windermere at sunset

Windermere at sunset
Originally uploaded by theCallowQueen.

Location: Bowness on Windermere, The Lake District, England. The Lake District is in the upper west side of England. This photo is of the boats docked in Bowness' harbor on Lake Windermere.

Anne Marie and I stayed in a pleasant little hostel in Windermere a few miles up the main road. But we walked to Bowness almost every evening for dinner and to sit by the water.

Most days we'd take an open-topped bus to the nearby towns of Grasmere or Ambleside. And from these towns we'd take long (3-9 hour) hikes, walks, and treks around Grasmere Lake or up to Alcock Tarn, a hanging lake formed by glaciers situated high up in the mountainous hills.

I love pedestrian paths. There are public pathways for people or bikes or horses through pastures and farmland. You must respect the property your crossing and stick to the path, but it's the best way to travel from place to place--much more interesting than along a road or sidewalk.

We spent a week in the Lake District. We weren't even going to visit. Logically we should have stopped in the Lake District after we were in Edinburgh, but we went to Dublin. We should have stopped in the Lake District while we were up in Liverpool, but we went down to the Cottswolds and Bath. Then we went back up to the Lake District on a whim.

I'm glad we did. One of my favorite places. We ended up staying a few days longer because the train workers were on strike, and we weren't in the mood to deal with long bus rides all the way to Canterbury.

Time: Just after sunset. Wearing well through September.

Climate: Kept my jacket on unless I was on a hike.

Temperament: Enjoying the water, the swans, the ducks, the beauty of the hills and mountains. This was our first day in the Lake District. Feeling the release of stress. The Lake District was our holiday from our holiday (by now we'd been trained to say we're on holiday instead of vacation; I rather like it). It felt good to get away and up into the hills. I loved those walks--the longer the better. I did get stressed out during our stay.