Windermere sits on top of a hill overlooking the lake, and is what we call “foo-foo.” It has lots of overpriced food, guest houses where you pay for lots of fancy furniture* (kinda like American B&B’s), and more antique shops than pubs.
* Ours wasn’t like that… it was a decent place for a fair price.

At the bottom of the hill, on the lakeshore, is Bowness. This is where people go to play golf, buy souvenirs, and get on chartered boats. Windermere is high-brow, Bowness is low-brow.

But we didn’t come for the towns, we came for the countryside. So on Thursday we walked down the hill and took a ferry to the other side of the lake where we spent a couple of hours hiking along the quiet side.

It was interesting to notice that, of all the people out walking, we saw no one younger than us. We also couldn’t help but think of what a zoo this place must be in the summertime, with the motorboats, jet-skis and crowds … not to mention the foot-in-mouth disease that had all the trails closed last summer.

As cool, grey and dreary as it was today, we were glad to have picked the fall season to visit. The fall colors are just beginning to come out – enough to be noticeable, but not enough to bring out the hordes of leaf-peepers.

When we took the ferry back to the “busy” side of the lake, we got to the bus stop just as the real rain started. We rode up the hill, rested a bit, and went out for pizza before settling in for the evening.