On a drizzly Saturday morning in September we set off to Hardwick Hall in north Derbyshire. About 6 months ago we started the Food festival season here, and it seemed quite fitting that we should end it here too. Having been lucky enough to get half price tickets it made it a cheap day out. We aimed to arrive at Hardwick early, way before the festival opened. This way there was time for a relaxed coffee at the National Trust café before ambling through a muddy field to the festival.
I am glad we decided to go to the festival, though it was a little lack lustre compared to the one earlier in the year. No live music, less stalls and the cookery demo's didn't start till noon. There was nothing for it, we would just have to sample gin and vodka. I was delighted to find that Nelson's had a stand there and at last I was able to sample their rhubarb and custard gin. It was nice, but not as nice as the Edinburgh Gin Company's Rhubarb and ginger gin liqueur we had already purchased. While we were chatting with the Nelson's guy he asked how I had heard about their gin and I told him through Facebook, and joked that it was probably bad to admit I followed several gin companies on Facebook. His response was that I clearly liked gin as here I was drinking it at 10.30am - I had to point out that I actually started at ten past - LOL! We didn't buy much and by about 11.15am we'd been around all the stalls twice and I was feeling quite merry. Did we really want to hang about 45 minutes to see Selasi (of Bake Off fame) do his thing? We decided no!
So instead we walked over to Hardwick Hall, one of our favourite National Trust houses. Built in the 1590's for Bess of Hardwick, this was her new home when the Old Hall was deemed to be too small. Bess was the richest woman in England after the queen, definitely a woman ahead of her time. Through marriage and smart thinking her wealth accumulated. The house was finally turned over to the HM Treasury in 1956 in lieu of death duties, and in turn handed over to the National Trust in 1959. Though we have been several times before, we enjoyed looking around again.
On leaving Hardwick we decided to scoot over to the Old Hall too, haven't been there in a while. Its now mostly ruins however you can climb to the top floor. The views across Bess's estate are beautiful. Good work out for the legs too!!
On the way home we called in at East Midlands Outlet Centre - oh my god! What was going on?? The car park was in chaos, almost full with people driving erratically trying to find a space. We did get lucky and were able to park, but in the end didn't stay long. It started raining quite heavily, the shops were crowded and we couldn't find anything we wanted. Oh well! So, we carried on into Burton and had a cheap and cheerful dinner at The Lord Burton. Got soaked walking there, does it ever NOT rain in this country - LOL!
Finally a trip to the cinema to see the Kingsmen - Golden Circle. We loved the original film and this is also very entertaining. Lots of action and gadgets! Nice to see Colin Firth was in this film too! And there endeth the day - a long day, a damp day but best of all a SATURDAY!
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