The Lake District

After renting our car, we headed to the Lake District.  Since starting our trip, any advice from British people on what to see in their country has included this national park.  On the way down we stopped at a tiny turn off the road with an incredible view of some farms and mountains and such and made ourselves peanut butter and banana sandwiches.

Our roadside lunch stop (still in Scotland)

Further down the road we stopped at a proper parking lot at the top of a mountain pass to view the surrounding valley.

Once in Windemere we starting looking for hostels.  Usually while traveling we will book our hostel online for the next night, saving the scramble of finding a place once in the town.  Unfortunately, we decided to not book our first night and just wing it.  Sometimes it sounds like the better idea, but it never is.  We arrived in town at 5:15 and the tourist center closed at 5.  There were also no internet cafes in town to look up hostels, and we had 2 addresses for 2 different hostels, but no map. We found one of the hostels but it was full for the night.  The other hostel was no where to be found.  Eventually Andy popped into a diner to ask where it was and they helpfully gave us directions.  It was 2 miles outside of town.

Once there, we booked a room (a private room was only a couple pounds more than a shared room so we went ahead and treated ourselves) and headed back into town to get groceries for dinner.  Back at the hostel we made "mexican" which consists of refried beans with added green pepper and onion, salsa, "guacamole" (whose second ingredient was peas), and tortillas.

In the morning we hiked from the hostel to a "public bridle path" which was a dirt road between stone fences and farmland.  We hiked for a couple miles before heading back to the hostel and taking off again.