The Lake District and Cumbria in general

I used to call Cumbria my home for about two years. When I was 16 I moved to Boarding School in England to do my IB. I lived in a teeny tiny village in the countryside. And the nature up North is just so beautiful! Vast green meadows with sheep and cows, hills from which you can enjoy the view over kilometres of beauty and tranquillity. Meadows, lakes, the seaside, hills, mountains, beautiful little villages, there is just so much to see and to do in the Lake District. I lived right next to the Lake District and next to a tiny little bay almost like mudflat. This area is ideal for hiking trips or long walks on a public footpath. There is so much to see! Morecambe Bay, Arnside, Grange-over-Sands, Levens Hall and of course a million different walks. The nearest city was Kendal, a pretty small town. You can also do excursions to Lancaster or Ingleton Waterfalls, which are really close to Cumbria as well.

Mudflat hiking tour to Chapel Island June 2011

Arnside

The railway bridge between Arnside and Grange-over-Sands

 

 

 

 

Ingleton Waterfalls

Levens Hall

 

Heversham

This photo was taken between Milnthorpe, Heversham and Levens, somewhere in the meadows. But this is what the nature looks like everywhere up there in Cumbria. So green, so vast, so peacefull! I used to walk these meadows almost every day for two years.

Kendal with my boyfriend Marc September 2015

Last September, just after finishing my internship in Lanzarote my boyfriend and I went on vacation in England. We drove by car from Cologne to Calais, took the ferry and then continued our journey to Oxford, where we spent two nights. It is a beautiful but very expensive city with a lot of interesting buildings and monuments, including the University of Oxford of course. We met up with my roommate from when I was living at Boarding School and had a lovely, sunny day. Then we continued to drive up North, to our actual destination Windermere, where we stayed in this adorable Bed & Breakfast. We spent a wonderful week doing all the touristy sightseeing, visiting my old school and home, meeting up with my "neighbour" from Boarding School, trekking through the nature, simply enjoying ourselves! This was the very first time my boyfriend had been to the UK and the main purpose was for me to show him everything so that he could make up his mind whether or not he wants to do his master over there. Obviously there are so many more places like London, the rest of England, Scotland, Wales... But I think showing him my favourite places with enthusiasm is the most convincing, and it worked, because he applied to four universities in England and Scotland. So let's see how everything is going to work out!

Lake Windermere

Orrest Head (Windermere)

 

 

Bowness

 

Morecambe / Morecambe Bay

We visited Windermere, Bowness and Ambleside at Lake Windermere, bought handmade fudge and spent our evenings in the pubs, eating the typical pub food such as Chicken Tikka Masala, Steak and Ale Pie, Fish and Chips, Sunday Roast, etc. , taking part in the quiz night and playing our little travel Monopoly. We had so much fun! We went on a long walk and day trip to Arnside, Milnthorpe, Heversham and Levens, the area where I used to live. Everything still looks exactly the same, it was just like coming home again! We visited Lancaster and went shopping, a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do. :D

 

Kirkstone Pass

There are just so many cute little sheep in England, up in the mountains they also happen to block the street sometimes or walk alongside your car. We decided we wanted to enjoy some more of the beautiful nature and drove to Lake Buttermere for a nice walk. We had some lovely sunny days and some absolutely grey and rainy days, but we made the best out of it.  We went to Kendal to meet up with my friend and go to the museum. We stayed almost an entire day at Holehird Gardens in Windermere and we drove up to Penrith and the nearby stone circle Long Meg and her daughters. After a week we had to say goodbye again and drive down to Dover. But all in all we had a great time!

More sheep

Lake Buttermere

Penrith

Long Meg and her daughters

And more sheep hehehe

Holehird Gardens

 

View from Holehird Gardens over the Lake District

It is such a beautiful and diverse garden, I could put a million more photos, I absolutely fell in love with it, but I don't want to bore you, so I'll just end it here.

There are so many possible excursions you can do in Cumbria! You can go on a boat trip on Lake Windermere, you can hike up to the highest mountain of England - Scafell Pike, you can visit Carlise and its castle, Furness Abbey, Haverthwaite Railway Museum, Sizergh Castle, Ullswater and so much more!

I really hope you are as much in love with Cumbria and the Lake District in particular as I am! I'll end this with two last photos.

See you next time

Jen

xx

 

Haverthwaite Railway Museum