospitality runs deep in their Lake District veins, and those who experience it return year after year to recapture the part of themselves they left behind.
www.guesthouse-cumbria.co.uk/
Lake Road, Grasmere LA22 9PW
01539 435 204
With apologies to Julie Andrews, as far as mountain climbing for beginners goes there's nun better than Skiddaw with its natural route clearly visible.
It's a steep climb, but persistence will deliver some amazing views. There are no ropes, pickaxes or on-all-fours required, although be prepared for a slight feeling of shame as runners often jog past.
Take a child and pretend you are going at their pace.
Follow the signposts on the A591 and you'll soon be on the simplest way up Skiddaw.
More McGonagall than Wordsworth, only one hotel in Grasmere seems happy to drag the latter poet's name through the sheep dip. Somehow awarded four stars (unless those are bullet holes in the signs), the Wordsworth manages to capture the essence of tired, floral hell in one of Cumbria's most beautiful villages.
Snootier than an English butler, the hotel keeps its Steptoe disdain for all but its most blue-rinsed guests. One can only hope it has aspirations to one day growing into a retirement home.
In its favour, the hotel does manage to incentivize even the laziest of walkers.
Get to Grasmere and you will only avoid it with great skill.
A pool of water in the navel of Grasmere, Easedale Tarn is a place to sit by and gaze into. People tend to stand around, basking in the captured sunlight as they wait, perhaps, for a mail-clad hand to rise gloriously from the Tarn's centre and give the finger to anyone who owns a 4x4.
Travel up Easdale Road out of Grasmere and follow the signs.
