Lake Windermere, a short trip

I have been lucky enough to be whisked away for a couple of nights in the Lake District. Staying in Penrith in a fantastic B&B called Brooklands. Four poster bed and a breakfast to die(t) for.
Anyway, decided to work our way up via Windermere. This is a whole new territory for both Carl and myself, so it was really exciting!
Stopped first at the very tip of Windermere at a National Trust park area called Foot Fell. 

It have us our first proper sight of the Lakes and was really lovely. Plus there was the National Trust Tea Rooms where we had to have tea and scones. It would have been rude not to!
We then drove along the edge of Windermere to get to Bowness, which is the main hub of activity on the Lake. However, we did pass this beautiful view.

Carl has the patience of a saint and nerves of steel, as so often the battle cry of "stop! I need to take a picture" rang out and he neither batted an eyelid nor crashed the car!

Bowness wasn't quite what we were expecting. There was of course Lake Windermere and the mountains in the distance which was beautiful, but it was completely packed. We had to park nearly a mile away and it took us 20 minutes to queue for a car park ticket!

The weather wasn't being too kind to us. It was very cloudy with occasional drizzle and that unfortunately kills a lot of the colour in the photos. The mountains had a real haze over them and the water just reflected back grey. I will definitely go back when hopefully the sun will be out and the tourists won't!

One thing I really did like were the rowing boats. It seemed to be a common theme on the lakes to have these beautiful wooden boats. The colours were gorgeous, but my favourite photo of those will be on tomorrows blog as they were taken at a different lake.

Before we went I had said to Carl that I would like to do one of the riverboat trips, but soon changed my mind.

Great looking boats, but absolutely crammed to death with people. The queue for the 3pm sailing, which was just as we were leaving was about 100m long!

We explored Bowness a little bit, but it is very touristy, with every type of Windermere inscribed tat souvenir you could think of. We weren't there to tourist shop at all, visiting serious photographer remember! Tho still managed to leave with 2 named dream catchers (Maisie and Bethany), a named coaster/bottle opener (Ed), 2 jars of marmalade, a set of owl clothes pegs and a key ring!

This is the one shop that I really wanted to go into, but unfortunately was shut!

We drove to the B&B over the Honiston Pass but it rained really heavily most of the way and the clouds were so low that you really couldn't see anything, never mind take a good photo.
Still, it cleared a bit the next day and so I have lots more to tell and show you on tomorrows blip!

Lessons Learned: If you go somewhere popular in the middle of August its going to be busy! As my teenage daughter would say "duh!"

Diet diary: Tea and scones, stilton and salami panini, handmade chocolates, mexican fajitas and raspberry marshmallow cake. Do I really need to say how the diet is going!?