Then amble along the old road over the hills to Ambleside.Window shoppingWhen I reached a dozen outdoor equipment shops in Ambleside I stopped counting; this represents one for every 100 inhabitants. Get there before last admission (5pm) and make sure you take a tour to see where he lay "In vacant or in pensive mood", and to get the lowdown on the less humane side of the poet. Or head the other way, and you can sharpen up at the Cumberland Pencil Museum.Lunch on the runJust a few shavings away, at 32 Main Street, Keswick, the Kingfisher does the best fish and chips I could find, accompanied by tea and bread and butter, for pounds 4.25.Cultural afternoonWhether you yomp or take the bus, the journey south to Grasmere is superb - skirting Thirlmere (the most beautiful reservoir ever devised by Manchester Corporation), peaking at Dunmail Raise and sweeping breezily past Rydal Mount to Wordsworth's most celebrated residence, Dove Cottage. Waft south and you reach the breathtaking Alhambra Cinema on St John Street, whose radiant terracotta leaps out from the slate grey of the surroundings (and, probably, the sky).

Continue onwards and upwards for a mile or so, and you can wander lonely as a cloud around the Castlerigg stone circle. For a gentle hike, see Matthew Brace's walk opposite; meanwhile here's a plan for more metropolitan strollers, like me: Keswick is much more of a proper town, and much less crowded, than many of the towns and villages farther south in Cumbria.Start at the Market Place, where the handsome Rawnsley Hall holds court - and, indeed, used to be where villains were both tried and imprisoned. Call 01228 606000 for times; note that while there are 10 departures daily Monday-Saturday, the bus runs only five times a day on Sundays.Take a hikeYes, but where? If you are serious hill walker, you will already have the ideas, the equipment and the 1:25,000 maps. The places recommended here can be reasonably easily reached by the 555 bus between Keswick and Kendal.

Blackboards outside the King's Arms (01768 772083) offer B&B at a standby rate of pounds 26 per night.Take a rideTraffic congestion is terrible, with most of the 15 million annual visitors arriving by car. An option at the northern end of the area is Market Place in Keswick, where competition keeps prices down, at least off-season. Having stayed at both, bed and breakfast at the latter seems rather better value at pounds 13.65 single compared with pounds 55 single/pounds 90 double. Much of the intense beauty of the area, which so attracted Wordsworth and his cronies, lies along (or more particularly to either side of) this road.Check inThe Old England Hotel (01539 442444) in Bowness and the Youth Hostel in Ambleside (01539 432304) both offer a fine prospect of Windermere. This itinerary is based, quite tightly, on the road that forms the spine of the Lakes: the A591, which runs from Kendal to Keswick. We only get eight of them a year."Beam downKendal, the town saddled with the slogan "Gateway to the Lakes" is a sheep's throw from the M6, and a longish downhill walk from Oxenholme station.