Our holiday in Derbyshire

Mrs C and I have had a great week's holiday in Derbyshire.
Our car developed handbrake problems the day before we
left, so one of our daughters, Beck, gave us a lift in her
car.

On the day we set off for Derbyshire, we met up with other
family members … Soph at Chesterfield Bus Station, and Luce,
Jeff & India at Matlock ... all very much to my surprise.
A day or so later the rest of the family joined us ... all of
this done by Mrs C (using her mobile phone).

We stayed at an old house in the centre of Winster, which is
not far from Chatsworth. The property used to to be an old
hotel - The Old Angel. It had the Tudor style stone-faced
windows and old wooden beams everywhere, so it was probably
as old as a nearby pub (which opened in 1472).

The rooms on the ground floor were fairly dark, but upstairs
they were better lit (larger windows). Unfortunately some of
the beams & doorways were very low --- I must have bashed
the top of my head at least 5 times ... so I spent a lot of
the time walking around like Groucho Marx.

One of the disadvantages of being as bald as a coot, is that
I’ve got no hair to cushion / protect my scalp when I bash it.
I wonder how they managed in the Middle Ages .. perhaps tall
men never took their hats off?

The weather was dry and sunny nearly all the time we were there,
and became quite hot in the afternoons. We did various trips
around the Matlock area, including one to Chatsworth (where we
went up into the woodland at the back of the house, around the
Emperor Lake and the waterfalls below it).

The other brilliant walks we did were at Monsall Head, where we
walked down to the viaduct, and a trip to Ilam Hall and nearby
Dovedale -- my first visit to Ilam. A really lovely area. I’ll
put up some photos of the gorgeous views for you in due course.

In Cromford village, just off the A6 near Chatsworth, is a great
second-hand bookshop called Scarthin’s. One of our daughters
recommended the vegetarian food there, so we all piled into the
top floor/rooftop café for a veggie fest one lunchtime. I was
impressed with their massive book collection too.

Derbyshire is really on our doorstep – Chatsworth is only an
hour’s drive away from where we live in Nottingham. Mrs C and I
agree that we should take more day trips there.

We're back home now, and Luce is staying on with us for a few
days (with India), for a few days while Jeff is working abroad.
I’ve been catching up with emails and have been preparing another
IT talk for later this week (mainly about using Hotmail and
Googlemail – Gmail is my favourite email site).

Just as it’s great to get away on holiday somewhere, when the
weather’s good, I think it’s also great to get back home to our
home comforts and somewhat easier lifestyle (which might appear
dull to a lot of people) … plus our more comfortable beds (
impression mattresses), plus no wooden beams. :)

Next up are a couple of photos of The Old Angel's interior,
plus shots of Ilam Hall, the grounds around it, and a little walk
we did from Ilam to part of Dovedale.