John Edward Cooper’s Notes
Friday 23 July 2021
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[2021] 12:00 P— B— (taxi) Lee Wood Hotel, Buxton (check-in) …Although I’d wound up the wall clock in the front room a few days ago, I decided to wind it up again.… Packed the shaver,… computers, etc., in my rucksack; but hadn’t enough room to pack keyboard, power supplies, hub, cables, etc., so put them in one of the main luggage items. I was downstairs and ready for departure ca.11.30am. P— B— arrived a little before 12 noon. I clarified before anything else that he was aware of the arrangement that we pay G— B— when he’d bring us home. He was self-employed independently of G—’s firm, and in fact had never met him (so it transpired during conversation). We set out a little after 12 o’clock. He wasn’t wearing a face-mask, and neither did we. We went along the A180, and its “motorway”-branded continuation the M180, to its termination; at which point we went along the southbound M18, continuing southward along the M1; leaving it to go westward along the A617 to Chesterfield, where to the right the famous crooked spire of the Church of St. Mary and All Saints came into view; continuing westward along the A619; bypassing Bakewell by turning right along the A6020, then turning right along the A6 (a familiar designation, because that’s the road that goes from Preston to Lancaster). As the road came to the River Wye and wound alongside it through Wye Dale, the seeming familiarity of steel railway bridges/viaducts mounted on masonry piers, under which we passed a number of times, brought to mind that I must have chugged along this way in the motor bike and sidecar as a child, when I would stare intently at everything we passed in an attempt to record into memory everything I saw. 
The first of a number of steel viaducts mounted on masonry piers in Wye Dale Image from Google Street View Image capture: Sep 2018 © 2021 Google In Buxton the sat. nav. directed us along the route shown by Google Maps that I printed on Monday for our planned trip to Haddon Hall tomorrow: Station Road (A53); Manchester Road; left turn into Park Road, which is a feeder road into the circular road also called Park Road; right into that road, to find the hotel some 150 yards further along on the right. 
“Best Western Plus Buxton Lee Wood Hotel to Haddon, Hall, Bakewell” © 2021 Google [click on image to enlarge] We arrived ca.2.20pm, some 20 minutes later than anticipated, mainly because of some nose-to-tail queueing at a latter part of the journey: going through Baslow? We got checked in; I paid the £170 for the extra first night’s stay (the price of the rest of our stay had already been paid to Riviera). Our first-floor, twin-bedded room, with walk-in shower in the bathroom, had been prepared and was ready for us. After we’d deposited our stuff, we went down to the bar for a drink — Janet had a Diet Coke and I a pint of “Tweedale’s Ale”. It was a reddish amber colour. It may have been better if drawn after people had been drinking it; as it was, it was a bit flat, room- rather than cellar-temperature, and there was a merest hint of sourness. 
The pump-clip at the hotel bar, as published on the website Untappd.com We went back to the room to unpack (a task almost all done by Janet; I only had to set up computers…). Logged on to the hotel Wi-Fi with both the Samsung (15:37) and Asus (15:42) computers. There was an e-mail (seen 15:44)…, to which I responded… (15:44–15:46). Found a reference to the above beer on Untappd.com (15:50–15:51). Then we set out. I had with me the above map and the one I’d printed to show the route for our booked visit to Poole’s Cavern tomorrow. 
“Best Western Plus Buxton Lee Wood Hotel to Poole’s Cavern & Buxton Country Park” © 2021 Google [click on image to enlarge] But even so, I got us lost. That really upset me. It did not help that all roads leading from Park Road were called “Park Road”, apart from one which was signed “cul-de-sac”!  Somehow, I missed the first turning left (eastwards) which we should have taken. The second turning left (southwards) had a sign “cul-de-sac”, so I figured that it couldn’t be the one. So it was the third turning left (“Park Road”!) that we went along (unwittingly south-westwards: I thought it was the eastward one that we were going along). This curved to the left, though, which seemed wrong. At the end, I turned us right; but when we came, not to a triangular traffic island, but just to a road leading off to the right, I concluded what I had suspected: that I was lost. And where was the circular domed structure, which should have been ahead of us opposite the end of Park Road (i.e. the Devonshire Dome)? So I turned us about, and we started walking in the opposite direction. We asked some people directions to the railway station, and were pointed in the same direction in which we were now walking. Disconcertingly, though, there was a domed structure to our right, as we walked along. (It’s the dome in the Pavilion Gardens, I know now; but any hint of it on the map is covered by text.) According to Janet: “I wanted tissues (didn’t bring enough) and some cash. We became lost a couple of times as we misread the map, but a couple of times I stopped folk and asked for help. We found the railway station, etc. We looked for a shop for tissues, but were running out of time as we’d booked dinner for 5.30pm.” So my tale is simplified in that there were two instances of asking for help. I think that to ask for the “railway station” was my idea, because it seemed the simplest thing to ask for, and I thought that I’d be able to find our way from there. We looked at one or two pubs, and decided to go in the Buxton Brewery Tap House (shown on both the maps that I printed). I had a pint of somewhat flat and unmemorable Buxton Bitter and Janet had a pint of Pepsi Max. Janet found the mounted animal heads on the walls a bit gruesome and off-putting. 
Friday 23 July 2021 — 16:49:28 Buxton Tap House Following the map to find our way back to the hotel, the same way as we’d come by taxi, presented no problem, and we were back in the room in time for what Janet terms “a quick wash and brush-up”. 
Friday 23 July 2021 — 17:17:00 Returning to the Lee Wood Hotel Dinner, which we’d booked for 5.30pm, was in the “greenhouse” (left of the main building in the photo, above). I had a glass of prosecco as an aperativo; and I also ordered a bottle of Rioja, of which I drank half and saved half for tomorrow. As a starter I had tomato (red, purplish and green tomatoes) and mozzarella salad. Early on, we were offered bread, which was hot. There was a choice of white and brown. I can’t remember which was in the form of cobs, and which was cut pieces of baguette, nor which I chose. Then I had beer-battered fish and chips with minted mushy peas; and after that, even had room for cheese and biscuits: a piece of soft cheese in a white rind, one of a smoked cheese, and one of Stilton. The only objection I had was that when I asked for vinegar (I like to use a lot of vinegar on fish), I got a couple of those single-serve plastic sachets which are always almost impossible to tear open. There was pork fillet on the menu, so Janet asked them for it grilled with nothing added. She also had plain steamed vegetables, which she was pleased to find al dente, and plain steamed new potatoes. (“Excellent!” she commented.) For dessert she had a mixed fruit salad. Janet had a Diet Coke afterwards in the bar, and I had an americano coffee with an extra shot. It came from a pre-loaded machine, and wasn’t as hot as I’d have liked. Back in the room, Janet showered, then made us coffee, sorted her stuff and wrote up her holiday journal. I transferred two photos from the camera’s SD card to the WD Elements HDD (20:27), and did some diary writing (related browser activity, 21:26–22:51), during which time I made a screen-capture image from Google Street View of one of the steel viaducts mounted on masonry piers in Wye Dale (saved, 22:51). I got ready for bed after this; Janet had gone to bed ca.10.30pm. [Saturday 24 July 2021] |
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