First call Fountains Abbey, which is the ruin of a Monastery alongside 18th century pleasure grounds with Follies. Lovely visit on a fine day - it takes all day to see everything. The interesting thing about this spot is that the gardens pre-date Capability Brown. While CB and his followers and their dedication to 'natural' gardens (which weren't natural at all) produced beautiful landscapes, they mostly swept away all traces of what went before. But for some reason this didn't happen here and there is funding to restore the full glory of the 18th century formal gardens. It will take a few years to achieve but it is well on its way to being stunning.
Final hotel of this trip was the Samling at Ambleside. The food is special but at least partly about the performance, and Diva in particular thought it a bit pretentious. But it was exciting when they brought the sorbet set in a double skinned bowl. The outer bowl contained dry ice and pouring hot water into it produced a large amount of water vapour. Excellent dessert consisting of rhubarb prepared in several different ways, including rhubarb crisps!
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