The Lake District

The Lakes

Let me start with a fact: Many people, especially the Britons, answer the question "which part of English is the prettiest?" with "The Lakes".
The lakes, is the abbreviation for the beautiful National Park "The Lake District". The Lakes are a famous holiday destination as they have the highest peaks of England, beautiful lakes, and there is just so much to see and to explore.
The other big National Park in England is "The Peak District" and as the name indicates, the Peaks are famous for high mountains.

But the Lake Districts has got high mountains AND great Lakes. The mountains can be white in the winter, whereas you can see  daffodils in spring, the lake shine blue in the summer and everything is coloured in red and brown in the fall. So, it does not really matter when you go- it is always worth a visit!

Mountain Goat Bus Tour Stop

Michael and me went by the end of Winter, in February half term. Even though it was not the warmest time to go, the nature was ever so beautiful! With the right outfit and waterproof jackets, you can hike anytime!

I have always wanted to explore the Lakes...Two years ago J took me to the Lakes, just when we were on our way back from a trip to Scotland.

She showed me all the places where she used to stay with her big family. All Britons I know have their own caravans and they all love caravaning and are experts in caravaning because they often did this kind of holidays when they were younger. So, they went caravaning with their own children, when they were little and so on and so forth.

J showed me Windermere, Ambleside and Grasmere, a beautiful Lake. Ever since we drove through the area I decided that I want to spend a nice holiday with my boyfriend there.

Today, two years later, we managed to spend 5 great days there. To be honest, 5 days is definitley too short. You can easily spend more than one week there. But for a start it was soo great and we want to visit the Lakes again (maybe in the summer then although it might get very crowded!)

Second walk

Because we spend Karneval in Germany (which was as always so much fun) we flew from Cologne to Manchester and took the train from Manchester Piccadilly, which is the main train station in Manchester, to Windermere. Windermere is one of the few villages in the Lake District which is accessible via trains and therefore we decided to stay in Windermere. Just because it was really handy.
Windermere has many restaurants, shops, small cafés, bars, pubs, supermarkets and many more and was great for us because we booked an airbnb without a kitchen so we had to buy our meals in the village. I would really recommend the Spanish Tapas Bar "Tapios" and the supermarket "Booth" which is situated in the old train-hall.

Windermere

For Christmas I booked a bus tour from the company "Mountain Goat Tour". So we did the bus toour on our very first day. I would do it again because this gave us a good overview of the area. Our tour was called "Winter 10 Lakes Spectacular" and it was a guided bus tour which took 6 hours in total! It started at 9:30 and ended at 3:30pm and we had a nice lunch break inbetween.

It was sooo worth it! In this tour we not only visited great lakes but we could also see the spectacular mountainous scenery, for example the Kirkstone and Honister mountain passes which are two of the highest mountain passes in the Lake District.

Mountain Goat Bus Tour

Moreover, we drove and stopped in Grasmere, Keswick, Ullswater, Ambleside and many more. It was sooo nice as we stopped for lunch in Keswick on a market day and therefore not only had a chance to enjoy a delicious pub meal, but we could also visit at the market (and buy some cheese, hihi).

One unfortgettable highlight was Castlerig Stone Circle which is a stone monument which reminded me of Stonehenge. It is more than 4000 years old and no one knows how it got there.

Another highlight was Grasmere because the village is famous for Sarah Nelson's famous gingerbread.

Moreover, Grasmere is famous because it is said the well-known poet William Wordsworth got the inspiration for his great poems from Grasmere. When you visit the area you can really understand it. Everything is so green and the nature is outstanding!

Elaine, my hostmother gave us a great walking tour pack which is called "The Lakeland Pack". It includes 20 classic walks through the lakes with walks which are either easy, medium or difficult.

We tried walk 1: "Round Loughrigg fell from Ableside" which included views across Wordsworth countryside, which was really stunning!!

The other tour we walked was called "Helm Crag from Grasmere". This second walk was not as great as the first one, but also very good! Due to the weather it was just a little slippery but nevermind:)

Our second walk

Other places of interest:

Windermere- Tourist Information, The Mountain Bus Tour & Booths Supermarket

Ambleside- The Old Town, The Apple Pie Café & Plough Inn Pub

Grasmere-  Lake Grasmere!, Sarah Nelsons Gingerbread Factory

Castlerigg Stone Circle- similar to Stonehenge and sooo stunning

 The Apple Pie- great coffee house in Ambleside

That was it- so if you have the chance to visi the Lakes- grab it!

xoxo A.