Peak district and more

And for those of you who thought that the visits to Germany and Belgium would be hard to beat I have some news - Louise and Rachel did just great doing just that!

I am in Sheffield now, thoroughly enjoying my real holiday - sleeping late (10 hours per day, I can't even think of when last I managed to do that! must say the darkness here makes it very easy to sleep so much!!), lounging about, reading loads, channel surfing, web browsing, running at least an hour every day, etc. All those time-wasting things which you never get round to doing in "real life". (No photos of that!)

Anyway, also some about my actual doing stuff here....

I arrived on Thursday night at the Sheffield bus station where Rachel was so kind to pick me up... After spending some unplanned time at the local petrol station and discussing the benefits of a RAC subscription, we were off to the West Street Live pub where we met up with Lou to watch some friends of Rach playing a gig at the pub. It was nice to see the two of them again, although a little surreal maybe - felt like I could just step out the door and be back in Leuven.

Friday itself was an introduction to Sheffield; met with Louise and Rachel for lunch and after that spent the afternoon exploring Sheffield centre. I don't know why everybody back in SA warned me against Sheffield being ugly and dirty - in my opinion, although the city centre is not very large, it is actually quite nice with the peace fountains and the winter-garden and the walking-streets. Unfortunately the weather was not so good so not many photos were taken, will probably do that tomorrow, so might then add a photo or two here.

The evening we went to two bars/clubs (I think Rachel's locals? Is that right Rach?) called Reflex and Flares (80's and 70's styled music respectively). I must say - the english women are a lot more "forward" than the SA'n version... I have never before been approached (read "groped") by three women in one evening. Interesting experience to say the very least...

The next morning I was surprised to actually find in-bed service of coffee in Palace d'Aldred after which we set off for a tour of the Peak District.

The first stop was Chatsworth - the estate of the Duke of Devonshire. We tried to walk a bit closer to the house to take some photos but the grounds were very muddy and skwishy (well, nothing compared to our countryside walk probably).

(House of the Duke of Devonshire)

With that we headed for Bakewell, a very picturesque little village in the Peak District, known for its traditional "Bakewell Puddings". After our afternoon tea Lou invested in some Bakewell pudding for me - it has a very amaretto type flavour and is very sweet, probably not my favourite pudding but, as they say - when in Rome...

(Bakewell town centre)

We then made our way to the Middleton where Lou's mom lives and where we were going to spend the night. The scenary on the way there was really unbelievable (gotta see it to believe it kind of scenery) - I really don't understand why the English wanted to leave that all behind, get on a bunch of ships and try and conquer the world whilst they have all that beauty right in their back yards.

Lou's mom lives in this really idyllic setting, with stone cottages set against beautiful green rolling hills. Lou's mom received us very warmly (literally and figuratively ) with nice tea in front of the fireplace and then later some red wine (actually quite interesting, it was a sparkling australian shiraz, something I have never tried before and it was surprisingly nice, even though it was australian!).

For dinner we went to "Ye Olde Gate Inn" in Brassington - this really quaint little pub with candles and fireplaces and old exposed timber beams which started somewhere in the early 1600's (I can't remember the date now, can only remember it was BEFORE 1652, ie, before SA was even found by the european explorers). Louise and I have been talking about going to this specific pub way back in 2004 and so it was really cool to finally get to go there.

(Ye Olde Gate Inn - Lou and her mom)

The next morning Lou and I went for a walk through the english countryside like proper Englishmen (yes, that's me!)... It was really great to see the countryside by foot, walking over fields lined with holly and bramble like I've always read in the Enid Blyton books when I was younger. It was very wet though and extremely muddy at places - think ankle-deep mud... (my shoes are still not the same after that). Despite Lou's best efforts to get us lost (my african explorer instincs saved they day!) we found our way to the little village of Wirksworth, had some tea at a teahouse and explored around the village in the churches and windy old lanes around the town.

(The views from "Black Rocks" - our starting point)

(Lou getting her feet wet)

(And me getting stuck some holly)

And still it didn't stop (see what I mean with it topping my other visits in the events department ) - when we got back to Lou's mom she had prepared a proper english roast for us for dinner with yorkshire pudding, roast beef, roast potatoes, gravy, etc. It was a shame that my camera's batteries were dead as describing the meal in words doesn't really do it justice...

That basically brings me to the end of the really eventful weekend...

The rest of the week was really nice and relaxing as I said above, with Monday night having dinner with Lou and a colleague of her's at Nando's (yes, Nando's! really cool that they have Nando's here as well I thought, so we went there for dinner to inject some SA'n culture into the evening). After dinner I wanted to take the two of them for coffee but interestingly enough that is impossible here in England. It seems that all coffeeshops close their doors at latest 7pm and after that all english only go for alcoholic drinks...

(Can you believe it - a Nando's!)

Last night was an easy evening - I made dinner for Louise and Rachel (bacon-cheese filled chicken fillets, with no recipe.... quite pleased with the result seeing that I did it all by myself) and then went with Rachel to a very gothy rock pub in Sheffield to watch some friends of hers who play in a band called Highway Child (playing music of the Blues Brothers). I must say, I was really impressed with them - they are very talented...

And that brings me to today.... So, finally up to date with my blog for a change... From here I go to London to meet one of my best friends Jacques (who moved there at the beginning of this year), don’t know if I’ll write much again till then– the last bit might only be from SA, who knows…

Till soon