TOP 1: Lake District

　　The Lake District, also known as The Lakes or Lakeland, is a rural area in North West England. A popular holiday destination, it is famous for its lakes and its mountains (or fells). With more than 3,500 kilometres of rights of way, visitors can walk, cycle and ride around the beautiful Lake District countryside to their heart's content. And of course they can also get on the water of our lakes and coastline。

　　The Lake District is intimately associated with English literature in the 18th and 19th centuries. Thomas Gray was the first to bring the region to attention, when he wrote a journal of his Grand Tour in 1769, but it was William Wordsworth whose poems were most famous and influential. Wordsworth's poem "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud", inspired by the sight of daffodils on the shores of Ullswater, remains one of the most famous in the English language. During the early 20th century, the children's author Beatrix Potter was in residence at Hill Top Farm, setting many of her famous Peter Rabbit books in the Lake District. Her life was made into a biopic film, starring Renée Zellweger and Ewan McGregor。

　　英国乡村那些质朴美丽的景致，相信大家在无数名著中都有所耳闻。而湖区 (The Lake District)就是其中的代表。这里可谓是英国人的“后花园”，是本地人心中乡村中的乡村，最能体现纯本土化的英国式生活。住在城市里的人们总是一有假期就往这里钻，有钱人都爱这里置业，安排自己的度假别墅。也难怪，此地青山秀水，无论是家庭聚会还是情侣约会，或者你只是想自己待着，到湖边转上一圈，亦是好的。

　　无数名人都曾在这里留下过他们的足迹，包括华兹华斯(William Wordsworth)，和画兔子的波特小姐(Miss Potter)。如果你也是他们的粉丝，不妨在湖边漫步的时候顺带瞻仰。

　　TOP 2: Highland

　　The Scottish Highlands include the rugged and mountainous regions of Scotland north and west of the Highland Boundary Fault, although the exact boundaries are not clearly defined, particularly to the east. The area is generally sparsely populated, with many mountain ranges dominating the region, and includes the highest mountain in the British Isles, Ben Nevis。

　　Before the 19th century however the Highlands was home to a much larger population, but due to a combination of factors including the outlawing of the traditional Highland way of life following the Second Jacobite Rising, the infamous Highland Clearances, and mass migration to urban areas during the Industrial Revolution, the area is now one of the most sparsely populated in Europe. The average population density in the Highlands and Islands is lower than that of Sweden, Norway, Papua New Guinea and Argentina。

　　Culturally the area is very different from the Scottish Lowlands. Most of the Highlands fall into the region known as the Gàidhealtachd, which was, within the last hundred years, the Gaelic-speaking area of Scotland. The terms are sometimes used interchangeably but have different meanings in their respective languages. Highland English is also widely spoken。

　　记得我们在上一个“鸡肋旅行地”的榜单中有提到过尼斯湖。是的，单就尼斯这么一个湖泊来讲的确是可去、可不去。而尼斯湖的所在地，整个苏格兰高地，却完全可以被列入“人一生必去的100个景点之一”！这里有最险峻荒蛮的高山、最清澈湛蓝的海水、最原始神秘的森林、还有最质朴热情的高地人。比起英格兰的秀美，高地是纯男子气概的体现。如果你到过那里，穿越过那片寸草不生的原野、攀爬过那些人迹罕至的山峰、浅尝过至美甘醇的苏格兰威士忌，亲历过那里的疾风骤雨，和雨后新生的彩虹……你就会知道我说的是怎样的所在，就会明白《勇敢的心》中威廉华莱士站在高山俯瞰他的故乡时，怀揣着怎样的情怀！