The Lake District: Days One and Two

This week I went on my first proper trip away since March! My parents and I spent a few days in the Lake District National Park in North West England, not far from the border with Scotland. Even though we didn't leave the country, it almost felt like going abroad, as it was a long way to go from our home in Wiltshire. In fact, it is actually further away from us than France is in terms of distance!

The reason we went there is because my parents won a competition to stay at a hotel in Windermere. They were originally meant to go back in May, but obviously the pandemic put paid to that plan. So they re-booked the stay for September, and as I'm still here rather than teaching in Chile like I planned, I came along too!

Cedar Manor Hotel, where we stayed, is a beautiful 5 star hotel that's definitely a cut above many of the places I've stayed since I started travel blogging! It was very cool to stay in a huge room with a four-poster bed, a dressing table, and a bath the size of a hot tub!

On the evening we arrived, we went to the Lamplighter Dining Rooms in the centre of the town for supper, where I had a very tasty (and very big!) veggie curry. 

On the way there and back, we walked past St Mary's Church, an interesting building to look at.

The next morning, we went to the town of Ambleside, to the north of Lake Windermere. It was a nice place, but extremely busy and with narrow streets, so it wasn't easy to socially distance. The most famous sight is the town is the Bridge House, a little house built on a bridge. People lived in it in the past, but now it's owned by the National Trust.

A short hike outside of the town brings you to another famous sight: the Stock Ghyll Force waterfalls. This is the attraction I'd most wanted to visit before coming to the Lake District, and I definitely wasn't disappointed. The main waterfall is 70 feet high and is really impressive to see. It brought back memories of some of the amazing waterfalls I saw in the south of Chile. It just goes to show that you don't need to leave the UK to see some incredible nature.

Afterwards we set off in the car towards our next destination. However, the roads in the area are not well signposted, so we ended up taking a longer route than expected! But at least during the journey we saw some memorable sights, like Beltie cows, a heron, and the Coniston Water lake. We stopped at the side of the road to get a proper look at it.

A little while later, we finally arrived at our destination: Wray Castle. This was another one of my picks, and it certainly lived up to my expectations. It looks like a magnificent medieval castle, but was actually built during the Victorian era, so it's still in peak condition. It's also surrounded by beautiful nature, with views of Lake Windermere in the distance.

Later in the day, after we got back to the hotel, I felt like getting some fresh air. Even though it was raining (there's a surprisingly big difference in weather between Cumbria and Wiltshire!), I still enjoyed the walk. I went down a little footpath through a forest and then crossed the main road to get to Queen Adelaide's Hill. It's only a small hill to climb, but you get great views of the lake from up there.

I really enjoyed our first two days in the Lake District, and the third day was great too. That was when we went on a cruise across Lake Windermere, took a trip on a steam train, and had an amazing afternoon tea. I'll be writing about it all very soon!

Read about The Lake District: Day Three here!