A Short Holiday With My Brother: Day Two

DAY TWO: Bowness-onWindermere and Keswick

Today was the highlight of the holiday for me, in particular the time we spent at Bowness, which is possibly the best place I've ever visited in England...I fell in love with the place, it was magical. The town itself reminded me of an Austrian mountain village and down on the waterfront it was like the Italian Riviera, or the Italian Lakes, as I'd imagine them to be. It was an excellent day; sunny and not too cold or windy; perfect for photography too. Bowness was so vibrant, so colourful and full of life and activity. I could have spent the entire day down by the marina watching the steamers come and go, people queueing for their tickets, families feeding the ducks or posing for photographs, the moored yachts gently bobbing as the wakes of the passing  boats broke over them...and of course, the fells rising up steeply in the distance; absolutely lovely!

We got stuck in a traffic jam for part of the way, so it took us over an hour to reach Keswick. The countryside was stunning though; lakes, high mountains, rivers, and pretty villages...the absolute best that England has to offer. Although I didn't know it at the time we passed at the foot of Helvellyn, the third highest mountain in the country. My only disappointment was that there wasn't any snow on the tops of the fells.

Despite the delay, we still had nearly two hours at Keswick. Keswick turned out to be a disappointment. I didn't know we would be visiting here until the coach driver announced the day's itinerary before we set off, otherwise I would have done a bit of research and found out how to get to the lake for some nice views. I ended up walking towards the river, which is in the opposite direction; there were some decent vistas from there though.

I returned to the town centre and found a few interesting subjects to photograph, but it didn't take me long to see everything.

We passed through Ambleside on our way to Keswick; I would have preferred to have a couple of hours there.

We left Keswick and headed west towards the M6 motorway at Penrith; yet again some more magnificent mountains to enjoy - we passed Saddleback, or Blencathra, one of the more well-known Lake District fells.