Britain From A to Z: G

Grasmere

Grasmere is a small village in the heart of the Lake District National Park in Cumbria, England. At Dove Cottage in this village, William Wordsworth, the poetic wordsmith, lived for many years and wrote much of his poetry. He is also buried at a nearby cemetery. This whole area was very scenic and well (words)worth a stop. Yet, our tour was not originally scheduled to stop there. It was at the request of two English teachers in our tour group that Tom, our tour guide, made adjustments to our schedule that allowed us to visit Grasmere.

Dove Cottage in Grasmere

Grasmere wasn't the only unscheduled stop we made on the tour. While in northern Wales, our son asked if we could detour off our intended path and visit a town on the island of Anglesey named Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch. This is the longest place name in Europe and one of the longest in the world. The tour guide wasn't sure of the pronunciation, so asked our son Andrew, who he knew spoke some Welsh, to say the name on the bus intercom system. Apparently the town took on this name in the 19th century to attract tourism. In English, the name means "The Church of Mary in the Hollow of the White Hazel Near the Fierce Whirlpool and the Church of Tysilio by the Red Cave."

Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch

While thinking about the places we got to stop simply because someone asked, we realized that there were many things we did on the tour that we would never have known to do had we planned the trip ourselves. Some things like the Scottish banquet we attended in Edinburgh, Scotland, and the Welsh banquet we went to at Cardiff Castle in Wales. Had we missed the latter event, we would have missed Andrew being crowned king and being asked to taste the Leek and Potato Soup for poison. One very interesting place we would never have even thought about going to was the slate museum in Llanberis, Gwynedd, northern Wales. There, Andrew was allowed to split a large piece of slate using only a hammer and a chisel. This museum acts as a preserve for a very important part of Welsh history.

So, whenever you travel in the future, please remember Grasmere. If you're on a tour and you want to stop somewhere you're not scheduled to stop, ASK! If you are planning a trip on your own, consider going to a place or an event that you wouldn't normally go. You might be surprised.