London to Windermere. May 15

Travel day, our first big trip apart from getting to London of course. We stayed up late the previous night basically hair drying and ironing all our washing dry, just to get up early the next morning to get it all ready to go. We caught a train from Kensal Green (our local station) via the overground to London Euston. The overground is a good choice for us because the only steps we had to take was to get our bags down to the platform at Kensal Green, then it was all one level from there! At Euston we caught an approximately 4 hour train to the Lakes district general train station and then a quick 20 minute train to Windermere. Overall the travel was very easy, made easier by our supreme pre booking skills, managing to get seats with both power points (very few had these), windows, and luggage racks directly behind us. Go us! 

Arriving in Windermere it was quick walk through the town to our accommodation, a very cute bed and breakfast. Most of Windermere is just bed and breakfasts and somehow we managed to book on the busiest weekend, as on Sunday the Windermere marathon is on. So traffic into the town was craazzzzyyy. We are staying in the top floor of the BnB, which was just a dream for us to get our suitcases up the three flights of narrow stairs (feels like a million flights though).

Our cosy B&B

One of the people who works here told us on arrival that there was this walk to a lookout over the lake and town and maybe we should try that today. We were totally confused on where the entry was to the path and spent maybe 20 minutes wandering around, being like, I think it's this way, oh nope that's a car park. Finally we headed up the hill and we were both just dying, not of exhaustion, of happiness and idyllicness. Like this place is crazy beautiful and we both are just living an episode of Escape to the Country. We possibly have referenced that show 5000 times while being here. We kept thinking we'd reached the lookout because every time we turned around there was another stunning view or picturesque field encompassed in a perfect stone fence. Once we actually reached the lookout we understood why it was the lookout. You could see basically the whole lake. We also managed to get a rare duo photo. After many many photos, we walked our way back down to civilisation and to a pub. 

Dripping moss heaven 

Elise building a stone wall

Ash attempting to fly

Ash thought higher ground would help

Windermere views

Elise also trying to fly

Ash Grylls in the wilderness

IS THAT FAVRE?

FAVRE'S BROTHER MAYBE?!

Ash being a deer

Elise saw a deer! (Ash)

Snapchatting

Ash found a tiny pineycone

Love at first sight

Elise runs to the finish line

Elise wins

Duo photo #4?

The view (finally)

We both ordered a yummy steak and ale pie with mash and peas and enjoyed the pub vibes in cold, rainy weather. 

After dinner we took a stroll in the rain to Bowness on Windermere, the extension of Windermere which is on the actual lake, to a really quaint, old movie cinema. We fittingly saw 'A Royal Night Out'. It was only ourselves and two other foreign girls in the cinema, which allowed us to spread our wet coats all over the seats in front of us.  It was actually very funny because there were 30 minutes of adds, not previews, before the movie started and then a quick intermission?! Once the movie started it was pretty nice to be cosy inside watching a very British film in a very British place. We walked back to our place in the drizzle then got into our cozy bed to prepare our legs for a day of walking tomorrow.

Love always, A&E.