Train Ride to Windermere

Preston Station

This Easter day we headed off to Windermere for a cruise in the Lake Windermere. Dhruv and I were very excited for our own reasons. Dhruv was exuberant about the train ride and the boat ride he had been promised for that day. I was eagerly looking forward to the perfect views of the lustrous meadows and rolling hills on the way to Windermere and exploring new places.

Daddy was the calmer one amongst us who just wanted to spend a cool sunny spring day on the lake shores relaxing to ease off the pressure of his daily work life. But the thought of a cool and sunny day was too much for an asking. The weather chose to be in utter disharmony with the weather forecasting channels which promised us a sunny day between 12 noon and 3 pm, the major chunk of the time we were to spend in Windermere and nearby. On the flip side, the day turned out to be cloudy accompanied by high speed winds.

It was 12 noon when we boarded the TransPenine Express train from Preston. It was to be a 50 minutes journey to Windermere. After settling down comfortably, it was time to take stock of the nature and the picturesque surroundings through the window. The outside view turned out to be as per the expectation – Picture Perfect. Several serpentine shaped brooks and streams ran through the lush green meadows on both sides of the tracks.  Some even had small boats cruising through them which inspired Dhruv to sing ‘Row Row Row your boat‘.

Sheep, the meadows and the hills

The next rhyme which found relevance was ‘Old MacDonald had a farm’ at the sight of sheep, cows and horses grazing in the meadows. This makes me realize a contrast. Until a few years back on any such journey how I would affix my head and eyes to the window screen letting my mind wander off in space with the outside scenes passing off in flashes. And here I am today vigilant, attentive and appreciative of the surroundings for constantly providing food for distracting Dhruv from his continuous ramblings.

While I and Dhruv were busy exploring the country side, singing rhymes, checking out the colours of the animals and brushing up the counting skills, daddy was spent looking out for any clues about the missing sun that the clouds would endow. Regardless, the clouds remained unrelenting. The more the eyes peered through them the more congregated they would get. Conceding defeat, he shifted his focus on our ever increasing pitch and worked upon a little pruning of his own counting skills vis-a-vis the number of remaining stoppages and the remaining time to the destination.

View at Kendal train station en route to Windermere

50 minutes later, we alighted at Windermere Train Station.

Windermere Train Station

Image Courtesy : Google