In this article, Lara Masters tells us about her mini-break to Cumbria, including a trip on a cruise at Lake Windermere. She explains just how easy it can be to make a trip enjoyable and accessible.
For my boyfriend’s birthday, we decided to go on a mini-break to Cumbria. Neither of us had visited the area before and had come to the conclusion that lakes must be very romantic. We booked wheelchair accessible accommodation through Lastminute.com, packed our Rough Guide to Accessible Britain and our road map, keyed the address into the Sat Nav, printed off Google directions and printed directions from the hotel website and still managed to get lost…
After a six-hour drive, we found ourselves in the spectacular landscape of Alston Moors. We were happy to be lost and drink in the scenery as we meandered along what we thought was Lambson Road (it wasn’t – we had just misread the hand-painted board warning us of “lambs on road”.)
The next day we hot-footed it/burnt-rubber down to enjoy a cruise on Lake Windermere.
The pier area is very busy and touristy, an abrupt contrast to the quiet, rambling and unspoiled environs but once on the boat, the views are unimaginably beautiful. It felt like being in a postcard with the swans gliding on the sun-glinting water and the lush woodlands and mountains surrounding us. It was so peaceful yet awe-inspiring and with scrumptious locally-made fudge from the on board cafe, I was singing Lou Reed’s “Perfect Day” all the way back to our B&B!
For more information check out www.windermere-lakecruises.co.uk
For more inspiration on days out around the UK, see other Days Out blogs
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About the Motability Scheme
The Motability Scheme exists to give customers, their families and carers greater freedom to get out and do the day-to-day things they need and want to do, by enabling them to exchange all or part of their mobility allowance for leasing a car, scooter or powered wheelchair.
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