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Paige, 20, psychology student and beauty enthusiast. Naturally resemble a chicken nugget, use makeup to disguise myself as a regular person. If you'd like to contact me, my blog email is jabbatofabba@gmail.com

Friday 4 November 2016

Visiting the Lake District

A few weeks ago my boss told me that she was giving me all of my christmas paid holiday hours at once, so my boyfriend booked off the same week and we decided to take a trip to the Lake District.

We chose a nice little guest house called the Woodlands Guest House, just outside of Windermere. I'd never been to the Lake District so I wasn't sure what to expect, nor did I know the area, but I'd managed to book somewhere smack bang in the middle between Bowness and Windermere, which are two of the main areas. The guest house itself is a five star luxury guest house but I did find it through booking.com which made it far cheaper than it would have been had I booked directly with the hotel.

The drive from where we live was about three and a half hours overall, so we stopped at one of the services about half way through to stretch our legs (and we may or may not have gotten a cheeky McDonalds wrap but if I'm honest that was the first and definitely not the last of the 'treats' we got ourselves but hey, we were on holiday).

By the time we arrived at the hotel it was gone 5pm and we were both understandably shattered - he drove the whole way but being a passenger was just as tiring I swear! We were given a snappy tour of the guest house and then made ourselves at home. The hastiness was no fault of the lady who ran the guest house however, it was because Adam had, in what he thought was him being helpful, informed her that I desperately needed a wee. A great start to the holiday and I was so pleased we'd made such a charming impression.

The room itself was a lovely, cosy little room. I actually forgot to take photos (that'll be a running theme here) but I have managed to find some of the exact room. It had a nice sized double bed, a desk type area. a wall length mirror, a wardrobe/cupboard thing. and a bathroom with a shower (no bath unfortunately, a room with a bath would have set us back a lot more). I'm aware that it was one of the smaller of the double rooms they had to offer but honestly at the deal we had gotten I really didn't mind - besides at 4"11 I don't take up much space as it is. The room also came with complimentary tea and coffee supplies (which were replenished daily), a travel kettle and some incredible smelling toiletries from The White Company.

Photo of our room taken from Booking.com
After we'd settled in, unpacked and rested up, we took the 5 minute walk up to Windermere to a restaurant called The Pig. After breakfast. the wrap from McDonalds and the plentiful snacks I'd consumed during the car ride I wasn't that hungry, so I went for something small and simple - a chip butty and a glass of rose, while Adam went for the sausage pattie sandwich with sweet onion and fried egg and some sort of lager that I can't remember the name of. What arrived in front of me was the fanciest, biggest wine glass I've ever seen, a large sourdough baguettte and a mug of 'chips'. The chips weren't chips. They were basically giant potatoes quartered. One of them was the size of a melon slice you'd have for breakfast. I was in awe, and of course the giant chip cob defeated me, but I tried my best.
Wine glass bigger than my head
Loved the presentation of the food, it was so cute

Melon slices or chips? You decide

The next day was our first full day, so we decided to walk down to Bowness and take a boat cruise around the lake itself. Before this however we took advantage of the complimentary breakfast in the guest house. The wait staff were absolutely fab and so friendly, and the food was amazing. I had a full english breakfast and Adam went for American pancakes with bacon, both of which were delicious,



The walk to Bowness took no more than 10 minutes, and we entertained ourselves by laughing at the geese standing around the lake while we waited for the cruise. The views from the boat were breathtaking, and I tried to get some nice photos but spent most of the time enjoying the serentity of the surroundings, unlike some other passengers who tried to make as much noise as possible, which dampened the experience a little.
New best pal, Lucy the Goose

I got fancy with the panoramic photos which is why it looks like the same bird has appeared many times

Another of my fancy panoramic photos - gorgeous view


We then ventured off to find a cafe to get some lunch, but stopped along the way at a little sweet shop as Adam insisted we had to buy some kendal mint cake, which I'd never tried, alongside some various flavours of fudge. In one of the other little stores we encountered they were selling various interesting flavours of vodka, so at 2pm on a wednesday we had a mini vodka tasting session, settling eventually on a bottle of kendal mint cake vodka, which tastes a lot better than it sounds. Again, I forgot to take photos but the burgers we had in the cafe were incredible, and I think Adam thoroughly enjoyed his flamboyant hot chocolate. The rest of the evening was spent exploring and then relaxing in the hotel with a bottle of cava drank from the disposable plastic cups that were provided in the room, the epitome of class.
He didn't expect the marshmallows and the waitress falsely assumed it was for me.

Tasty treats
Again, the morning started with a delightful breakfast, but this time I went for american pancakes with fruit, and I will forever be wishing I could snap my fingers and have that delivered to me every morning as it was absolutely delightful. We walked up to Windermere to do some more exploring, and discovered that the local library had a Holocaust exhibition, so we went in to have a look. Again, no photos (I would've felt a bit weird taking photos in there), but we went in and learned about the group of 300 children refugees from Eastern Europe that were housed in the Lake District in 1945. It's a really interesting exhibition and I'd definitely recommend going in if you're there.

L O O K. So good.
After the exhibition we perked ourselves up a little with a gingerbread latte from one of the cafes. The weather up until now had been lovely but it had chosen this day to absolutely pour with rain, so we sat outside the cafe in a sheltered area with heating lamps as it rained and they were playing reggae music from the speakers so it didn't feel half as miserable as the weather looked.

Everywhere was covered in orange/brown leaves and it felt so wonderfully autumnal.

First christmas coffee of the year!

We recuperated in the hotel room while watching back to back episodes of Jeremy Kyle until we were ready for dinner. This time we decided to go to a nice Italian restaurant, called Riva so I dressed up, donned some heels and we left the hotel, before quickly realising that if we walked in the heavy rain we wouldn't make it, so we drove. When we got there it was 5 minutes before their happy hour was over so I quickly ordered us a cocktail each and an extra glass of prosecco for myself (it was the last night after all!). Adam treated himself to a (huge) boar burger, which I tried and was really tasty, while I had Merluzzo Alla Siciliana, which is basically cod in tomato sauce with garlic, herbs and roasted rosemary new potatoes, and yet again I was not disappointed.



Sadly that was where the holiday ended, as we packed up and left the next morning, but not before indulging on the delicious breakfast one more time.

Reading this back, it sounds like all we did was eat but I promise we did see the sights and explore too!

We had a lovely time and I hope you enjoyed reading about our few days away!

I'll be back again with my usual makeup posts soon, but I wanted to have something to look back at to remember how much fun we had.

See you again soon!

Paige



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