Camping in the Lakes District...

Two weeks after Jimmy was in the Lakes District, Veronica headed north for two nights.

Her first night was spent back-country camping with her old boyfriend, Jason...

...and the second night she spent in a youth hostel so she could do some additional hiking and photography.

No surprise that she was happy to get her drone up in the air. Here’s a short video that she put together featuring footage taken near the Old Man of Coniston, along the Ullswater Way and outside the Helvellyn Youth Hostel.

She also enjoyed taking some self-portraits amongst the purple heather. 

Must confess that this wasn’t taken in the Lakes District, but I had just failed to post it earlier.

Running in the Lakes District...

Jimmy thoroughly enjoyed wearing his special fell running shoes and experiencing the magnificence of the scenery again.

When he spent his second night at the Grasmere Youth Hostel, he was greatly disappointed to discover that he had prepaid for dinner there but all the other guests had opted to eat elsewhere in town.

Actually he wasn’t always alone as sometimes there were sheep on his path.

He enjoyed a beer at the Patterdale Hotel, one of our stops for a drink as well. 

Jimmy was especially impressed with the Haweswater Hotel, which was across the lake from where we hiked. His room had this crazy Japanese deep-style bath.

He spent his final night at a youth hostel in Penrith, where he celebrated the end of an excellent adventure.

He found the Penrith station quite charming at the start of his very long train journey home.

Back in the Lakes District....

The following morning, I got a train back to Holland while Jimmy caught several trains to get to St. Bees, where we started the Coast-2-Coast back in July 2016. This time Jimmy intended to run from St. Bees to Penrith over four days, averaging 22 miles per day. He had his suitcase transported to the end, so all he had with him fit in his small running backpack.

Here he is at the official starting point of the C2C at the Irish Sea.

This time he knew better than to try to feed the cows bananas. Instead he just petted them on the nose.

He didn’t take a lot of photos, but here’s the rugged coastline...

...and another selfie.

He finished his first night at the Black Sail Hostel, England’s most remote hostel. It was full and very lively, but Jimmy went to bed early because he was exhausted. We hadn’t gotten there in 2016 until after lunch on our second day and were happy to have had a place to dry off. Jimmy had crazy rain and wind on his third day with just a rain jacket to keep his upper body dry while his lower half was soaked in running shorts.

Regent’s Canal...

That evening after Veronica left, Jimmy and I walked along Regent’s Canal from King’s Cross to Camden Market.

It was very cool to see how some old Victorian architecture had been repurposed such as at Gasholders London, a complex of 145 upscale apartments built within the 150-year-old cast-iron gasholder frames that used to store the area’s gas supplies.

Along the way, we spotted some interesting things on boats...

...and on walls.

We also saw some nice reflections...

...and segments of the canal filled with algae.

After a short stop at Camden Market, which was mostly closed for the evening, we made our way back towards King’s Cross, stopped at a grocery store and ate a picnic dinner along the canal.

Graduation Celebration...

Our final celebration in honor of Veronica’s graduation was to head to London to see Hamilton at Victoria Palace...

...which was a lovely theater.

Veronica had seen the show before and tried to introduce us to the music, but we found it hard to follow without the visuals. Luckily it all came together very quickly and we really loved the show! 

While Jimmy and I were spending the night in London, Veronica was catching a train back to Norwich for her Grad Ball and a final weekend with UEA friends. Before she left, we stopped for some incredible vegan ice cream at the Dappa kiosk at St. Pancras International. Probably sounds crazy that their black waffle cones were made out of cinnamon, chia seeds and charcoal, but we all agreed that it was delicious.

Veronica’s Future Home...

We were especially happy that our timing worked out to see Veronica’s future house when she met with the landlord to sign the paperwork. While not especially impressive from the outside...

...we were very impressed with how nice it was inside. It’s not the largest room she’s rented, but it’s definitely the nicest. And the bathroom and kitchen are also exceptionally nice, especially for a student rental. She’ll have three roommates, all of which are international students; two are in their final year for their Bachelor’s and one is also doing a Master’s.

From there we walked along the River Exe, where we were surprised to see a sign warning that the riverfront walkway can get flooded.

We stopped for a cider along the riverfront...

...and then made our way to a cocktail bar at the Exeter Quayside.

It was a very nice day and we all felt good about Veronica’s future home.

First Glimpses of University of Exeter...

It was very exciting to see where Veronica would be starting her Master’s in September.

She was clearly happy to pose for lots more photos.

The grounds were quite nice with lots of trees, including this redwood...

...and a pond or two.

Exeter was hosting a graduation that day, so the student union was quite festive. It was crowded, but we managed to find a table at the pub for ciders.