It's the October holidays here in Scotland and we've been making the most of the break by spending the last four nights in Bowness-on-Windermere in the Lake District. It's a place I'd not visited since I was a kid, but time and money had always conspired against us returning. Not this time though! We set off on Friday morning in pretty miserable weather, as was forecast. We weren't too worried though, as the rest of the weekend and beyond looked good, but it made driving conditions for Tommy a little tricky. Thankfully, by the time we reached Cumbria, it had dried up a little. We took the scenic route through the North Lakes area, passing by Ullswater and over Kirkstone Pass (that was interesting in a 3.5 tonne vehicle!) before arriving on the edge of Bowness, where our site, Fallbarrow Park, was sited. I'd previously mentioned in another post that our most expensive site so far was Laxdale Holiday Park in Stornoway, at £27 a night. Fallbarrow Park makes that look cheap, at £38 a night but it's amazing location made it worth the extra. Just a few minutes walk takes you into the centre of Bowness, where there are plenty of activities to keep you busy, without ever having to drive anywhere. The site is also on the banks of Lake Windermere, with lovely views and friendly wildlife (as long as you have some duck food). We took a stroll into Bowness to have a look round once the rain stopped and the sun came out. We were immediately impressed by the variety of shops and restaurants available, as well as the activities accessible from the town. We had made no plans for the next few days, but we had plenty of ideas after a walk round the town, before heading back to camp for dinner and a film. The next morning, we took a trip to feed the ducks and geese again. We spotted our first 'steamer' of the day - how much fun would one of these be? After been chased by some geese, we made a sharp exit from the park along the road to The World of Beatrix Potter. Beatrix Potter, author of those fabulous little books of animal stories, lived on the other side of Lake Windermere at Hill Top Farm, where you can still visit, but this centre brings her stories to life with moving models and scenes, interactive displays and a beautiful little garden bursting with plants and flowers. The girls had a huge amount of fun completing the massive activity booklet, and we must have spent half an hour in the garden alone, finding the hidden messages and homes for creatures. The displays inside were impeccable in their detail and we felt it was well worth the entry money of £18, despite the centre being fairly small. It's a perfect wet weather activity, although typically the sun was shining while we were inside! On Sunday we jumped onto a lake cruise and sailed down to Lakeside at the south of the lake. With a combination ticket bought in Bowness for £42, we were then able to hop on a minibus that took us to Lakeland Motor Museum. We hadn't been sure what to expect, but it certainly wasn't the fantastic collection of cars and bikes that we found. There was another massively detailed activity booklet for the TTs and they had a lovely time finding out engine sizes, build dates and other facts about the huge range of cars, including Donald Campbell's famous Bluebird cars, boats and hydroplane. You can tell how much Tommy enjoyed this by the number of pictures he took! The activity book took so long we had to break for lunch! We had a sandwich in the adjacent Cafe Ambio, which has a stunning terrace overlooking the river. Then we finally finished the booklet, received our medals (yes, really!) and made our way back to the ferry terminal via the speedy minibus again. While we waited for our boat, we had a look round. The Lakeside and Haverthwaite Railway station sits alongside the lake, meaning you can jump of the boat and straight onto a steam train. Or you can also visit the Lakes Aquarium, also right beside the ferry terminal. There's a lot to do down there! Back on the MV Teal, we lapped up the autumn sunshine and posed for a few pics. Read more about our visits to the Lake District.
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