Loughborough and Chatsworth

They even had the flags out for us (Click to enlarge)

 

Mrs Wurzel and myself slipped into history mode last weekend. On Saturday we drove up to Loughborough for my birthday present, a fine dining experience on the Great Central Railway . We arrived early and had time to visit the station in the afternoon to find it was operating as it would have done at the height  of the steam era with all staff in period costume.

We returned in the evening to be greeted  on a red carpet, and shown to our seats in the first class restaurant carriage by a very attentive waiter (steward?).  The first of 6 courses was already waiting for us, and soon the steam train was on it's way through the Leicestershire countryside. In all the journey was around 3 hours or so, with several stops, one of which was on a bridge in the middle of the Swithland Reservoir, which gave the almost magical appearance of dining whilst floating mid-lake.  In what seemed like no time at all we were back from whence we came, but there was no rush for us to leave so plenty of time to finish off the bottle of wine before heading back to our hotel (thoroughly recommended).

On Sunday we headed off after breakfast for Chatsworth House . Very busy thanks to a surge in interest due to the current TV series about it, but still plenty of room to wander around and explore at your own pace. A very impressive house crammed full of paintings and sculptures, and pretty much everything in between art-wise. In my eyes there was simply too much, there were plenty of fascinating individual pieces but the overall impression was almost too much to take in. The gardens on  the other hand were amazing, spacious but with something new (and often unexpected) to see at almost every turn.

Chatsworth House - Click to Enlarge

Just a small part of the gardens - Click to enlarge

All in all a very enjoyable weekend, certainly helped by the glorious weather, and also the discovery of The Peak District as we drove to Chatsworth, an area now on our list of places to explore in the future.

Seen On The M1

Whilst driving on the M1 this weekend (a weekend away, more details later ... possibly)  I spotted signs for The National Forest. and The National Space Centre . Having heard of neither before, I looked them up when I got home.  The National Forest appears to be a new woodland planted across the Midlands, but being about a millennium or so newer than our own, local, New Forest it may be sometime before I feel it's worth a visit. The Space Centre sign conjured up visions of launch pads and shuttle missions but appears to be not quite so impressive once checking out it's details. Like the comparison with the New & National forests maybe give it another millennium and we'll be able to watch own launches there.