Despite the fact that the official homepage calls Lake District National Park in England "exciting," it's hard to imagine countryside as such. (Much less British countryside.) No matter, Lake District National Park is more suited to relaxation than heavy partying, anyway.

Lake District National Park is the largest of all Great Britain's National Parks, an impressive reach of the island totaling nearly twenty-three hundred kilometers (or eight hundred and eighty-five square miles). The area, part of the greater region Cumbria, encompasses the towns of Ambleside, Egremont, Keswick and Windermere. Also inside the park is England's largest mountain Scafell Peak; at thirty-two hundred ten feet (over one thousand meters), it's quite the impressive site. Nevertheless, many thousands climb it every year: a jolly good hike, that.

For a holiday, Lake District National Park is a relaxing life siesta in greenery. Attractions can be recommended at the Lake District National Park Visitor Centre in Brockhole, itself a fine visit due to its scenic locale on Lake Windermere. Also worth a look-see are Coniston Water, a lovely spot with seemingly innumerable footpaths; Ennerdale Forest, a healthy thicket of conifers with veins of woodland trails; the Hay Bridge Deer Museum is at the heart of a deer conservation area and here be more nature trails; Castlerigg Stone Circle is an interesting collection of standing stones (billed "romantic"; it's not Stonehenge) and Muncaster Castle (you knew there'd be at least one) sports a bird garden and a heronry. Now there's a unique sight on holiday: Lake District herons. In Brantwood, visitors are welcomed at the home of John Ruskin, social revolutionary, poet and conservationist of the Victorian era.

And what would a run-through of a British tourist site be without enumeration of pubs? In the area are such lovelies as The Drunken Duck, The Mortal Man, The Old Dungeon Ghyll, The Shepherd's Inn, The String of Horses, The Sun Inn, and The Tower Bank Arms. If you have to find justification for consuming all those calories of Guinness (mmmm, Guinness), recommended is the Wasdale Head Inn. At the foot of the towering Great Gable, Wasdale is typically populated by serious fell walkers. No statistics are available regarding how many congregate there before undergoing the exercise versus after.

Ever mindful of history, locals have dotted the Lake District with reminders of exactly how the lake got there, beginning at half a billion years ago (no joke) when the whole area was underwater, mere sediment at the bottom of the sea. About fifty million years later, a series of volcanic eruptions spread ash throughout. Today's Lake District is the result of one million years of steady work of erosion and upheaval, with glaciers untimely creating valleys and lakes we gawk at today. The bad news, visitors are reminded, is that the life of the Lake District is limited: It is estimated that fifty thousand years from now, all the lakes will be gone. Better make reservations now...