Trip to Lake Windermere in the Lake Districts

We recently travelled to Scotland for a weekend away with the family.  We went last year and loved it.  This year we thought we would spend a day at the Lake District on the way which I have heard so much about and always wanted to visit.  We spent thee night at a friends house in York and then set out early to reach the Lake District.

We drove through the Pennines, which I found to be absolutely stunning, green and gold with hills, valleys and fields full of wheat harvested or ready to harvest.  All set out under a bright blue sky.

We reached the Lake District and decided to start as Bowness which is known as  a tourist stop but as it was out first stop, we hoped it would have facilities and information on where best to go next.

The view from the shore of Lake Windermere was pretty, but not as majestic as I was expecting.  The place was busy, but there was little to do apart from a boat ride and hubby got cross with the gentleman selling tickets as he was a little rude.

Being a group with four children and two older people, we always have to plan for toilet breaks.  We also have to make wudhu (ablutions).  So it was a little annoying to find we had to dig around for 40p each to get into the toilets only to find only one sick inside with a queue for it.

  

After having lunch and praying our noon prayers, we decided to move on to Brockhole visitor centre.  This had a bit more to do with climbing walls, play areas, gardens, a tree slide and a boat ride around the lake.

We decided to take a boat ride from Brockhole to Ambleside to Wray. which has an old castle, and back and see most of the lake that way.

Ambleside:

We stopped at Wray and walked through a forested path to an old castle which is being refurbished from inside.

We played croquet on the lawn and bowled pins.  We only stayed for half an hour and then headed back to the pier as the boat was heading back to Bockhurst.  We got there to find we had missed the boat, ensuing in much squabbling about who was supposed to be watching the time.  Luckily another one came along after 10 minutes rather than the hour we had expected.

After returning to Brockhurst I had hoped to drive out further to Derwentwater which is supposed to be beautiful and a little more isolated, but it was getting late so we decided to get on with our journey to Scotland.

I found the parts of the Lake District we visited a little bit of an anti-climax in comparison to Loch Lomond which we visited a few years ago or Cornwall. I suspect this is because of hoe commercialised they are.  I think I would visit the Lake District again, but plan my visit more carefully to take in the more isolated spots and take proper hiking shoes.