Page 252 - Lonely Planet Europe’s Best Trips (Travel Guide)

h9.30am-5.30pm), a tiny
3 Great Langdale house where he lived
The Lake District has with his sister Dorothy, PIXELBUCKET / 500PX ©
some truly stunning val- wife Mary and three
leys, but Great Langdale children between 1798
and 1807. Guided tours
definitely ranks near the
top. As you pass through explore the house, and
the pretty village of next door the Words-
Elterwater and its village worth Museum has lots
green, the scenery gets of memorabilia relating
to the Romantic poets
really wild and empty.
Fells stack up like domi- (including haunting life
noes along the horizon, masks of John Keats and
looming over a patch- Wordsworth).
A little way south of
work of barns and fields. Grasmere is the house
If you’re up for a hike,
then tackle the multi- where Wordsworth spent
peak circuit around the most of his adult life,
Langdale Pikes. Alterna- Rydal Mount (%015394-
tively, the more sedentary 33002; www.rydalmount.
option is to just admire co.uk; adult/child £7.50/3.50,
GREAT BRITAIN 18 CLASSIC LAKES
the view over a pint of grounds only £4.50;
ale from the cosy bar of h9.30am-5pm Mar-Oct,
the Old Dungeon Ghyll 11am-4pm Wed-Mon Nov, Dec
(%015394-37272; www.odg. & Feb). It’s still owned by
the poet’s descendants,
co.uk; Great Langdale; s £58, d
£116-132; pW#), a classic and is a much grander
hikers’ haunt. affair than Dove Cottage:
you can have a look
The Drive » Retrace the road around the library, visit
to Ambleside and head north the poet’s attic study and
to Grasmere on the A591 for wander around the gar-
5 miles.
dens he designed. Below
the house, Dora’s Field
TRIP HIGHLIGHT is filled with daffodils
4 Grasmere in springtime; it was
The lovely little village of planted in memory of to a recipe formulated
Wordsworth’s daughter,
Grasmere is inextricably who died of tuberculosis. in 1854.
linked with the poet If you have a sweet
William Wordsworth, tooth, you’ll also want 4 p259
who made it his home in to pick up a souvenir at The Drive » From Grasmere,
the late 18th century and Sarah Nelson’s Ginger- continue north on the A591.
never left unless he really bread Shop (%015394- You’ll pass through the dramatic
had to. Two of his houses 35428; www.grasmereginger pass known as Dunmail Raise,
are now open to the pub- bread.co.uk; Church Cottage; where a great battle is said
lic. The most famous is h9.15am-5.30pm Mon-Sat, to have taken place between
Dove Cottage (%015394- 12.30-5pm Sun), which still the Saxons and the Celtic king
35544; www.wordsworth.org. makes its gingerbread Dunmail, who was slain near the
pass. Stay on the road past the
uk; adult/child £7.50/4.50;

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