What I did on my weekend
Apr. 7th, 2010 09:10 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Since I'm back at work and wishing I was still on holiday, I thought I'd drop in a few links from where we were over the weekend. Since we're not very good at taking photographs, hopefully the pictures in the links will give you an idea of what we saw (and ate - food is always an important feature of the holiday)
Our first stop was Kedleston Hall, which was a fascinating building, since it was built to be a showcase for a collection, rather than as a place to live. The family had a private wing of the house, but the main building was intended to show off sculpture and paintings, which it definitely did.
We drove on to Buxton, where we stayed at 9 Green Lane, a lovely B&B on the edge of the town centre. Not too expensive, lovely breakfast and nice people. We'll be giving them a good rating on Trip Advisor! Friday night, we just ate at The Railway, which wasn't exactly a culinary adventure, but was cheap, cheerful and had fast wifi (that's also an important feature of the holiday, since I refuse to go anywhere without my iPod Touch).
As I think I said, I hurt my hip a few weeks ago, so long walks were more or less out of the question, and with the weather being unpredictable (better than expected, but unpredictable), we decided to keep visiting places where we could retreat inside if necessary. So on Saturday, we took a trip out to Hardwick Hall. I'm a Tudor Nut, so it was a real treat for me, and we had a nice walk down to the mill at Stainsby, bought a bag of their flour, then J manfully carried it all the way back up the hill to the hall. Lunch was once again in the National Trust cafe (I love National Trust cafes), which was the old kitchens as they usually are, but this time with long tables and benches. We had to wait a while, which was fine, then after we sat down, we were joined by a group of 4 retired folk on some kind of organised trip. They were vastly entertaining, especially when one of them realised J had stew and a dumpling, which apparently was vastly superior to his soup, and he spent the rest of the meal happily grumbling about being deprived of dumplings. Since I was working my way through the best cottage pie I've ever eaten (SRSLY you have idea how nommity this pie was), I was happily inclined anyway, and that just made the meal more fun. Hardwick Hall itself is well worth the visit - Bess of Hardwick sounds like an awesome lady, and the Hall is covered in more tapestries than I've seen in my life. A really incredible place.
Saturday night, we ate at The Manners in Bakewell, which was reasonably priced and had a nice atmosphere, but the food was only okay. Perfectly edible and nice, but it had a hard act to follow in that cottage pie (NOM).
On Sunday, we went to one of the local churches, which was incredibly welcoming and friendly and spookily similar to our church here in Oxford (their vicar knows our vicar - Christian circles generally only have 2 degrees of separation rather than the usual 6). We had planned to head over to Lyme Park for the rest of the day, but when we got there, they'd had to close due to over-crowding. Not something I've ever seen before, and good for them, but disappointing for us. After some umming and ahing, we decided to just drive out into the Peaks instead, especially since my leg won't let me walk much more than 3 miles anyway. By this point, we'd become pretty good at walking into a pub and deciding whether or not we wanted to eat there, and we did this twice before deciding to stop at the Lantern Pike Inn. This turned out to be an incredibly good decision, since the owners were welcoming, there was a big log fire, and I had one of the best chillis I've ever eaten - seriously spicy, but from fresh chillis rather than powder, which gives it such a different taste - and J had a roast dinner that was so big it was almost falling off his plate. On the way out, we noticed that the pub is in this year's Good Pub Guide, and so it should be. The Inn has an interesting history, so I recommend checking out the website.
We drove out over the Snake Pass with its incredible views, and eventually stopped at Ladybower Resevoir for a walk. The sun was shining, and although it was windy, it was nice and warm so we had a lovely stroll around the water. The paths were much better for my hip, and we got quite a long way around before having to head back. As an aside, if you go to Google Maps and look up Ladybower, you'll see that down at the southern end where the resevoir ends, there are two large circles. They look pretty harmelss, don't they?
hahahahaha
They're overflow drains, and since they'd had a lot of rain just before we were there, the water was pretty much as high as it gets. That turns those holes into SWIRLING HOLES OF WATERY DOOM. I kid you not, and wish we'd had the camera with us. As it was, just looking at them made me feel deeply uneasy - all that water flowing down into an apparently bottomless pit, and making the most tremendous noise. *shivers* WATER DOOM I TELL YOU.
After bravely not drowning (although slightly freaked out), we wended our way back down to Bakewell and started to look for somewhere for dinner. After a few false starts, we ended up at the Castle Inn, which was a Greene King (a chain, sort of), but was in a lovely old building. What really sold it to us was the couple sitting near the door with their Giant Fluffy Sheepdog, which made the whole place feel very friendly. The food was okay, about what you'd expect from a chain-pub, and was at least cheap.
When we first decided to visit the Peaks, my one request was that we go to Chatsworth. At Kedleston, we'd seen a few dresses from the film The Duchess, and I've been in love with Georgiana since reading Amanda Foreman's biography of her when I was a teenager. The house doesn't disappoint, and although it's incredibly pricey to get in, I can understand that hundreds of thousands of feet tramping through a house will cause considerable wear and tear, and they have to make the money back somehow. As it was, Chatsworth the house was wonderful, the gardens were lovely to walk around, and the Farm shop was too tempting to resist. Since we knew the restaurant would be a)packed and b)expensive, we took our own lunch, but treated ourselves to coffee in the farm shop restaurant. We managed to get a table by the window with the most incredible views over the hills, and with lambs gambolling in the field. Pretty damn perfect, all things considered.
The less said about Monday night's dinner the better, but suffice it to say that it's harder to find food in Banbury than you might think. It was nice (if cold!) to get home, but I would say that 4 days is simply not enough.
We really fell in love with the Peaks, especially since they're only 2.5 hours away, and I get the feeling it's going to be a regular destination.
Wow, that turned out longer than I'd intended, but it's good to have it all written down so I can remember how much we enjoyed ourselves. Now, back to reality. To Do lists won't write themselves, you know...
Our first stop was Kedleston Hall, which was a fascinating building, since it was built to be a showcase for a collection, rather than as a place to live. The family had a private wing of the house, but the main building was intended to show off sculpture and paintings, which it definitely did.
We drove on to Buxton, where we stayed at 9 Green Lane, a lovely B&B on the edge of the town centre. Not too expensive, lovely breakfast and nice people. We'll be giving them a good rating on Trip Advisor! Friday night, we just ate at The Railway, which wasn't exactly a culinary adventure, but was cheap, cheerful and had fast wifi (that's also an important feature of the holiday, since I refuse to go anywhere without my iPod Touch).
As I think I said, I hurt my hip a few weeks ago, so long walks were more or less out of the question, and with the weather being unpredictable (better than expected, but unpredictable), we decided to keep visiting places where we could retreat inside if necessary. So on Saturday, we took a trip out to Hardwick Hall. I'm a Tudor Nut, so it was a real treat for me, and we had a nice walk down to the mill at Stainsby, bought a bag of their flour, then J manfully carried it all the way back up the hill to the hall. Lunch was once again in the National Trust cafe (I love National Trust cafes), which was the old kitchens as they usually are, but this time with long tables and benches. We had to wait a while, which was fine, then after we sat down, we were joined by a group of 4 retired folk on some kind of organised trip. They were vastly entertaining, especially when one of them realised J had stew and a dumpling, which apparently was vastly superior to his soup, and he spent the rest of the meal happily grumbling about being deprived of dumplings. Since I was working my way through the best cottage pie I've ever eaten (SRSLY you have idea how nommity this pie was), I was happily inclined anyway, and that just made the meal more fun. Hardwick Hall itself is well worth the visit - Bess of Hardwick sounds like an awesome lady, and the Hall is covered in more tapestries than I've seen in my life. A really incredible place.
Saturday night, we ate at The Manners in Bakewell, which was reasonably priced and had a nice atmosphere, but the food was only okay. Perfectly edible and nice, but it had a hard act to follow in that cottage pie (NOM).
On Sunday, we went to one of the local churches, which was incredibly welcoming and friendly and spookily similar to our church here in Oxford (their vicar knows our vicar - Christian circles generally only have 2 degrees of separation rather than the usual 6). We had planned to head over to Lyme Park for the rest of the day, but when we got there, they'd had to close due to over-crowding. Not something I've ever seen before, and good for them, but disappointing for us. After some umming and ahing, we decided to just drive out into the Peaks instead, especially since my leg won't let me walk much more than 3 miles anyway. By this point, we'd become pretty good at walking into a pub and deciding whether or not we wanted to eat there, and we did this twice before deciding to stop at the Lantern Pike Inn. This turned out to be an incredibly good decision, since the owners were welcoming, there was a big log fire, and I had one of the best chillis I've ever eaten - seriously spicy, but from fresh chillis rather than powder, which gives it such a different taste - and J had a roast dinner that was so big it was almost falling off his plate. On the way out, we noticed that the pub is in this year's Good Pub Guide, and so it should be. The Inn has an interesting history, so I recommend checking out the website.
We drove out over the Snake Pass with its incredible views, and eventually stopped at Ladybower Resevoir for a walk. The sun was shining, and although it was windy, it was nice and warm so we had a lovely stroll around the water. The paths were much better for my hip, and we got quite a long way around before having to head back. As an aside, if you go to Google Maps and look up Ladybower, you'll see that down at the southern end where the resevoir ends, there are two large circles. They look pretty harmelss, don't they?
hahahahaha
They're overflow drains, and since they'd had a lot of rain just before we were there, the water was pretty much as high as it gets. That turns those holes into SWIRLING HOLES OF WATERY DOOM. I kid you not, and wish we'd had the camera with us. As it was, just looking at them made me feel deeply uneasy - all that water flowing down into an apparently bottomless pit, and making the most tremendous noise. *shivers* WATER DOOM I TELL YOU.
After bravely not drowning (although slightly freaked out), we wended our way back down to Bakewell and started to look for somewhere for dinner. After a few false starts, we ended up at the Castle Inn, which was a Greene King (a chain, sort of), but was in a lovely old building. What really sold it to us was the couple sitting near the door with their Giant Fluffy Sheepdog, which made the whole place feel very friendly. The food was okay, about what you'd expect from a chain-pub, and was at least cheap.
When we first decided to visit the Peaks, my one request was that we go to Chatsworth. At Kedleston, we'd seen a few dresses from the film The Duchess, and I've been in love with Georgiana since reading Amanda Foreman's biography of her when I was a teenager. The house doesn't disappoint, and although it's incredibly pricey to get in, I can understand that hundreds of thousands of feet tramping through a house will cause considerable wear and tear, and they have to make the money back somehow. As it was, Chatsworth the house was wonderful, the gardens were lovely to walk around, and the Farm shop was too tempting to resist. Since we knew the restaurant would be a)packed and b)expensive, we took our own lunch, but treated ourselves to coffee in the farm shop restaurant. We managed to get a table by the window with the most incredible views over the hills, and with lambs gambolling in the field. Pretty damn perfect, all things considered.
The less said about Monday night's dinner the better, but suffice it to say that it's harder to find food in Banbury than you might think. It was nice (if cold!) to get home, but I would say that 4 days is simply not enough.
We really fell in love with the Peaks, especially since they're only 2.5 hours away, and I get the feeling it's going to be a regular destination.
Wow, that turned out longer than I'd intended, but it's good to have it all written down so I can remember how much we enjoyed ourselves. Now, back to reality. To Do lists won't write themselves, you know...