Last weekend, I went on an International Society organized trip to the Lake District, which is England's largest national park. It's about a 2 hour drive away from Manchester and we took the coach there early Saturday morning. The first stop was the Aira Force Waterfalls, which is the most famous among the Lake District waterfalls. The walk to the falls was about half a mile through the woods. We saw a massive tree along the way as well that seemed to be at least 5 ft in diameter. After we got to the falls, we kept walking along a little footpath up the hill and through the fields of sheep. The views along this hill were beautiful and there was a pretty lake at the bottom of a mountain that could be seen at the top of this hill. Also there was a dead log near the entrance of the park filled with coins.
Apparently, people hammer them in for good luck!
Our next stop on the trip was at Grasmere, a little village in the Lake District. The famous poet, William Wordsworth once lived here. We visited the church and cemetery where he and his family are buried. In his poem Daffodils, he writes:
'I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze...'
The cemetery is surrounded by lots of daffodils and the words of this poem are inscribed in a path around the cemetery. Also in Grasmere is where Sarah Nelson's Gingerbread shop is located. Of course, we had to try some of the homemade gingerbread and it was indeed very tasty. :)
The last village we visited in the Lake District was Ambleside. The history of communities living in
Ambleside dates back to 4000 BC where the remains of an axe factory were found under Langdale Pikes. The Romans also settled in Ambleside in the 1st century AD and had a fort along Lake Windermere. After the Romans left, the Vikings inhabited Ambleside in the Middle Ages. A certain breed of Lake District sheep is said to be created by the Vikings as well as the actual name 'Ambleside' itself. Historians say that the name is derived from a Norse word for farm or pasture.
Beatrix Potter, the author of the Peter Rabbit books, lived in Ambleside and wrote many of her children's books here. It's easy to see why the scenery in the Lake District would be inspirational for writing and drawing. We walked along the lake and watched the sunset before heading home on the coach. All in all, it was a fun experience and a great place to relax and enjoy the countryside.http://www.amblesideonline.co.uk/history.shtml
