The same month last year, hubby was in UK as he was on a 2 years' secondment contract. Though we had an early birthday celebration, he was alone on the actual day. This year, since his birthday fell on a weekend, I decided to book a short weekend's trip as celebration, and treat it as a retreat after his long tiring and stressful training in Bonn a week before.
Lake district (The Lake) is the mountainous area in north west England which is also a popular tourist attraction, well known for its breathtaking landscapes, lakes, forests, picturesque village towns. The Lake has become the 2nd National park after the Peak district in Derbyshire. It lies within the Cumbria county. There are 4 main towns around the Lake district, namely Keswick, Windermere, Bowness-on-Windermere and Ambleside.
Set the sat nav as LA23 1LJ to first stop-Brockhole visitor information center to get copy of map and some local tourist information. The estimated travelling time was 2 1/2 hours from home. Saturday morning was misty and temperature around 13C. However, weather forecast predicted sunny spell on Sunday. We departed around 8:30pm and reached our first destination-Brockhole visitor center at noon time. When the car drove through The Lake district, we were really amazed with the picturesque lakeside setting, english country style stone houses, sheep across the hilly field with unique stone fencing, valley roads with beautiful multicoloured autumn leaves. After a short stay in Brockhole where I bought the famous Kendal mint cake (it tasted terrible to both of us), we took a stroll within the garden then we headed to next destination-our hotel at Bowness-on-Windermere. It was merely a 8-10 minutes drive.
The hotel we booked-Lindeth Fell Country House Hotel was like a hidden gem in the valley. It is of great location (if you have a car). It is only 5 minutes drive to the Bowness-on-windermere pier, or by foot a 30 minutes walk. It offers spectacular view of the lake windermere and the fells. The room we stayed are tastely decorated with country style, clean, lighting with adjustable dimness, and comfortable heating.
Upon arrival, we were greeted by the friendly owner's daughter-Sheena. She showed us to our room. She made us feel welcome with great smile and friendliness. We have also make our dinner reservation as based on tripadvisor review, the food served in this hotel are tasty.
It was after 2pm after we checked in and unloaded our luggage. Without any more delay, we drove out to Bowness-on-Windermere pier point. The Windermere Lake cruise is definitely not a miss as we will be able to sit back, relax, and yet enjoy the lake view. We parked our car at the nearby long stay carpark. Bowness-on-Windermere is a small village town with quite a number of small ice cream shops, cafes, souvenier shops, and it is bustled with tourists. At the ticket office, we purchased the "freedom of the lake" lake cruise ticket of £24.20 each with round trip of the entire Windermere lake that allows to hop on and off at any 3 piers-Ambleside, Bowness on windermere, Lakeside, and with entry to the Aquarium at Lakeside.
The entry ticket to Aquarium must be consumed on the same day. So we took the Yellow Cruise heading South of Lake Windermere. Further, the weather was quite cloudy, and approaching dusk, it might also be good idea to just visit "Lakeside" first. The boat trip takes 35 minutes to reach "lakeside". We first sat on the first row of the upper deck thinking to enjoy the best view. But during half ride, we decided to move to sheltered lower deck as the breeze was too strong and chilly. At "Lakeside", other tourists chose to take the steamer train to another small village. The train I found resembles "Thomas & Friends" :)
The visit to the Aquarium was such a let down. The boat reached the pier at 3:35pm, and last boat departs at 4:50pm. Originally, I had thought we may not have enough time. It turned out, we were out within half an hour. There were not many fish to see, the so called "tunnel" were just have few ducks diving in and up (the only interesting thing to see, I think), and few big fishes swimming across. We may see more tropical fish in the fish tanks in fish shop than in this Aquarium.
However, thanks to the disappointing Aquarium, which takes us only less than half an hour. We were able to have our aromatic coffee at the Lakeside hotel, while enjoying the lake view at the hotel 's conservatory cafeteria.
It was almost 6pm by the time we back to hotel. Dinner was to start at 7:30pm, so we took a good shower before dinner. At the lobby, we first met the late owner-Mr Kennedy's wife. She was a very warm and friendly lady. She welcomed us to one of the reception room while the staff were arranging our table. She had a short chat with us, and told us about her plan visiting Australia for holidays. We ordered wine to start with, and the staff brought us a plate of cheese puff and fried fritter. Both were delicious, but not to dear's taste bud. We were given the dinner menu. For the 3 course dinner, mine was Risotto-Lemon sole-Lightly poarched pear, whereas dear started off with Carrot & coriander soup, followed by Duck breast and finished with Sticky toffee pudding. We have also tried Mrs Kennedy's home made raisin bread. It was delicious. Between the course, the staff brought us passion fruit sorbet, which was refreshing and appetizing. To complete the dinner, there was free flow coffee and kendal mint cake served on the table at the main lobby area. We were delighted we chose to dine at this hotel as the food was of quality, great atmosphere, good service and most importantly save us the hassle looking around the town center for good restaurant. No queue at all.
The next day, rise and shine. We woke up around 8am. It was a foggy morning, appearing like we were on the highest peak of mountain. Breakfast was good, with a pot of hot aromatic coffee to kick off. Newspaper we ordered was already placed on the table. I ordered hot porridge with honey , whereas dear ordered the Lindeth English breakfast from the ala-carte menu. We were offered toast bread with homemade marmalade too. We had a relaxing morning breakfast with all time service from the staff.
We checked out straight after the breakfast, as we had to catch the lake cruise round trip Ambleside-Bowness-On-Windermere, and to visit the Castlerigg stone circle at Keswick. It was a day with no rain, no cloud just a bit chilly and foggy in the morning. We parked our car at the carpark opposite Ambleside pier. The morning lake view was amazing. You feel sense of tranquility, serenity. It is just simply beautiful.
After the lake cruise, we set off to our final destination-the Castlerigg stone circle at Keswick. It took about 15-20 minutes drive. Along the way, we passed by Ambleside village, scenic road with mountain views and lake. The stone circle is on the level top of a low hill. There are 38 stones, and was believed to have built around 3000 B.C. The origin was unknown and left as mystery, so we were both excited to see it. We drove up the narrow hill, and pulled our car by the road side, and we could see the circle stones. We both laughed out, as these stones are not as magnificent as we thought it should have. Well, we just stopped for less than 15 minutes and headed home.
Lake district is truly a wonderful place to visit. There are many other lakes, towns which we should visit but didnt as due to time contrainsts. Mountain trekking might be a good idea next trip? maybe, but it will pose a challenge to someone like me who has height phobia and weak stamina.
