travelling-blogger

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If you appear in Coronation Street, sooner or later you take a trip to the Lake District. For some characters, the plot decrees that it is the final journey from which there can be no return - as they are written out. 

About the only other place that exists for the people of Weatherfield is Blackpool - and there have been spectacular fatalities there too!

Happily, when I made my exit from the Street, I was shown heading to Milan rather than up the M6. So the door may still be open for me to go back.

Spirit-lifting: Waterhead Bay on Lake Windermere in Ambleside

Given the tumultuous Corrie connections with the Lakes, I could have been feeling nervous at the prospect of a short break in Ambleside.

But on the contrary, the prospect of a trip to the highly rated Best Western Ambleside Salutation lifted my spirits.

My partner Adam and I had been to the Lake District before, to visit Grasmere. We liked it so much that this time we decided to explore further south, into Ambleside, and we had a fabulous time.

Recharging their batteries: Tina with her partner Adam Crofts and, right, the hotel's pool

The weather wasn't terribly brilliant. In fact, it was as bad as it can be in the Lakes, with the rain coming down in stair rods, so we spent most of our time warm and snug at the hotel.

We spent a morning in the beautiful spa attached to the hotel. I had a head massage and Adam had a sport massage. 

Indulging ourselves like this was just what we needed to recharge our batteries as the day before our trip we'd moved house.

Highly rated: Tina's stay at the Best Western Ambleside Salutation lifted her spirits

I began to think it was lucky that it rained. If it had been sunny, we'd have felt the need to do a bit of Wainwright and climb a couple of fells. Instead we just relaxed… and ate.

There is a great restaurant at the Salutation and you can also dine well in the bar.

I can especially recommend the afternoon tea, during which we had more scones, clotted cream and jam than was probably good for us.

The rooms at the hotel are great. We were lucky enough to have one with a balcony deck area that overlooked Ambleside.

From the balcony we could see all the beautiful countryside and hills and mountains.

Pregnant pause: The former Coronation Street actress is expecting a baby with her partner Adam

An added bonus was the hot tub on our balcony. We were able to sit in there and watch the sun go down. Actually, given the weather, it was more like watching the light disappearing, but it was lovely nonetheless.

The Lake District may be a place where bad things happen to Coronation Street characters but I can definitely say that for me and Adam, it was all glorious. But then that's the difference between soap operas and real life.

In soap operas you can usually rely on an unhappy ending...