Loughrigg Fell

This day didn't start out so well (toddler major tantrum), and the weather was turning very cloudy and rainy (very usual in the Lakes, but we were spoiled from a week of almost perfect weather), so we decided to finish our frist trip to the Lake District with a hike to Loughrigg Fell, near Grasmere. It's another easy walk, which offers stunning views of Grasmere and Rydal Water.

Much later that day we went for dinner at another great restaurant in the area - the Jumble Room, in Grasmere - where we had what was probably our best meal of this trip.

Catbells + Tarn Hows

Another day in the Lakes which turned out to be a great hiking day. We decided to hike the popular Catbells summit near Keswick. It is a very easy hike, but it takes a bit longer than we originally thought. It took us about 3 hours to reach the highest Catbells peak and hike back.

Being one of the most popular hikes, and with very few parking spaces nearby it's good to arrive early in the morning. We decided to make the ascent from Hawes End, and took the shortest way up to the lower peak following a steep path. The lower summit was reached quickly (and would've been even quicker if we hadn't stopped to take photos every 5 minutes, but with views like this it was impossible not to).

Summit photo !

Making our way down ...

I think we successfully turned S. into a little hiker.

Later we visited Keswick again, and had some delicious pastries from Baldry's ...

And took pictures of the pinkest Fudge shop ever

In the afternoon we decided to drive back to Coniston, and hike to another popular spot - Tarn Hows, the artificial tarn that Beatrix Potter left to the National Trust. The hike is very easy from the small parking place near Yew Tree Tarn, just outside Coniston.

We were lucky that it wasn't very crowded, and it's very easy to see why it attracts so many people.

And finally, the perfect end to this perfect day - a dinner at the famous Drunken Duck gastro-pub.

Yew Tree Tarn

This breathtaking tarn was 5 minutes away from Coniston and we passed by it several times a day. When the water was still the view was nothing short of spectacular ...
from Wikipedia: A tarn (or corrie loch) is a mountain lake or pool, formed in a cirque excavated by a glacier. It is formed when either rain or river water fills the cirque

Devoke Water + Muncaster Castle

The next day we went ahead with our original plan of hiking in Devoke Water and visiting Muncaster Castle in the afternoon. But first we decided to brave the steepest road in England.

The start of the path at Devoke Water

The path was very, very muddy ...

... and we had to make quite a few detours. The views were quite lovely, though.

Halfway we reached the river and couldn't find a way to cross it, so we decided to turn back

S. turned out to be quite the little hiker ...

Muncaster Castle is known for its Owl Trust Center, and is an amazing place to spend the day with kids. We arrived just in time to watch the "Meet the birds" event at 2:30 PM, then visited the castle interior. Afterwards we went for some tea and cake at the little tea room at the back of the owl centre where we met the castle owner Mr. Pennington and had a really nice chat with him. We vowed to come back in the Spring to watch the flowers in bloom.