{"id":17349,"date":"2014-03-12T10:30:03","date_gmt":"2014-03-12T10:30:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.expedia.com\/stories\/?p=17349"},"modified":"2021-10-28T16:40:33","modified_gmt":"2021-10-28T16:40:33","slug":"more-than-lakes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.expedia.com\/stories\/more-than-lakes\/","title":{"rendered":"More than lakes"},"content":{"rendered":"

You can\u2019t miss the lakes in Great Britain<\/a>\u2019s Lake District<\/a>. They\u2019re everywhere\u2014in just about every valley, seemingly behind every bend. Some, like Brothers Water, are shallow and tiny; glorified puddles, considering how frequently it rains. Others, like Windermere, are deep and long, veritable inland oceans, given the waves that can roll in during wicked storms. Most of them aren\u2019t actually called \u201clakes\u201d at all; instead, the H2O features have names such as tarns, meres and waters. Depending on whom you ask, there are more than 30 separate bodies worth mentioning.<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s also much, much more.<\/p>\n

Such as the five tallest mountains in England. And six national nature reserves. The region, most of which technically comprises the Lake District National Park<\/a>, is home to hundreds of tiny little towns, each one cozier than the next. It\u2019s also oozing with literary history; Beatrix Potter wrote here, and the area inspired poets including William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge.<\/p>\n

I visited the region with my family during our four-month stint in London<\/a> in the fall of 2013. Over the course of a week\u2019s vacation, from a home-base<\/a> between Penrith and Keswick, we explored as many nooks and crannies as we could.<\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Our home base, in the Lake District<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

No, we didn\u2019t actually splash down in any of the lakes. We didn\u2019t need to; we were too busy having other kinds of (family-friendly) fun.<\/p>\n

Take the day we spent in Grasmere, a bustling little village toward the center of the District.<\/p>\n

Here we celebrated the life and times of Wordsworth, who spent 51 years in the area and dubbed it, \u201cthe loveliest spot that man hath ever found.\u201d After the hour-long drive from Penrith, we dragged the kids to tour his former home at Dove Cottage<\/a>, the white, 17th-century home where he wrote some of his most famous poetry. Later that day, we paid respects at his gravesite, a modest stone in a crowded cemetery along a creek that runs behind the town church.<\/p>\n

Another highlight of our time in Grasmere: Sarah Nelson\u2019s gingerbread<\/a>. This isn\u2019t the stuff you\u2019ll find in a house around Christmas; instead, it\u2019s chewy, spicy, and (with a crumbly top) messy. According to folklore, the recipe for the stuff dates back to 1870 and has remained unchanged since then.<\/p>\n

We also enjoyed our time in Ambleside and Bowness, the two best places in the region to channel Beatrix Potter.<\/p>\n

In Ambleside, we visited Hill Top<\/a>, a cottage that Potter bought with proceeds from her first book (The Tale of Peter Rabbit) and later used as inspiration for many of her stories. Our girls (ages 4 and 2 at the time) marveled at the rhubarb patch where Jemima Puddle-Duck laid her egg, and the garden where Tom Kitten and his sisters played. They also really liked all of the flowers sprouting haphazardly around the grounds.<\/p>\n

From here, we sought out even more Beatrix in Bowness, at The World of Beatrix Potter Attraction<\/a>. Compared to the modest (and almost ramshackle) Hill Top, this place was practically a theme park, complete with furry characters, puzzles, games, and interactive exhibits. Some of this attention to detail freaked me out; IMHO, the lifelike characters were downright creepy. The girls, however, preferred this second Potter museum, especially after formal afternoon tea (with scones, finger sandwiches, and little cakes) in the on-site tea room.<\/p>\n

Viewfinder Tip: Explore on back roads throughout the Lake District; they take extra time, but, in almost every case, the views are worth the investment.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

On our last day in the Lake District, we vowed to get out and explore the great outdoors.<\/p>\n

Because it was raining, we opted for a hike that would be easy for the girls\u2014the shoreline bike trails on the western shore of Lake Windermere. To cross the lake, we drove to Windermere and took the Windermere Ferry<\/a>, a cable-based car ferry that makes the crossing in 10 minutes. The girls could barely comprehend how the journey mixed modes of transportation. A car! A boat! Together! How confusing!<\/p>\n

Across the lake, how we got there didn\u2019t matter at all. The Big Girl charged ahead with mouth agape, stopping at nothing to drink the rain. Her sister, on the other hand, moved more slowly, splashing in muddy puddles like a regular Peppa Pig. At one point about an hour in, my wife and I just looked at our soggy children and laughed\u2014yes, we thought, the Lake District has lakes, but you don\u2019t need to them at all to soak up the wonder.<\/p>\n

How would you spend a day in England\u2019s Lake District?<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Seeking epic adventures and quirky food in England\u2019s spectacular Lake District<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":12647,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1789,1809,1782,1837,1775,1777,1839,1875,1788,1840,1792,1774,1818,1776],"tags":[],"authors":[2227],"class_list":["post-17349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adventure","category-culture","category-destinations","category-england","category-fall","category-family","category-great-britain","category-history","category-interests","category-london","category-nature","category-occasions-and-seasons","category-summer","category-type-of-vacation","authors-matt-villano","entry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nMore than lakes | Expedia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, 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