A Road Trip through England—The Lake District

A wonderful weekend basking in the warm hospitality of our family in Edinburgh served as the intermission between our time roaming parts of London previously unknown to us and our road trip down the spine of England. We were welcomed back to Scotland with the requisite haggis pie, had a morning snow shower, walked along the Firth of Forth with a stop at the local pub and watched the Scots draw their rugby match with England—another first for us. Lifted in spirit as we always are by our time with the Brodies, we picked up a car from Hertz and headed south, toward England’s Lake District.

My interest in this remote part of Northern England had been stoked by a book I read a few years ago: The Shepherd's Life: Modern Dispatches from an Ancient Landscape by James Rebanks. It is a detailed and fascinating insight into the strange lives lived by families who have bred sheep in the area for centuries. Rebanks was born into this world, left to earn a degree from Oxford and eventually returned to his roots. It is a unique book, but one I can enthusiastically recommend. I assure you that you will learn more about sheep that you ever wanted to know.

The vistas in the Lake District seemed familiar to us, with landscapes not so foreign to anyone used to the Piedmont of the Carolinas and Virginia. We were lucky in our choice of hotels. Linthwaite House sits on a knoll above Bowness-on-Windermere overlooking the lake. Newly constructed, it has spacious rooms and common areas. Works of art abound, collected by the Indian-born, South African-based head of the Leeu Collection of Hotels. The staff was very accommodating, and the vibe was not stuffy at all.

Our choices of hotels outside of London were guided in large part by my preference that we be able to eat in the hotel or within walking distance each evening to minimize my night-driving. The food and service at Linthwaite were excellent. The featured wines were from the South African winery of the same owner. We found them very enjoyable. Of course, here in the English countryside at a hotel owned by a South African from India, the chef was Italian. Though the food and service in the dining room were outstanding, our favorite meal was a creative pizza and a traditional pasta eaten in the bar.

A sunset view of Lake Windermere from Brant Fell

An afternoon climb over numerous stiles and through fields of grazing sheep to the peak of Brant Fell provided needed exercise and sweeping views of the lake below. The following morning was damp and gray. A two-hour boat cruise on the lake seemed a good idea at the time but proved a bit dull. A chance encounter with a lovely couple from Nottingham who were staying at Linthwaite yielded one of those tips that you can’t always find when using the internet or guide books. They highly recommended we arrange the route of our drive following the boat ride to include lunch at the Drunken Duck. What a find! The small unassuming building sits alone in a remote location at the intersection of two roads, actually more like paths. Inside we found a sparkling, modern kitchen and a menu you would expect in London rather than in the Lake District. The food was exceptional.

A beautiful stop was the town of Grasmere, famous for, among other things, its gingerbread. This was also the home of William Wordsworth. We wandered on a cloud through his garden which was alive with a host of golden daffodils. In fact, we were amazed and delighted by the sight of daffodils everywhere we went over the following week, giving hope that spring is near, despite the chilliness of these last few days of winter.