The Lake District

Windermere: Cold, boring, over-crowded and home of grumpy, unfriendly people. Over-rated.

Undeniably the most simply lovely and worthy place to visit in England.

I think we chose a bad time and a bad place… we aimed to stop in Windermere on our way back to Oxford from Glasgow. It was thronged. We found a place to park but just had absolutely no desire to get out of the car. There were that many people. The drive to Windermere was amazing for scenery though and I’d love to go back to the area to do some rambling around with the mutt… avoiding Windermere at all costs!

I stayed in a local hostel there a few times and never wanted to come home. The hiking around that area is to die for. Granted, I never stayed on the paths….

i love this place.. my bf and i were seriously thinking of relocating here at one point.. we have a mate that lives about 20 mins outta Carlisle.. the scenery is so beautiful.. and we found it somewhat relaxing staying at her place for a couple of weeks.. definitely plan to go back again.

We went for a bit of a scenic drive, when we were there, to Keswick, Penrith ‘n Alston.. the outdoor-orientated lifestyle is gobsmacking.. i’d love to live in a place like that.. always something to do :))

..ya gotta go to the highest cafe in England, Hartside cafe!! ..that was a fun trip in itself.. also visit the Cumberland Pencil Factory.. re-awaken ya inner child :p

Take a cruise on Lake Windermere to Bowness, the cruise is beautiful and Bowness is a nice sleepy town to go wandering around in.

If you ever have even the slightest chance, you should GO. It’s very gorgeous – we went in the late summer/early fall, and I can only imagine what it’s like in the winter with snow everywhere!

We rented a motorboat for an hour and puttered around Derwentwater in Keswick (where this photo was taken), but we also drove up through most of the District from the south, stopping to stay at the hostel in Ambleside.

There are other cool things to see in the area besides the lakes: Castlerigg Stone Circle is one other place we visited.

I’d go again :)

The lakes blew me away when I first saw them… to those used to the Alps or such like they may be pimples, but to those of us used to flatter lands the peaks are unlike the rest of England. Beautiful, wild but still only a few hours walk from a tea shop. The first time I walked here I looked at the fell walkers and thought of them as another breed, these days I’ve worked my way up and am up there in the cloud (on a dingey day) feeling like a whole new better person.

Good for mountains, lakes and scenery at all times of the year

I just want to get there. I thought this one would be easy.

So, today me and my daughters and a good friend set off for windermere, the plan being we’d have lunch, potter about the lake, eat ice cream and take fabulous photos of us doing big thumbs ups as we feel its a much underused gesture these days.

well, all was going well til we got to near kendal when we hit the worst traffic jam, we were sat in it for hours, boiling hot, kids grumbling. What do you do? we thought about turning round and going somewhere else but what if the traffic got way better just around the corner. Well, it didn’t. Then, my brakes failed, it was terrifying, so we stopped asap(luckily at a hotel) had some lunch, phoned the breakdown people, were there over 3 hours, the car’s fine just the brakes overheated or something, so by that then it was time to head home.

Ah well. try again another day.