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Bakewell via Stamford and Cambridge to Marshside (England) UK (7,125kms)

Aug 21, 2012

Snippets / Memories / Photos of the day:

• Overcast but dry all day so no wet weather gear. Yay!
• We rode around Bakewell ogling at the lovely houses and picturesque views then headed off to travel through more of the Peak National Park on our way south.



A sample of the Memorial gardens at Bakewell which were just beautiful with lots of garden beds and spots to sit and reflect on the day. Beautifully laid out in between spectacular old buildings. A great credit to them.

• We had a lot of ground to cover today so a good bit of it was on Motorways and fast and congested travel so no time for doing too much sightseeing when that was happening.
• The GPS directed us off the highway instead of putting us on the bypass road which would have been the fastest route and sent us straight through the guts of Nottingham which must have been the shorter distance. We saw a collection of quirky, beautiful and some neglected buildings as well as streets of all sizes and quality with interesting street names which reminded us of the Robin Hood story, got pretty hot in our bike gear with all the tooing and froing and got some fuel and got out of there.



A sample of some of the lovely country views with tiny settlements nestled in the valleys.

• We rode through more of the Dale country and soaked up the many views of rolling hills intersected with hedges and more substantial trees then climbed up the sandstone cliff face and moved on.
• Stamford for lunch was a treat. A pretty and quirky little town and we had an English family asking us where the Market Square was in spite of the sign on the back of the bike. Needless to say we weren’t a lot of help but could tell them that the sign on the wall behind them said the ‘Red Lion Square’ so perhaps that was it….who knows? We certainly didn’t.



Red Lion Square at Stamford. It looked like it had been recently repaved and there were no lines for traffic direction or parking on it and it was a free for all!

• We fed ‘Cambridge’ into the GPS in the hope it would find a route away from the Motorways but it was not to be convinced. Damn! Anyway we rode around Cambridge for quite some time being redirected and redirected and redirected around massive holes in the streets so not sure what work is happening there; just know it was a lot. This was a city of bicycles! They were everywhere with people of all ages on them. Obviously there was a predominance of University age people but all ages were represented and they were parked up against buildings and trees and anything vaguely vertical all through the streets. I think we saw more bicycles here than we have seen for our whole trip!



Now anyone can take photos of awesome University buildings in a University City but no....we only stopped at the station car park to try and get our bearings so here is our offereing, some of the bikes (small number) at the Cambridge Railway station.

• The later it got, the more doubtful the sky got, and the more I just wanted to get in so we had an occasional stop for coffee, hot chocolate and fuel and reached Marshside before any rain. It was nice to get the gear off the bikes dry and nice to just be in even though we are feeling a little sad that our UK odyssey is drawing to a close.

Bits and Bobs:



A sign on the wall in the American Diner we had a coffee in yesterday. Do people really do that these days?



And another….had to take it…a very good vintage that year!


Last nights’ Accommodation:

The Rutland Arms Hotel, Bakewell (England) UK


A beautiful old building well refurbished decorated and maintained. Comfortable public spaces and our room was a comfortable place to retreat to. The hotel is in the main square of the town made famous by a previous owner of the hotel who invented the ‘Bakewell Pudding’ which we shared for sweets last night. Quite yummy and the rest of the food was very nice also and the staff was helpful and cheery. The town is delightful and the area would be a treat to explore further and the hotel a good spot to use as a base to do it from. The town itself is a bustling place with major regional intersecting roads and what looks a healthy commercial community. Good to see.



The Rutland Arms Hotel, Bakewell.


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