Lake District

  We decided on the Lake District as our third stop.  It's not too far of a drive from Edinburgh, and we had heard good things about it.  It turns out that the one bad thing about it is that the lakes are no accident.  It rains there a LOT.  There was probably only a few hours of our 48 hours there where it wasn't raining and it was still overcast.

  It sounds pretty bad, but it was still a great experience.  One of the highlights of our trip (at least for me) was our drive from Edinburgh to Windermere (our base in the Lake District).  We intentionally took what we thought would be a scenic route, and it turned out to be THE scenic route - Kirkstone Pass.  It's a pretty small, windy road, that goes up through the hills.  The hills are grazing land for sheep and cattle and are crossed by wandering stone walls.  Apart from Kirkstone Pass we also drove along some of the lakes (mostly Ulswater) which was also very scenic.

  From this base of operations we headed to Hawkshead which is essentially Beatrix Potterville.  We also visited Beatrix Potter's house which is in the area.  We didn't do much else due to my cold.  I slept for most of the afternoon of our full day there.

  I think we'd highly recommend visiting the area.  We liked Windermere, although we did not experience all of it due to my cold and due to the weather.  In fact, we didn't spend any time on the shores of Lake Windermere.  We did, however, spend some time in St. Mary's Surgery where I got some anti-biotics because I felt a sinus infection coming on.  I'm happy to report I did not get one, and thank you to Dr. B. for that!