Well, James & I finally managed to get a holiday this year and headed off the Peak District for a few days, via Northampton to pick up some of James' stuff from a mate's house and play Vampyre (RPG) with them. Pretty good fun, although the game took a little longer than expected and we didn't get to bed until gone 6am! Next day set out up the M1 to Grangemill and after a series of misunderstandings found our B&B which was called the Hollybush Inn, Grangemill (not The Grange Mill, Matlock, as previously understood!). Following day (Monday) took a car tour around Matlock and the surrounding area. Took far too many pictures, as James got a new 4megapixel digital camera for his birthday 2 weeks ago. Found a lovely (ruined) 16th century house to wander round though (I've forgotten the name now tho!).
Stayed in Hathersage that night and then went to an Owl & Otter Sanctuary in Chapel-en-le-Frith. Again, had a little bit of fun finding it - even with GPS, we never have a terribly good time navigating. :#) The otters were cool, and we even had a squirrel come and join us when we were having lunch. Then it panicked and ran up the window, but it got out fine. :o)
Stayed in Matlock that night. Truly lovely B&B! If anyone ever needs anywhere to stay there, I truly recommend Ellen House (37 Snitterton Road). Really, really nice. Great attention to detail and a fantastic breakfast! :o)
Wednesday, went to Alton Towers! I'd never been to a real theme park before, so was keen to go. I went on every 'major' ride except Submission (spinny round upside-down thing) because it looked horrendous and the spinny rollercoaster (whose name's escaped me) because the queue was too long and we wanted to go home. The longest we queued for anything was 30 mins (for Rita, Queen of Speed - 0-100mph in 2 seconds!). Other than that, we pretty much walked straight on, or waited no more than a single load of people. Fantastic idea to go once the schools had gone back! Had a great day, although it took a couple of days for my head to recover, having smacked it against the head restraint on 'the Corkscrew'. Left Alton Towers at about 4:30 and drove home, hoping to find petrol for less than 96p/litre. I don't think we managed it, although I saw it for 93.9p/L earlier. :-S
Ooh, other exciting thing - Commit random acts of literacy! Read & Release at http://www.bookcrossing.com/friend/ichigo84
5 years ago
