Keswick,UK

Tuesday morning Nick and I woke up early to beat the London traffic and headed out in our rental car for the Lake District in Northern England.  While Nick was hoping for a sporty hatchback, we instead got this Vauxhall.   

After a quick adjustment to driving in the right side of the car and on the left side of the road, we were off.  Although it was a 5 hour drive, everything about being in another country is an adventure.  Along the motorway are "services" which are all in one stops with anything you could want from gas, all kinds of food, and even Starbucks.  They were quite convenient. 

A funny side story about one of our stops..... 

If you have ever been to England you might have noticed that they have tons of coins for their currency- 8 different ones in fact.   Nick kept ending up with pocketfuls of heavy change.  So, we had ordered coffee and Nick decided to use some of it up.  After fumbling with the coins for awhile and looking like a complete foreigner he looked up to see the coffee guy smirking and me laughing.  After that point he put me in charge of the coins.  

We finally made it to Keswick, where we were staying for two nights.  Our B&B turned out to be wonderful- very clean, charming, and walkable.  

After lunch in the town we spent the afternoon exploring.  The Lake District is an area of mountains (they call them fells) and lakes carved from glaciers.  People come from all over the UK for the hiking.  It seemed like every other shop in town was an outdoor store - we felt right at home!

Derwentwater lake (yes thats the real name!) was just a short walk from our hotel.  We cut right through a field of wooly sheep.  The "fells" on the other side of the lake are known as the Catbells.  You can take the ferry across the lake to get to the hiking trails.   

Catbells and the ferry

We then headed to the other side of town to do the Latrigg hike.  It was a quick hike- only about 15 minutes, but the views were so rewarding! 

Derwentwater

Keswick

Our next stop was the Castlerigg stone circle.   It is one of the many stone circles around Britain and is thought to be over 4,500 years old.  The stones line up with the peaks surrounding them.  We were trying to catch it at sunset, but we were a little early and it was very cloudy.  Still, it was very cool to see.

We ended our day in a cozy pub next to a fire, sharing a beef and ale pie and a couple of pints.  Have I mentioned it was very chilly and rainy our whole trip?  It was the perfect ending to a wonderful day!  

I know that was a super long post so thanks if you read the whole thing!  Much more to come!