Windermere
When I woke up from my slumber we were in a totally different kind of landscape. Gone were the large open fields broken up by the occassional stone wall. Instead we were now on hilly roads with a preponderence of large shady trees on both sides of the road. We soon passed through a town loaded with large 18th and 19th Century homes lining our way toward the pristine lakes of the region. We caught glimpses of the cool blue lake on our left but once we passed through Bowness we started to see just how huge and inviting the waters of this lake were. Even though the a/c on our bus worked pretty well, it was getting miserably hot inside and the lake water looked truly refreshing.
Great Britain, the dominant industrial and maritime power of the 19th century, played a leading role in developing parliamentary democracy and in advancing literature and science. At its zenith, the British Empire stretched over one-fourth of the ear... ... read more 
