Travelling the UK: The Lakes

Happy New Year everyone!

I'm glad to be back. Christmas was wonderful with all the family, catching up with friends, over eating and playing board games. It came and went so quickly that it was New Year before I could say 2015. For the New Year I went up North with my partner to see his family who I had not seen in months. We travelled up on the Mega Bus on New Years eve and enjoyed a takeaway, played more games and set off our own fireworks into the new year, it was wonderful. The next few days were spent seeing the rest of the family until it got to the 3rd Jan.

On the 4th of Jan it was mine and Nicks 5 year anniversary of being together (if you want to here how we met etc let me know) and so we thought we would celebrate it in a different way. My New Years resolution is to be happy and part of that is doing more of what I love. Travelling and seeing new places is one of them so we thought we would head to The Lakes for the day with his parents. I've always wanted to travel back to The Lakes since I visited it as a kid and fell in love with it.

Kendal, UK

Kendel, UK

We left Wakefield at 8:30am and headed for Skipton, a quaint little town in the heart of the countryside. It was the perfect place to stop for a cup of tea and a tea cake before we carried on the rest of the journey. Next stop was Kendel, this was another small market town, full of cute shops and beautiful limestone houses. One of those places you could imagine spending your days when you were a little older. It was lovely to just walk around and take in the beauty of the place. After a quick stop at Costa and a cream cake (my favourite) we headed on our journey up to the lakes. 

If you follow me on social media you would have heard I got a new camera from the boyfriend at Christmas, he really spoilt me and I am so grateful for it. I've been wanting to learn how to use a camera properly for years so this was a perfect way for me to learn. He got me the Nikon D3300 which is a lovely size and looks quite simple to use with some practice. I thought this trip would be the perfect time to test the camera out to see how it compared to my little canon camera. All photos shown in this post are the results I got from it. On first impressions I'm quite impressed. So I spent a lot of my time just looking around and trying to spot opportunities where I could take a snap and practice my composition and instinct in finding beauty in the most simple of things.

After a short drive we arrived in Windermere, which took my breath away as the view of the lake came into site. It really is a beautiful place, tucked up in the heart of the Peak District just waiting for you to discover it. If you ever have a chance to explore the UK you should definitely pay a visit. I am sure you will not be disappointed.

We spent a good while here just looking out onto the distant hills and feeding the swans and ducks which seem to populate most of the area. It was lovely to be somewhere away from our usual surroundings of London and discovering how beautiful our country can really be.

Our last stop was a 15 minute drive to the other end of the lake in Ambleside. Not much different to the other towns we have visited but beautiful all the same. There were a lot of B&Bs in this town so the perfect place to stay if you want to visit the Peak District for a few days. I was thinking how nice it would be a to have your own little B&B in that area. It would be a lovely business to have if you did not like the hustle and bustle of the overcrowded cities.

The sun set around 4:15pm that day so as it got dark we decided to head back home. We were lucky enough to see the sun set behind the hills of the lakes which was stunning. My first sunset of 2015! It was a wonderful day and I'm really pleased we decided to go. It made for a wonderful start to the New Year as it kept me super busy, just enjoying the simplicities of life with some of my favourite people. Definitely make the most of each day you have, even if it is something simple and never put too much pressure on yourself to do anything as it will just make you feel terrible.

Plan a trip around where you live, its a lot cheaper than going on holiday abroad and you can still have as much fun. There might not be the hot sun to lay around in but who wants to spend all their days getting sunburnt when there are all the places in the world which you have never seen before.

Are there any places you want to visit this year?
I've decided I want to go to Scotland for my birthday this year as I have never been before and I cant wait to spend more time doing more of what I love! I'm going to leave you with this beautiful picture I managed to get of the sunset as we are heading home. Life is beautiful so live the adventure!

Love Khrissie xx