American Mom in London: Holiday Weekend in the Lake District

One place in England that we have repeatedly been told we needed to visit during our time here is the Lake District National Park. The Lake District, located in North West England, is a popular holiday destination famous for its lakes, forests, and mountains (known as fells). We took advantage of the three day spring bank holiday weekend to travel to the Lake District.

With all of our travels over the past two years, we have been lucky to only have had a few major snags in our plans. Unfortunately, the trip to the Lake District was one of the trips that didn't go so smoothly, at least at the start. We were booked to travel to the Lake District via Virgin Trains. We got on the train at Euston Station in London, and it was absolutely packed. Fortunately, we had reserved seats but people were hovered over the top of us during the first three hours of the ride as the train was standing room only. It was pretty miserable. We made it to a small town called Preston about two hours away from where we were staying in Keswick when the train stopped at the station and an announcement came on that we would be waiting at the station until signals were fixed in Penrith (the station we were trying to get to). After about a half hour of waiting, there was another announcement that the train was cancelled and everyone was to get off the train. No direction was given on how to re-book tickets or get to our final destination.

After finally being able to talk to a worker at the Preston station, we were told that all trains going north were suspended. We called the taxi company that was supposed to pick us up in Penrith, and they agreed to drive the two hours to Preston to get us. So, after waiting for the taxi for two hours and then driving an additional two hours to our hotel, we finally made it to Keswick. The taxi cost around the equivalent of $200, which I guess isn't terrible considering how far they had to drive. The rest of the day, it poured rain so we were pretty much ready to head home at this point. We had dinner and went to bed and hoped the rest of the weekend would improve.

Although rain was predicted for the rest of the weekend, the travel gods must have felt sorry for us after the first day of our trip and the rain held off for the most part during our last two days in the Lake District. We spent the next two days hiking, boating, feeding ducks, and enjoying the cute town of Keswick that we were staying in. It was a nice low key weekend without a ton of sights to see unlike many of our travels. It felt great to get out of the city and spend time outdoors. Pictures are best to share the fun we had in the Lake District.