So we are into the school summer holidays and another trip north with the family to the Lake District. This was the first year that my eldest has driven up there, which shows how long we’ve been coming as he was 1 on his first visit!! I feel old!! The journey is never too easy, and myself and my eldest were driving in tandem for the route (mainly because dad wanted to make sure he got there safe). We’ve done a number of different walks, visits and stop offs on the way up previously, the plan up until a week before leaving was to head for the Kirkstone pass, park and walk up Red Screes and Middle Dodd, however the greedy owner of the connected self catering holiday lets, next to the pub, has slapped parking charges on the car park. Being extremely against this sort of money making scheme I was not having that, so we decided to visit Lancaster instead and its cathedral, castle and town. It was a good choice. We parked up around midday and headed to the Catholic cathedral first. A wedding was happening so we headed into the main town and up to the castle, eating our sandwiches in the courtyard, before heading to the Priory church of St Mary which is next door. We’d had a good look around the priory church before we walked back to the centre and back out to the cathedral, happy with our visit we walked the short distance to the cars and drove to Grasmere for our week in the Lakes. We really enjoyed Lancaster and I’m sure we’ve missed a few bits, but still for an afternoon it was a great choice