Although the Lake District is in the county of Cumbria on the West coast, after leaving York we headed North-East to Whitby. The whole day was on back roads with Whitby being a very popular seaside village for tourists. The countryside was amazing and ever changing with the fells (hills) being bare of vegetation. At Whitby we were dropped off at the top of town at an old ruined Abby that inspired Bram Stoker to write Dracula. We walked down to the village and visited the Captain Cook museum, established here because this was where Cook did his 9 year apprenticeship for his sailing career, with the museum being in the house where he lived during that time. As a group we then had fish (haddock) and chips for lunch at The Magpie Cafe which is supposedly world famous and (also supposedly) had the best fish and chips. In any case neither of us could finish.
We then tracked north west across England, passing though some very picturesque country in Yorkshire criss-crossed with dry stone walls including up and across some very steep hills. On the way we had a tour of the Theakston brewery at Masham, sampling some of their locally made export beers. They use traditional methods and use some of their original equipment - and they have been at this for 175 years! We arrived late afternoon at the Wildboar Hotel just South of Windermere; another country hotel full of character and great food! This one has an adjacent wood to walk through except when the 'Closed' sign is over the gate which means there are people shooting in the wood!