Summer Holiday 2023 – Day 1 暑期活動 2023 出發篇

To save some money on our trip, we chose the Avanti West Coast train departing from London Euston just before noon. The two-and-a-half-hour journey provided me a perfect opportunity to have a light lunch, read a book and catch a short nap.

因為要省錢，到 Lake District 的交通，我們選擇了中午前從 London Euston 開出的 Avanti West Coast 火車，兩個半小時的車程正好可以吃個輕便午餐，看看書再小睡片刻。

Next we transferred to the local train to Windermere at the Oxenholme station.

接着便在 Oxenholme 轉乘 local train 到 Windermere。

Windermere that I referred here is the small town located in the County of Cumbria and not the largest lake, Windermere, within the Lake District. Her 170+ old train station has gone through numerous changes and up till now, there is only one platform and track left behind, making it quite small in scale.

這裡所指的 Windermere 是個位於 Cumbria 郡的小鎮，不是 Lake District 裡最大的湖 Windermere。鎮內的車站經歷一佰七十多年的變遷，今天只剩下一個月台，一條路軋，規模甚小。

Facing the platform are artwork created by the Art and Design students from the Kendall College. These paintings depicted the wildlife and scenery within the Lake District, injecting some liveliness into the old station.

面對月台的木欄掛上多張由 Kendall College Art and Design 學生所創作的畫，描寫出 Lake District 内的野生動物及景致，為古舊的車站帶來一點生氣。

As the train station is the only gateway into the Lake District and serves as a transportation hub for buses within Windermere, it gets extremely busy whenever train arrives. So, instead of joining the crowd to wait for connecting bus, we chose to walk to the hotel and take the opportunity to explore the charm of the small town.

The hotel we reserved is located somewhere between Windermere and the nearby town of Bowness. The rooms have recently undergone renovation, and besides being clean and tidy, they also exhibit the feel of boutique hotel. As a bonus, both the bar and restaurant offer stunning views of Windermere.

由于車站是進入 Lake District 的唯一通道，亦是 Windermere 鎮内巴士的轉乘樞紐，每當列車到達時，站内外會變得非常繁忙。與其加入人龍等待接駁巴士，我們選擇步行往酒店，順便看看小鎮風情。

預訂的酒店座落於 Windermere 及 鄰近小鎮 Bowness 中間，房間最近剛完成翻新工程，佈置整潔之餘，亦帶點精品酒店的特色風貌，而酒吧及餐廳更可遠眺 Windermere 。

After settling down and taking a brief rest, we headed to the promenade and main street in Bowness for an early dinner.

In view of the peak travel season, both the attractions and restaurants were packed with visitors.

放低行李，稍作休息後便到 Bowness 附近的湖邊碼頭及大街瀏覽及吃晚飯，由于是旅遊旺季，無論是景點或餐廳都擠滿遊人。

Regrettably we found that quite a lot of the restaurants were fully booked despite it was Wednesday night. After several attempts, we finally got a table next to the bar area of an Italian restaurant.

即使是星期三傍晚，好些餐廳都 fully booked，走了數間才能在一間意大利餐廳找到酒吧傍的枱子吃飯。

It was late evening when we returned to the hotel. We had a walk in the backyard and enjoyed the lovely sunset, which also brought a perfect ending to the first day of our journey.

步行回酒店剛巧是夕陽西下時份，當然要到後面的花園欣賞一下美景，為首天行程帶上一個完美終結。

If you are interested in my summer holidays in The Lake District, click the links below for more details.

有興趣看看我 2023 年暑假在湖區的旅遊，可按以下文章鏈接：

• Summer Holiday 2023 暑期活動 2023