Thursday we had an entire day to rest and visit with Philip and Nicola. We slept in, caught up on reading news, and I continued to focus on recovering from my dental adventures. In the afternoon, our hosts took us on an outing to the Peak District National Park, specifically to Padley Gorge.

The heather was gorgeous (the photo below does not do it justice) and the dog had a fantastic time hiking/swimming/ball-chasing.

We followed our short hike with ice cream from the ice cream van that Philip had commandeered at his wedding for some photos, followed by lunch at the hotel where Nicola and Philip were married earlier this summer. All in all it was a delightful visit. Also, we MUST mention that the town we were in was called Grindleford. It doesn’t get much more Yorkshire than that.
We departed this morning and reaped the rewards of climbing the 3 miles up to Gleadless by descending to the train station. We may have taken a wrong turn or two, as it took longer than expected, but we made it to the station with adequate time. It was the third completely different type of bike storage system we have encountered on a train. Our bikes fit relatively easily without obstructing aisles, so we secured them and took our seats for the 2-hour journey to London-St. Pancras. (Not pancreas, thank you very much autocorrect.) It was Friday morning before the last bank holiday of the summer, so the train was packed. Many of our carriage’s occupants seemed to be under 5. Thank goodness for headphones, though Maureen discovered that when a phone is unlocked and subsequently reset, all the downloaded music (and Kindle books) goes away.
We’re now back in London for a weekend of family festivities. Hopefully by the end of the long weekend we’ll be mentally and physically ready to hit the road again.