After AJ got off work on July 4th, we headed out of town to one of the most beautiful places in the UK, the Lake District. It is in the northwestern region of England. There are multiple quaint towns that make up this area. After about a two hour drive, we arrived in Keswick. To be honest, we selected this town solely based upon the recommendation of Rick Steves, the travel writer.
Keswick was an important mining town for slate, copper, and lead throughout the Middle Ages, but then became a resort town in the 1800s. It is lined with beautiful Victorian homes and building, many of which are now bed and breakfasts.
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| The Heads lined with beautiful Victorian homes that now serve as bed and breakfasts for visitors. |
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The primary accommodations in this area are bed and breakfasts. Again, on the recommendations of Rick and availablity on short notice, we checked into the Parkfield House run by Jon and Susan. It is a beautiful home with lovely rooms. Once we got all our bags settled into the room, we set out to find some dinner. One of the most charming aspects of this town was its complete walkability. We walked to a tapas restaurant and had a delicious meal. One of the things that I truly appreciate about UK restaurants is the overall freshness and quality of the food.
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| Our lovely and charming accommodations for the weekend: Parkerfield House. |
Keswick, which means cheese farm, has a beautiful city center to wander. It is anchored by Moot Hall (Meeting Hall). In the 16th century, this was the copper warehouse. Saturday was market day, so the square was filled with vendors selling a variety of items from clothing to fresh produce.
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| Moot Hall after all the vendors had packed up for the day. |
On Saturday morning, we woke up to a beautiful day. As with any bed and breakfast, we had another yummy meal. Susan, one of the owners, cooks each patron's breakfast to order. A full English breakfast was offered, but AJ and I just opted for scrambled eggs, bacon, and toast.
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| Our beautiful morning view that we enjoyed on Saturday and Sunday during breakfast. |
After breakfast, we took full advantage of the beautiful day. Derwentwater lake is the lake in Keswick. There is a boat house, rowboats, and a large flock of geese and ducks! They offer a boat ride that makes seven stops that you can get off to walk and explore. We decided to take the boat ride that runs on the hour. Since we had a bit of time to spare until the boat arrived, we fed the ducks and geese. These ducks and geese were very accustommed to humans feeding them! They instantly would flock towards anyone that was holding the brown paper bag of feed. AJ was clearly braver than I, and let them eat straight from his hand!
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| Enjoying the amazing scenery before deciding to feed the ducks and geese! |
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| AJ was much more adventurous feeding the geese! |
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Clearly, I was not enjoying the experience as much as AJ!
I was slightly nervous about my feet getting pecked! |
The boat rides are on beautiful wooden boats. We got off at the second stop, Lordes Falls. There is a lovely hotel and restaurant, just off the lake. We walked over and had an afternoon tea and treat. We decided to walk around a bit and explore. The Lordes Falls is located about 200 yards from the hotel, so we trekked up there to see them. That was the extent of our hiking, as our proper hiking boots and such are heading over to the UK on a boat currently!
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| The beautiful boat we rode to explore the lake. | | | |
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| The beautiful hills that surround the lake! |
After our walk, we reboarded the boat to finish the tour around the lake. The lake is surrounded by hills and pastures that are home to sheep. All of the hills, with sheep grazing, have walking paths and hiking trails for people to use to explore the countryside. The sheep are completely unbothered by people walking about. On our next visit, we will definitely take a few days to do that...with the proper shoes, of course!
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| Sheep just off the walking path, completely unfazed by our presence! |
For dinner, we ate at a restaurant recommended to us by John and Susan. Morrells is such a popular restaurant in the area that reservations are a must! In order to get in, we had to eat at 5:30 and be out by 6:45! In the UK, that is a speedy dinner! All of the meals are prepared using local meat and produce. Everything was delicious and tasty!
On Sunday, we ate breakfast and then packed up the car. We walked around the river in Keswick for a bit and then got on the road. We had a wonderful weekend away!
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| Our view of the river and town of Keswick on our walk! |
We are back in the hotel still waiting for all the paperwork on our new UK house to be finalized. Hopefully, that process will be completed soon! Both AJ and I are ready to be in our house and start making it a home! Once we are there, remember the lights will always be on!
~W
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