I’m lucky in that I live within an easy striking distance of the English Lake District. It’s either a couple of hours or so in the car or a similar journey time by train to Windermere. Obviously it’s a popular destination which can make the roads busy so I have a preference for using the train. Not everyone’s cup of tea but it makes it worthwhile if I’m speeding along on the train and I pass traffic jams on the motorway’s or other roads.

A favourite destination is the town of Keswick, further north than Windermere and easy to get to using the 555 bus that stops outside Windermere railway station. There was a time, not too long ago when Keswick too had a train service, running across country from Penrith on the west coast mainline to Scotland to Workington on the Cumbrian coast. It was one of those useful routes that the tourist industry would have enjoyed promoting plus it would have provided local links as well as going some way to reducing the summer onslaught of traffic. However along came Dr Beeching and his axe and that was that. It’s a topic for another time perhaps. Rumours circulate from time to time about a re-opening but nothing concrete has happened as yet.

But back to the bus. The route leaves Windermere and heads up through Ambleside and on through Grasmere to Keswick. The bus station there is right in the town centre and if you have the explorer ticket you have convenient connections onward to Workington or deeper into the Lakes. The buses are generally double deckers so grabbing a seat on the top deck rewards you with a magnificent view of the beautiful Cumbrian countryside.

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Categories: England, Nature, Photography, Transport, travel

Tags: countryside, Cumbria, days out, England, english countryside, English Lake District, exploration, Great Britain, holidays, Lake District, lifestyle, National Parks, public transport, scenery, tourism, travel, Uk, UK holiday breaks, UK Tourism, UK travel, vacation, views