Once there we checked in his bag, and shared breakfast at a cafe in the terminal. After he went through security, I was left alone in the UK. I should explain, that we changed my flight home, as though KISA had to return to work due to some minor deadline or other for some software thingy, I had no such deadline and it was a good opportunity to spend some quality time with my English in-laws and get to know them a bit. First up however, I was going to Nottinghamshire, so I made my way to the bus station. Unbeknownst to me there is a university in Nottingham, and it was about to begin its academic year, and everyone wanted to go there. So I had to wait 4 hours for a seat. Lucky I had a good book. So by mid afternoon, my numb bum and I climbed on the bus and drove to Nottingham.
I was spending a week with Lord Mallory and his long suffering staff of two. You may remember our Resident Backpacker from last Christmas? Well, she and her Mum are the long suffering staff of two. Lord Mallory is pictured below. He was none too happy about the invasion either, I can tell you, and it is only because he sleeps about 20 hours out of 24 that he permitted this to happen in the first place. He was well pleased to see the back of me when I left, I think!
Lord Mallory's Staff (LMS) and I had a wonderful week, catching up on each others news, and doing a lot of walking in the countryside, a common interest. The English countryside is beautiful, the weather was pretty good for the UK, considering what a moist place it usually is, and it is nearly autumn. I have already mentioned that I love oak trees and quaint wonky houses, and also I love moss and dry stone walls. This area has all in spades.LMS has a life pass to the National Trust, so has free parking and entry to these places. First up was Clumber Park. The photo below is not of Clumber Park, but I put it in by accident and when KISA gets home I will fix it, as blogger hates me and likes him, so will not do as I ask but fawns all over him.
There are lots of walks to do, all wide flat tracks, easy strolling, through the woodlands with the bright greens, and red leaf carpet on the ground.
Just makes you want to hold hands and go skippety skip!
This place was owned by a Lord even more grander and lordier than Lord Mallory. He built his own cathederal, because, you know, it was such a bother going to the local church.
I saw this squirrel. He was so cute and I got so excited. Our squirrels over here are so much bigger and jump all over the place. Some are six feet tall, especially the red ones. This one looks like a red one, but he may be a grey one reflecting the red floor and I had the sunset setting on the camera as well.
The drive in had this avenue of birches, that went for a couple of miles. Avenues are lovely when the trees are full grown arent they? We lived in an avenue for 15 years, but there was only one tree in the street. I always wondered why it was an avenue! Now THIS is an avenue!
Another day we went to another National Trust Estate, Longshaw Estate in Derbyshire. It was a beautiful day and it was in the Peak District in Derbyshire. This shot was in the car park, where even there, the grass was soft and green and the trees lovely.
As you can see, lots of peaks, lots of sheep and not many tall trees. Lots of heather that was starting to flower as well. Sunny, breathtaking. Not hot and not humid.
We had to stop for refreshment of the coffee and cake kind, we had walked a whole 800 metres and were exhausted. We watched these little birds at the bird feeder. I am shamefully ignorant of all birds non australian, so don't know their names, but they were very chirpy and entertaining.
Next stop was the duck pond, lots of ducks of course, odd swan here and there. On the way back, there was a large, wet, very very happy labrador retriever as well. Glad he wasn't going in our car!
The walking tracks were very arduous, steep and rocky.
There were babbling brooks
And sun dappled forests of oaks and other knarly, knobbly trees.
And quaint stone houses beside babbling brooks. With ivy that was almost a shade of hot pink!
And dear friends of course. An arched bridge over the babbling brook near the stone house..
Then we found the dry stone wall with the velvety moss on it. We stopped by an old church (well all churches here seem to be old, I didn't really see one that wasn't) for lunch and a cat came over and just lay down on our rucksack and jumpers and made herself comfortable! I think we walked about 8 km or so, so it was a perfect day out.
On the way home, we stopped in Bakewell, home of the Bakewell Tart. One of KISA's all time favourite foods. So we bought him one from this shop.
Street view of Bakewell, we also bought me a day pack from a hiking shop here. For some reason, my suitcase seems to be getting smaller. Must be the change of climate.
KISA is in Australia however, (an oversight on my part) so we ate the tart for him. We are good like that...
I kept him the wrapper though...
LMS and the Resident Backpacker took me to this delightful teahouse in a nearby village. We have been very energetic so needed fortifying with tea and accompanying delightful stuff. We discussed the necessity of a comprehensive and exhaustive guide to every teahouse in Britian and we decided we would be willing to make the necessary sacrifices to be the authors and reviewers and would therefore need to visit each and every one!
After that little treat, we went for a walk in deepest darkest Sherwood Forest, what is left, and saw lots of very knarly old oak trees.
This is the oldest and knarliest. They say it is over 1000 years old and therefore was around when Robin Hood and his merry men were. It looks pretty healthy for an old bloke. Needed a few walking sticks though!
This is as close as RB and I could get. It is really big though.
A further away shot of LMS and I to give some tree size perspective....
LMS took me on a day trip to Newark and surrounds. We walked past this old castle ruin that was destroyed after the civil war. Charles the first was garrisoned here. It dates back to saxon times.
Some more ornately carved timber shop fronts, next door to 1960's brick ugliness. I can see why Prince Charles (the current one)gets his shorts in a knot about this.
Newark market square. As you can see it was a glorious day. We stopped in a deli and bought some Stinking Bishop cheese. It was so delicious but certainly earned its name! In fact Lord Mallory actually got quite affectionate when I had it on my hands. 
On one side of the square, was this amazingly beautiful church. I took a couple of shots before I found out you were not allowed to.The ceiling is lovely.
Then, tucked in an alley just near the square was this little tea house in the quaintest wonkiest house you have ever seen. Isn't it lovely???
On the way back to the car, the weather got very very cold. So we had a quick lap of the castle ruins but another visit is really needed when it isn't so perishing. Always good to leave things for another visit!!
You can see the remainsof a spiral staircase here.What I wouldn't give for a trip in a time machine to observe life during the times this castle would have been in use.
While we were mooching around the area, we called into Southwell Minister. This is the seat of the bishop of Nottingham. It has the most beautiful and ornately carved interior and is absolutely massive. No photos allowed of course. It is amazing to think what our ancestors did with a wooden hammer and chisel. And for it to have survived so long. There is a lot of detail in the Wikipedia link.
We also called into Cresswell Crags. This is an area containing caves that our cave dwelling ancestors once lived in and left their marks in the form of paintings on the walls. This swan family lived on the lake that runs through the middle of the caves.The young ones are the ones with the grey feathers, though they are probably more like teenagers! They are the same size as their parents.
The caves are on either side of the lakes in the cliffs. Apparantly, the rich man who owned this area during the time they were expanding the railways, deliberately flooded this area to create the lake, as the rail company wanted to take the train through the middle. This would have destroyed the caves, so thank goodness for an early days environmentalist. There are tours that take you into the caves but a cold wet day and lack of time meant this is also for another day. We walked around the lake though.
One of the caves, they are barred so silly people don't go losing themselves in there and damaging the paintings, which are rare and fragile I would imagine.
Must be Christmas soon! Saw this holly and berries in the car park...
During my stay in Nottingham, we drove the RB to her uni room in Nottingham. After moving her stuff in, which entailed 4 of us making a few trips up 6 flights of stairs, we headed off into the Nottingham city centre for dinner and a show! We ate at a Tex Mex style of place which was yummy, and took in Stomp! which was fantastic. So many thanks to Lord Mallory for allowing that to happen!
The caves are on either side of the lakes in the cliffs. Apparantly, the rich man who owned this area during the time they were expanding the railways, deliberately flooded this area to create the lake, as the rail company wanted to take the train through the middle. This would have destroyed the caves, so thank goodness for an early days environmentalist. There are tours that take you into the caves but a cold wet day and lack of time meant this is also for another day. We walked around the lake though.
One of the caves, they are barred so silly people don't go losing themselves in there and damaging the paintings, which are rare and fragile I would imagine.
Must be Christmas soon! Saw this holly and berries in the car park...
During my stay in Nottingham, we drove the RB to her uni room in Nottingham. After moving her stuff in, which entailed 4 of us making a few trips up 6 flights of stairs, we headed off into the Nottingham city centre for dinner and a show! We ate at a Tex Mex style of place which was yummy, and took in Stomp! which was fantastic. So many thanks to Lord Mallory for allowing that to happen!Had a wonderful week, and am looking forward to a return visit.
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