LAKE DISTRICT
- Gemma Pitchford
- Jul 28, 2017
- 5 min read
A couple of weeks ago Lee, Kaydi and I spent 5 days in the beautiful little town of Bowness. It was such an amazing little get-away that I wanted to share it with you all.
Day 1: We got the train from Wolverhampton to Oxenholme which took about 2 hours. The majority of the journey was fine but there was a little 'hiccup' towards the end. As we had all booked our train tickets separately our seats weren't together. We knew this and we were all prepared to give up the seats we chose to sit in if the people who had originally booked them wanted to sit there. Little PSA for you now though: If you find someone in your seat, ask them POLITELY to move and explain that you have pre-booked that seat. That is acceptable. Please don't just stand there shouting about how you've booked some seats in the hope that we might overhear you. And definitely don't just stand there with your giant suitcases, blocking up the aisle and getting angry because even when we have packed all of our stuff up we can't go anywhere.
Source: coolhomepages.com
When we went, we were lucky enough to get to stay with Kaydi's family in there guest room. Karen and LLoyd (Kaydi's Aunt and Uncle) were so lovely and welcoming towards us all. They were wonderful. and made us all feel like part of the family.
They also happened to be the owners of a beautiful pub/restaurant/hotel called The Westmorland Inn. If you are ever in the area near Windermere and Bowness you should pop in for a drink or a quick meal. It is such a homely place with a warm and friendly environment. The walls are littered with little quotes, fairy lights in the corner and artwork hung proudly on the walls of the area. Its an incredible place!
We were lucky enough to eat and drink here multiple times over the week. Trust me when I say Lloyd can cook up a storm in that kitchen! The food was incredible and very reasonably priced. We had both our first and last meal in Bowness here and I couldn't have asked for a better place to do so.
The rest of the first evening just consisted of the usual holiday first day things you do when you first arrive; Check out your room, relax there for a bit, grab some food, and then take a walk around the place to explore. We went to the arcades to kill some time, got changed and then went out for dinner. We went to a lakeside restaurant called The Ship Inn and even bagged ourselves a window table too. We all had a proper italian pizza each and it was beautiful.
We went out for drinks in the evening with Ben to celebrate Kaydi's birthday (very very late) and I wanted to share this picture of the garden in one of the places we went. If all the pubs back home had a garden like this then I would go out more! I'm a real sucker for fairy lights.
Day 2: We started off the day with fresh toasties and sandwiches from the little sandwich shop down the road to fuel our shopping trip. We went on a hunt to find some nice dresses for Amie's birthday meal later that evening. We also went to visit Amie's mum, Karen, at work and grabbed some ice cream from her shop. With 32 different flavours to choose from it did take us a while.
We spent the afternoon at the aquarium in Lakeside that day after taking a 30 minute boat ride there. There are some photos that I took below and also a lot more on my photography page on Facebook.
For Amie's birthday, we were all invited out with her family to a mexican restaurant called Pedro's. They gave us mustaches and sombreros to wear and when they brought the food out, we didn't think it was gonna stop. We ran out of room on the table pretty quickly and yet the food still kept coming!
Day 3: This was one of my favourite days. For lunch we rented a little motorboat and had a picnic in the middle of Lake Windermere. We spent 2 hours just relaxing and taking photographs of the landscapes (for my photography page, link above!)
When we got back, be found some owls outside The Ship Inn and got to hold them. Lee even got some in-flight photos of one of them flying back to his perch. This whole trip just seems to have been a photographers dream.
We fed the ducks, headed back to The Westmorland Inn for dinner, grabbed some fresh waffles and ice cream from Karen #2 (Amie's Mum) and then went to see Baby Driver in the old cinema there. If you want to read a review of it there will be one up on Lee's blog soon. Spoiler alert: It was an amazing film! Click the link to check her other reviews out.
We had a monopoly night with Karen and Amie after we got back from the film. We also had a beanboozled set so decided to incorporate that into the game which proved to be very interesting. The game went on until about half 2 in the morning when we finally caved and gave in. I came a close second which I was pretty pleased with.
Day 4: Our last full day in Bowness was spent mostly in water. We went Pier jumping for most of the afternoon. We had packed up a little BBQ kit with some food and took it down with us. Again, this was another perfect opportunity to get some photographs taken.
The evening was spent cuddled up together back at our temporary new home, watching a film and eating a LOT of greasy pizza. Best way to end the day.
Day 5: Our final day had arrived and no one wanted to home. We had fallen in love up in Bowness and I have vowed that I will one day move down there. It truly is an amazing place.
We spent some time in the spa and swimming pool in the afternoon to relax and enjoy our final hours there. Whilst in the sauna, Me and Kaydi made a pact to join the gym once we got home (and we did!) to get a bit fitter before uni. Very productive.
On the way back up to The Westmorland for our final meal, we passed a little tattoo parlour. We went in firstly because Amie wanted to get her thirds pierced, and then ended up getting matching tattoos. What more could you want from a holiday than matching tattoos?
My holiday with Kaydi, Lee and also Karen, Lloyd and even Felix and Bonita (their cat and dog) has been absolutely incredible. We were welcomed warmly and did so many amazing things with them all. Bowness, I'm sure this isn't the last you've seen of us.
And don't forget to smile! x
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