The Lake District: Day Three

On the morning of our second (and last) full day in the Lake District, we got a taxi down to Bowness-on-Windermere, a town that's popular with tourists. It's a very busy but picturesque place with lots of wildlife!

We were there to catch a boat and go on a cruise across to Lakeside, a village at the south end of Lake Windermere, where the lake flows into the River Leven. 

It was very cold on the boat, but I really enjoyed the trip. Windermere is actually the largest lake in England, at a length of 10 miles and a width of 1 mile, and is surrounded by hills and mountains. Therefore it offers many beautiful views.

I particularly liked this building which looks like a castle, but is actually a viewing station called Claife Heights.

When we arrived at Lakeside, we boarded an old steam train and went on a trip down to the village of Haverthwaite and back again. The views of the river and the surrounding countryside were great, and the train and railway station were like a snapshot from the past, reminiscent of when train travel was enjoyable!

Afterwards we got on the boat again to go back to Bowness. This time, we travelled quite closely past Belle Isle, the biggest island in the lake, at 1 km in length. There is just one house on the island, called the Round House. Its design was inspired by the Pantheon in Rome, and it was possible to see the top of it from the boat. We could also see an adorable little poodle waiting at the end of a jetty on the island! Unfortunately, it's very hard to see him/her in my picture!

Once we were back in Bowness, we went to the Belsfield Hotel for a very special afternoon tea. The hotel is an incredible place, that looks almost like a palace both inside and out.

The best thing is that they offer afternoon teas for all dietary requirements, including a vegan one, which was obviously the one I chose. It was really delicious and so big that I could save some for supper and the next day's lunch!

From where we were sitting, we had great views over the lake and the gardens of the hotel. There were little rabbits happily frolicking about just outside the window!

The views from outside the hotel were also amazing.

We got a taxi back to Windermere to relax in the hotel for a couple of hours. Then my dad and I went for a walk through the town. Like I'd done the previous day, we walked up Queen Adelaide's Hill. However this time, the views were clearer as the weather was nicer.

Afterwards we walked through another public footpath. There was a beautiful waterfall there that we hadn't been expecting to find!

The footpath eventually leads to the shore of the lake. It was very peaceful to watch the sun setting over the water.

Then we walked back up the footpath and carried on along the main road. We came across a viewpoint where you can see across to various mountains including Scafell Pike, the tallest mountain in England. If I ever go back to the Lake District, I'd like to have a go at climbing it!

Finally, as we were walking back towards the hotel, we saw three beautiful deer in a field! It was hard to get good photos of them on my phone camera, but it was amazing to watch them.

This was our last bit of sightseeing in the area, as we drove back down to Wiltshire the next day. Overall, I enjoyed our visit to the Lake District a lot and I found it more interesting than I expected to.

My favourite places were the two waterfalls we saw: Stock Ghyll Force and the waterfall in Windermere. I really liked the nature of the area as a whole, because it was surprisingly reminiscent of my trip to the south of Chile in 2018. My boyfriend (who's from Chile) said the same thing when he saw the photos! Okay, so there aren't any snow-capped volcanoes and imposing Andes mountains in the English Lake District like there are in the Chilean Lake District, but there are still (smaller) mountains, lakes (obviously), rivers, forests and waterfalls. And very cold weather!

I was expecting the nature to be more like my local "Lake District", the Cotswold Water Park. However, the two areas are actually very different. The Cotswold Water Park has around 150 small lakes spread across a small area, whereas the Lake District has 16 much larger lakes spaced further apart. I would definitely recommend both as great places to visit.

This trip was the first proper holiday I've had since the start of the pandemic and it was a bit of a different experience. We wore masks inside the communal areas of the hotel and in all public places except for remote outdoor spaces, and we also had to order breakfast at the hotel the evening before, as buffets aren't Covid compliant. But these things weren't really a big deal for me, and they made me feel more safe. The only issue I had regarding Covid safety was with the crowds of people that were in Ambleside and Bowness, because at times social distancing wasn't possible, and not everyone was wearing a mask or making an effort to keep as much distance as they could.

All things considered, I feel mostly okay about travelling again, and I found that this trip was good preparation for when I go abroad with my boyfriend in a month or two's time. I don't think I would go abroad at this time if the circumstances of my life and relationship were different, but it's going to be my boyfriend's first trip to Europe, so we need to make the most of it! Besides, I do believe that we all need to try to live our lives with some sort of normality, given that we don't know how long this situation will continue for. If we take the necessary precautions (like mask-wearing and social distancing), then we can safely enjoy both domestic and international travel.

In the coming weeks, I plan to do a couple more local trips with my family. Then, at last, my boyfriend will arrive in England and we'll have two weeks of self-isolation at home. Afterwards (barring any further lockdowns -  I pray this doesn't happen) we'll be free to explore the UK and beyond. It's a strange time at the moment, and therefore travelling is a bit different than it used to be. But I'm excited to go on some slightly more adventurous travel adventures over the coming months!

Read about The Lake District: Days One and Two here!

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!