Derby

The weather today turned out to be pretty much as forecast, raining until noon followed by three or four hours of brighter periods, and then showers after teatime...by which time we were heading back north in the car. 

I've only ever been to Derby maybe four or five times previously and have never visited the combined museum and art gallery, and the Silk Mill. The museum/art gallery was nothing special and there was nothing to see at the Silk Mill apart from an exhibition related to the 'Weeping Window' display of remembrance poppies.

The journey down to Derby didn't go exactly to plan. We stopped off at Hardwick  Park hoping to eat our sandwiches before going for a short walk around the lakes. The last time we visited I'm sure it was free to park here, but when I saw it would cost £4 we didn't bother and parked up in a lay-by to eat our lunches.

In order to join the trunk road down to Derby we had to pass through Tibshelf and Alfreton and were delayed in both towns; by the carnival procession at Tibshelf and by cars queueing to enter the supermarket car park at Alfreton.

We had nearly four hours in the city, plenty of time for me to take a few photographs...and enjoy a cream tea in the cathedral cafe.

Although I wasn't particularly impressed by the museum the natural history gallery was quite good; plenty of stuffed animals and mounted skeletons.

I've been inside the cathedral before; today's best shots feature the outside of the building though.

The best of the weather conditions coincided with our visit to the Silk Mill; there were plenty of other people taking photographs of the poppies as I patiently waited my turn for the best angles.

We popped in to half a dozen charity shops on our way back to the car park; I bought a couple of pairs of sturdy hiking trousers, with plenty of pockets with zips or buttons. 

Derby and Bolsover

Although I regularly go walking in Derbyshire I think I've only once ever been to the city of Derby, over thirty years ago; so I thought I'd go for the day with Siobhan, my support worker, and see what I could remember...absolutely nothing at all as it turned out. I took plenty of photos though, it's been a lovely sunny day.

The first photograph was taken on the footbridge as we approached the Catholic cathedral, just at the moment when a strange hybrid Father Christmas walrus character was cycling towards us.

There are several old pubs in the city like this one.

The Anglican cathedral isn't much further. The ornate tomb of Bess of Hardwick is inside.

We then walked down to the Market Place and the main shopping area, looking for charity shops - no bargains today though.

We finished by spending a few minutes sitting at the riverside.

The plan was to then call back at Alfreton on our way home, more charity shops and tea and cake in a cafe. We ended driving three times round and through the town trying to find the car parks. There were signs for us to follow, but all of the car parks seemed to belong to supermarkets...and they were operating some sort of complicated voucher system, with the cost of parking redeemable inside the shop. Far too complicated I'm afraid, so we returned to the motorway and stopped at Bolsover, where I knew there was free parking. 

Unfortunately Bolsover was closed when we got there at three o'clock, or at least all four cafes were. We were desperate for tea and cake and so went in a pub and ordered a cup of tea and  apple and cherry crumble with cream, which was absolutely delicious.

We burned off some of the calories we had consumed by walking around the perimeter of the castle, just below the walls.