We picked up a car in Edinburgh, and drove to the Lake District. We stayed at the Archway B&B in the town of Windermere, the nicest B&B we've stayed at. It's worth noting that the town of Bowness is actually on the lake, Windermere is up the hill from the lake. However, it's walking distance down to Bowness, and the lake.

We went down to Bowness and caught the steam engined boat that crosses to the tip of Lake Windermere. It was here that we were to catch the trail to Dove Cottage.

While attempting to follow the day hike trail to Dove Cottage (Wordsworth's home) we took a wrong turn and ended up hiking up to Fairfield peak. At 2900', it's around the fourth highest point in England. Across the lake from us was the highest point in England, at 3300'. If only we'd known... The view from the top of Fairfield was spectacular, well worth the hike.

We did get up to Dove Cottage the next day. We drove.

We visited Keswick, and some other small towns by driving around in the Lake District. This was pretty exciting, the roads were quite narrow, and often stone walls came right up to the shoulder. In fact, I hit a rock that had fallen in the road as we were first headed into Windermere.

We understand that during high season, the Lake District is a zoo. However, in the middle of September, it was perfect. If you haven't been to the Lake District, it's worth the trip.