There will be stars.

Picture yourself riding through the idyllic English countryside.  Now, keep this visual, but to it add a coach bus on roads barely wide enough for one and a half Mini Coopers, fraught with hairpin turns and hills too steep for even the toughest cyclist to conquer.  That sickening feeling in the pit of your stomach shouldn't worry you too much.  Regardless of your level of tension prior to arrival, it all melts away as you get the first sight of one of England's most beautiful glacial lakes.  Hills of the deepest verdant hues rise majestically on either side of a surface like polished glass.  You are in the Lake District of Northern England.

The Lake District has been the summer holiday location for the upper crust of British society since the Victorian Era. 

 Now, of course, it is somewhat more accessible for all classes and has persisted as a premier travel destination of the United Kingdom.

Basing myself in a village called Ambleside for the weekend, I was able to see much of the district and its surrounding areas.  One stop I made on my way to the North was at Fountains Abbey.  These ruins (the Abbey was destroyed by King Henry VIII) are accompanied by beautiful gardens and grounds that stretch for hundreds of acres.  The massive stone structure of the church itself still stands, with the exception of its roof.  Apparently, Henry was not without some sort of bland superstition regarding the God of Roman Catholicism. 

After touring these crumbling remains of a monastery, I was off to Ullswater, home of Aira Force which is maintained by the National Trust.  This walk was quite possibly the best part of my stint in England's Lake District.  The trail takes you ambling down a mountainside peppered with waterfalls and towering trees of beautiful deciduous and evergreen varieties.  It truly surprised me to see the beauty I had been missing in the northern English countryside.  

The next day of my trip brought with it a rich artistic history borne by the Lake District.  My first stop was at Dove Cottage, poet William Wordsworth's home in Grassmere.  It was here that Wordsworth's best poetry was inspired.  On this scenic hillside, he "wandered lonely as a cloud" to see "a host of golden daffodils".  And, although it was too late in the year to observe any daffodils, I saw how a person of such creative intellect could produce poetry in the midst of unending beauty.

Following in the common theme of authorship, I next visited the Beatrix Potter Gallery in Hawkshead.  Unfortunately, this was the least

 worthwhile stop of my journey.  Don't get me wrong, I was always a fan of Peter Rabbit as a child.  However, this hole-in-the-wall excuse for a gallery is nowhere near worth your time.  But, not to be discouraged, I continued to Coniston Village where I did a longer hike up the mountain to the old abandoned copper mines.  These mines were the principle source of income for Coniston for years.  Now, however, they stand deserted in the midst of a beautiful expanse of wilderness which stretches from hill to horizon.  

I ended my trip with a transit stop at Chatsworth House.  This was originally established as the first Duke of Devonshire's residence and continues to function as such for his descendant.  

A mansion of ridiculous proportion, Chatsworth House looms over hundreds of acres of garden and functioning farmland.  

The Duke and Duchess of Devonshire reside on the uppermost floor of the estate, while the lower three floors serve as a museum and display of the family art collection.  Despite its lavish display, Chatsworth manages to maintain an air of quiet dignity in its 

remote location in the English countryside.  

The variety of the Lake District surprised me.  I was pleased to be in a less-populated portion of England, which was recently noted to be the most densely populated country in Europe, according to the Guardian.  It was a refreshing change of pace in a world increasingly plagued by economic and political turmoil.