Matlock Bath, Gondola Style

Prof. Sir Patrick Stewart.  Tassles?  Make it so.

Today was a very welcome Saturday.  The arrival of Sharon's parents was well timed, as I had to spend four days back in Leiden and then all day Friday in Huddersfield (that evening ended with a short pub crawl through the town with my friend and colleague from the University, Dave Pattern, and a rather late return on a slow train to Sheffield...thanks daveyp! I had a lot of fun hanging out).  Did you know that the Chancellor of the University of Huddersfield is none other than Patrick Stewart?  I kid you not.  I think he's off filming the next X-Men movie, though, so I didn't bump into him on my visit to the pub.

We had a really nice day at the Heights of Abraham

Despite the late return on Friday, we awoke early today to take the train to Matlock Bath where you can take a Gondala up to the top of the peak called The Heights of Abraham (named after the British war victory in Quebec) to visit the 600 year old lead mines and enjoy the sights.  It was also nice that it cooled off a bit today.  My Sheffield friends tell me is has been a decade since there were this many sunny days in a row in Britain.

Sheffield has been a bit wild this weekend.  It's the Tramlines Festival, with bands and lots of rowdy young people who like loud music, cheap beer, and carnival rides (yes, I'm getting old..."Hey you kids, get off my lawn!")  Of course, without Tramlines, what other chance would one get to see something like this:

Motorized, cross-dressing, musical nun.  Brilliant!

Our plan tomorrow is to have a nice Sunday Roast and take it easy.  We're trying not to dwell on all the things for which there is just no more time or energy to accomplish.  We need to keep some things on the list for which we will all want to come back some day.  We've all crossed motorized cross-dressing musical nun off the list, so who cares if we don't see Stonehenge?