An escape from revision

During Christmas holiday, my boyfriend's sister came to UK for a holiday. It was her first time in the UK so my boyfriend wanted to show her different parts of UK, the cities and also the more nature sides of UK. So other than going to big cities like London, we decided to go to the Lake District. Lake District is quite a big area and there are lots of towns to visit. There are a few big lakes as well, but after a bit of research, we decided to go to Windermere, which is where Lake Windermere is located. This was one of the most popular places to visit in Lake District, but we actually came to decide to go here because we found a great accommodation, which was not far from a train station, supermarket, and there were public transport in the area.

Our accommodation was a 2 bedroom cottage, with a living room, kitchen and 2 bathrooms. It was such a nice cottage and located near the lake too. We only had to walk 5 minutes or less to get to the lake. Because we went in winter, the price was very reasonable. There were even DVDs for us to watch as well. It was a good decision choosing a comfortable cottage because since night time came early, we were already in the cottage from around 4pm, so we spent a lot of time in the cottage. On the day that we arrived, we decided to just go food shopping so that we can cook our meals rather than buying them for the next few days, and then we went straight to the cottage afterwards.

Some of the cottages by the lake

The view just 5 minutes walk from the cottage

Unfortunately the weather was not good at all when we went. The wind reached 50mph and it rained at times. Not forgetting that it was very cold too. But this didn't stop us from exploring the area. On the first full day we went to Bowness-on-Windermere and walked along the lake. We also went to Ambleside because we wanted to make the most of our all day ticket (which was slightly expensive, £8 for a whole day). We tried to get up to a place high enough to see the snow covered mountains and luckily in Ambleside we caught a glimpse of the mountains.

Lake by Bowness-on-Windermere

A view of Ambleside and the surrounding hills

The next day, we decided to go hiking. The weather wasn't as extreme as the previous day so we braved the cold and went hiking up to Loughrigg Fell. I found the route on the internet, the view looked awesome and there was also a cave along the way so we chose that route. We had to catch the bus to the starting point but it wasn't too far to get there. After we started walking for about 15 mins, we were already stopping for pictures because of the nice view. Along the way the view was so nice everywhere we looked, even though it was a cold and cloudy day. There were actually a few other hikers when we went, with very sensible hiking clothing too (we were wearing jeans lol).

As we were climbing up, the weather gets worse, it started to hail, rain, hail, and the wind was picking up speed. But then as we get to the top, which was the viewing point, there was a 360 degrees of amazing view, so the climb was definitely worth it. We couldn't spend too long at the top though because the wind was so chilly. When we went back down, we weren't sure where we were going so it was quite tricky. However, as we went down the hill, 2 fighter jets flew past with 90 degrees bank! As an aviation geek I got pretty excited, and with hills and valleys as a backdrop it was like an awesome airshow. The jets then went through 2 hills and the sound it left was pretty loud too. I think those jets were the cherries on top of our hike that day.

Rydal Cave 

Snowy mountain top

One side of the view from the top

 Unfortunately we had to go home the next day, It was hard leaving the beautiful scenery, the lake and the homey cottage. We went back to Sheffield by train, and along the way there were actually left over snow, but when we were in Lake District it didn't snow. I hope to go back there again someday, maybe when the temperature isn't too cold!