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Saturday 05/09 – day trip around Bakewell

Today we visited a few places:

1. Over Haddon (lunch)
2. Bakewell & Chatsworth House (afternoon)
3. Crown Carveries, Nottingham (dinner)

1. Over Haddon (Lunch)

This peaceful village is set high up on the hill tops of central English. Leaving around mid-morning, we arrived there at 12pm and since it was lunch time, priority #1 was lunch! Whilst we ate, it was a nice opportunity to look out from the cafe at the rolling hills of grass plains – which to the English is consider parkland! [This was a big contrast to what we consider parkland in Australia – with all the trees and shade]

After a sumptuous lunch, we embarked upon a 2-hour walk down hill towards River Lathkill. The journey started off with the gentle slope of the hillside walking across pasture where sheep were grazing peacefully. Progressively, on the other side of the pasture, the route got steeper and we descended right to the riverbank.

My cousin-in-law had the responsibility of carrying his son and today we were using a backpack which had a seat for the little guy. Along the way down, he fell asleep; the rhythm of the walk after his lunch meal combined to make him drowsy.

2. Bakewell & Chatsworth House (Afternoon)

Bakewell was a short visit in the mid afternoon. We stopped over to pick up some Bakewell Pudding from the Bakewell Pudding Shop. Bakewell is famous for these desserts. It was delicious and was quite interesting to learn of how a mistake in following the original recipe inadvertently led to this new creation.

From Bakewell we drove through the grounds of nearby Chatsworth House, a mansion which is home to the Duke of Devonshire. At the time I did not realise the connection of this to the famous story of Pride & Prejudice. This was the very house referenced in the story as well as being the set for many films. According to Wikipedia, two films were made there in 2009 and now on recollection, I think we were there a few weeks before The Wolfman was filmed.

3. Crown Carveries, Nottingham (Dinner)

This picture summarises the experience of Crown Carveries! This place featured a meat carver with unlimited vegetables – all for 5 pounds!

Technically, this was the closest I got to Nottingham and Sherwood Forest, of Robin Hood fame.