Taking Mr Pinmapple on a trip - village hopping in Peak District, UK
The Peak District is the first, and probably the most popular National Park in England. It covers 1438 square km and the most southerly point is about 160km north of London. Over 20 million visitors come each year, and even with the corona virus now, it didn't stop visitors from coming.
In fact this weekend just gone, many still went to the Peak District for walks even though we were told to stay indoors. When a local farmer told one of the walkers to go home, he ended up being punched 15 times and kicked in the ribs!!!! I think the virus must be getting into people's head already!
When I told Mr Pinmapple about this, he was really upset, but also very curious to find out more about this beautiful region. I agreed to take him on a virtual tour from my visit a few years ago. Let's go!
VILLAGE HOPPING
We decided to go village hopping first as there are numerous quaint villages in the area. We started at some village which name I forgot. To be honest, you don't really have to plan your visit. You can drive randomly around the village lanes, and you'll bound to end up somewhere beautiful like here.
There are many stone cottages nestled around the countryside. Many of them are still inhabited by the locals, but I wouldn't be surprised if some are rented out as holiday homes as well. This would make a great base to spend a holiday.
We walked around the country lanes, into the woods and came to a river. Many rivers here have stepping stones to make it easier for walkers to cross the river. When Mr Pinmapple saw a mallard in the river he said the wanted to go and play with it. Before I could say anything, he had dashed into the river, scaring off the mallard! He was a little upset that he lost his playmate, and decided to take a rest on one of the stepping stones instead.
FLASH THE HIGHEST VILLAGE IN BRITAIN
Next we went to Flash. At 1518 feet / 462 meters, this is the highest village in Britain. I know this may not sound a big deal to many people, but bearing in mind UK is a not a mountainous country, we are quite proud of our little milestones! Mr Pinmapple said he wanted to get a "I've been here" photo with me.
Then he went off by himself bouncing down the country lanes as a pineapple pinmapple would do. The undulated views of the hills around here are absolutely stunning. I particularly like how the field borders are built up using stone slabs. Mr Pinmapple wanted to go play with the sheep but I told him the sheep might gobble him up. To be honest, I have no idea if sheep likes or like to eat pineapple, but at least that stopped Mr Pinmpapple from wandering off again.
LANDSCAPE
The Peak District has a lot of interesting natural landscape, and many people are so fortunate to actually live amongst it. Some like those we saw earlier on live in the beautiful stone cottages in the rural country side. Others live in the small pockets of towns that can also be found in the area. Just imagine how lovely it is to wake up to these views every day.
On one of the hills (I can't remember which one), was a tower, and poor Mr Pinmapple had an accident there. He said he wanted to climb to the top to get a better view. It was quite windy at the top, and since he doesn't have any hands to hold on to anything, he lost his balance and fell. The poor little guy fell down from the tower and rolled all the way down the hill only stopping when he landed between a ridge. Ouch!!!!! 😵
BAKEWELLL PUDDING
Luckily Mr Pinmapple was ok, a little shaken but not stirred, but I decided to call it a day. We went to Bakewell Village one of the most famous village in the area to get some famous Bakewell pudding. I figured Mr Pinmapple would like that after his ordeal, but he said he was feeling a bit tired and would sit outside the shop to wait for me.
So I figured we'd go to another shop where we could all sit down to have tea together. This is Bloomers. They claim their bakewell tart recipe is the first and original genuine recipe dating from 1889. If you haven't heard of it, Bakewell tart is an English cake. The based is made of short crust pastry, then there's a layer of strawberry jam and finally a layer of almond sponge. At Bakewell, there's also a Bakewell Pudding, the difference being the base, is made of puff pastry, and the top is like a thick almond custard instead of almond sponge. I ordered the bakewell pudding to eat in, and bought a bakewell tart to take away. I figured why not, since I'm at Bakewell.
Mr Pinmapple wasn't a big fan of either, as he still hadn't recovered from his fall. But since I'm a big fan of desserts, I gobbled up the bakewell pudding in no time
This my entry to the Taking Mr. Pinmapple on a trip contest hosted by @pinmapple. As part of the Pinmapple team, this entry will of course not be eligible for the contest, but I thought it would still be fun to take Mr Pinmapple out on a trip. Save for his little mishap, we had a great day out, and hopefully we can all go out on a proper day out when the lockdown is removed.
Perhaps you'd like to take Mr Pinmapple out on a trip as well? I know he'd love that. Look forward to see your entry to the contest.
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