Seeing a different side of the United Kingdom

After a month in the beautiful English countryside, we decided to move up north towards an incredibly scenic part of England, where lakes and mountains lay abundant.

Lake District, England, United Kingdom

When: October 2020

Where, exactly?: Cockermouth, Lake District

Why/how we picked it:

The same friend who recommended the Cotswolds also recommended the Lake District. Since we had 6 months to work around while in the UK, we decided to slowly work our way up north while getting away from the big cities.

What we did:

LOTS of hikes. In the first 2 weeks, we relied on public transportation within the area to get around, which was surprisingly reliable and well-run for something that’s in the middle of the country. Later in the month we rented a car to drive ourselves to the more remote parts as well.

• Keswick: Surprise View, Catbells hike

• Honister Pass

• Ambleside: Loughrigg Fell hike, Hawkshead (a little town)

• Windermere: Orrest Head Viewpoint

• Buttermere: Haystacks hike

• Grasmere: Gingerbread House and Brewery

• Wast Water: Lower woodland hike

We recommend EVERYTHING we did.

Our favourite part about the Lake District:

The nature and scenery, and witnessing the colours change from green to orange was pretty dang incredible.

Key takeaways

1. The UK is DEFINITELY not as boring as *some* people may think, and certainly way more beautiful than we thought. It’s not just about the big cities like London, Manchester, Bath, etc. There’s so much beauty if we look (and go) deeper.

2. We spent so little money that month, and yet had a great time. It’s a reminder that we don’t need to be living luxuriously/spending more to be happy.

3. One memory I had here was trying SO HARD BUT FAILING to convince Eric not to use his credit card points to buy a damn iPhone…and to convert them to miles for Biz class tickets instead (He will finally change his mind further down the years but I will continue give him grief for this haha)

4. Another unique memory from our time here was watching the debate between Trump and Biden on the TV. Eric even cast his vote from a Post Office in Cockermouth!