Hawkshead, Grasmere and a walk through the Bluebells

For our first full day in the Lake District, we woke up early to beautiful sunshine and headed downstairs for a huge breakfast of granola and a full English, before heading to the bus station.

We were staying in the North Lakes, but we planned to get the bus down to the South Lakes and visit the pretty villages of Hawkshead and Grasmere.

The public transport in the Lake District is really good, they have regular buses going almost everywhere and it's almost cheaper to get a full day pass than it is to get a one way ticket.

We got the front seat on the double decker bus to Ambleside, and hopped off onto a smaller local bus to Hawkshead, a little village about a 20 minute bus ride to the West.

Hawkshead is a postcard pretty, quintessential English town, it's only tiny and set in the middle of the countryside, and provides a nice respite from the busier towns of Windermere and Ambleside. Cars are banned from the village, so it's really pedestrian friendly.

William Wordsworth went to Grammar school there and Beatrix Potter lived nearby when she wrote all her famous stories. There is a Beatrix Potter Gallery, full of her original artwork, and there are lots of stores selling Beatrix Potter souvenirs.

There are lots of walks surrounding the village, and its easy to quickly find yourself surrounded by nothing but nature, and we could easily imagine Peter Rabbit or Benjamin Bunny hopping out in front of us on the path.

Looking back towards Hawkshead Village

Enjoying the beautiful sunshine

We stopped for lunch at a nice tea room, we both had the Ploughmans Platter. I love a good Ploughmans. It's usually made up of cheese, bread and chutney, but can also include fruit and salad or boiled eggs, they are so delicious. 

Ours came with three different types of cheeses, which were washed down with a Ginger Beer and an Elderflower Cordial, just the thing for a warm day in the country.

We popped in here for a look, and left with several Beatrix Potter items!

We came across this squat fat pony, he was not at all interested in being patted and kept steadily avoiding my attempts. He was quite wily for something so fat.

After lunch we caught the bus from Hawkshead back to Rydal, a small town between Ambleside and Grasmere, and the start of a nice walk through the countryside alongside both Rydalwater and Grasmere Lake, towards the village of Grasmere.

We didn't look like the other walkers, with Bradley carrying a couple of shopping bags and me with my handbag, but we felt better after passing someone carrying a chilly-bin.

I had really hoped to see some Bluebell fields while on holiday, and was quite excited to come across a small field in a patch of woods over a small fence..

Bluebells only bloom for a couple of weeks during the year, and we were lucky they were late this year because of the cold Spring we've had, otherwise we might have missed them.

The weather kept going from nice and warm to chilly, which is why Bradley is wearing his coat and I'm wearing a t-shirt. We were really lucky with the weather, as it was really sunny two out of three days.

We stopped on the shores of Rydalwater to skim some stones. I'm usually not very good at skimming stones, but the stones next to the Lake were perfect for skimming and I got mine to skip two times which was exciting. Bradley was better with his skipping four times.

The scenery was just amazing, with the sun glinting off the Lake, and the surrounding mountains. It really was hard to believe we were still in England, as we've never seen anything like it anywhere else. It felt more like we were in Austira or Germany.

The only thing that showed we were definitely in England was the stone fences everywhere, they were literally all up and down the mountains.

We got to the top of a hill about 40 minutes after we started walking, and came across a beautiful huge wood just full of bluebells. It made the patch I found earlier seem ridiculous in comparison! The entire  ground was carpeted in Bluebells.

It really was amazing, I've never seen so many colourful flowers all in one place.

We came down on the other side of the rise, and had our first glimpse of Grasmere Lake, one of the smaller lakes in the region. Once you get to the shores, it's a nice easy walk round the lake towards the village of Grasmere.

Grasmere is a lovely little village, and one of the most popular in the Lake District. It is most famous for being the longtime home of the poet William Wordsworth, who lived there for fourteen years. He described it as 'the loveliest spot that man hath ever found'. 

It is also famous for its Gingerbread, and tourists come from all over just to get some. We stopped into the tiny Gingerbread shop and picked some up, and it really was delicious.

We came across these Golliwog dolls for Sale in a shop.. not really sure if anyone even buys these anymore or if they even should!

We stopped for a hot drink and some cake before heading back to Keswick. The only thing about catching the bus is that the last bus in the Lake District is at about 5.00 p.m. so we couldn't spend too long out.

As everywhere in Keswick seemed to be booked for dinner, we got fish and chips and sat down by the lake, which was actually much nicer than sitting in a restaurant. I don't remember the last time we had fish and chips outside, it was really lovely eating dinner as the sun went down over Derwentwater.