Thornbridge Brewery

On Wednesday I went to Thornbridge Brewery with the Meetup group I'm a member of.

Phil and I caught the bus to Bakewell and walked to the brewery. It's only a 10 minute walk, and this way Phil could sample as much beer as he wanted and not worry about driving afterwards. We walked along the river to get to the brewery, it was a really nice walk. I guessing that if we had walked along the road, the footpath would have been very narrow, if there was one at all.

For those of you that know me you might be wondering what I was doing at a brewery tour at all, seeing as I don't like beer. I still don't like beer. It was more for the social aspect; to get out of the house and do something different, maybe even learn something new, and of course to spend some time with nice people.

The brewery was surprisingly difficult to find. I had turned the GPS on my phone on and when it told me we had reached out destination we were standing outside a kind of small industrial park and there were no signs pointing to the brewery. We did notice a map by the entrance, which actually led us in the wrong direction at first, as it looked like you didn't have to go through the gates. Once we did walk through the gates we had to walk for a while before there finally was a sign that said Thornbridge Brewery, from there it was easy to just follow the signs to the brewery. So it's not like it was super difficult to find or anything, but it would have been nice if there had been a proper sign outside the gates so that we knew straight away to go though them.

While we waited for the tour to start we got to hang out in the shop, which had a lot of sofas and chairs to sit down on, it was almost like a bright cosy pub. The main attraction for most people in this room was the bar. We all got a half pint glass and could sample the various brews they had on offer. They only did 4 or 5 brews on their little bar, but you could have as much as you wanted.

I sampled the Baize chocolate mint stout... I couldn't really taste the chocolate at all! Didn't enjoy it. I did sample some of the lagers as well, and although a couple of them were quite fresh, I wouldn't sit down and drink any of them.

I really enjoyed the tour of the brewery. It's a small one but there was still a lot to see. As I hadn't heard of Thornbridge before I went on the tour I thought it was just a small brewery that only supplied beer to local pubs, so I was very surprised to learn how many countries they export their beer to. They export beer to Japan, USA, Sweden and Australia amongst others.

I thought it was a really nice way to spend the afternoon, and I really enjoyed it, even without drinking beer.

We paid £7.50 each for the tour, included in the price we got all the samples we wanted in the bar both before and after the tour, and we also got to keep the half pint glass they served the samples in, which i think they sold in the shop for around £3.50, so you really got your money's worth!

Definitely a nice day out, especially if you are interested in, and like beer, and if you don't.

The gallery gang

I recently joined a Meetup group. It's a nice way to meet new people and get some new experiences, and most importantly; get my arse off the sofa and go outside!

Yesterday I went on my first meetup. It was at the Millennium Gallery in Sheffield. There were only a few of us, but it was quite nice as it was a easier to talk to each person and get to know them. I was a little nervous about going but I'm glad I did, I had a really nice time.

I think I've been to the millennium gallery once before, the first time I lived in Chesterfield, but other than the metal sculpture in the hallway I can't really remember much from it. Not that it matters too much, apparently they change the exhibits every few months.








It was really nice to see the exhibits and learn a bit more about Sheffield. I wouldn't mind going back to the galleries, it was a really nice way of spending the morning. And it was free!

I also took a few pictures on my way back to the train station.

City planners

If you could clone one element from another city you've visited - a building, a cultural institution, a common street food, etc. - and bring it back to you own hometown, what would it be? - The Daily Prompt

I would import something I've seen in a few cities. And I would want to bring it to all cities and towns. An outdoor skating rink. They have one in Oslo, they have one in New York, they even had one on Bondi Beach in Sydney! I haven't been skating since I went to school, but if I knew there was always one there in winter, maybe even a free one, I think maybe I would get some skates and go more often.

Spikersuppa, Oslo, Norway

Bondi Beach, Sydney, Australia

Rockefeller centre, New York, USA

Another thing I think would be really nice to clone is the street art culture in Melbourne, Australia. I wouldn't want it on the old historical buildings of course, but in alleys between newer buildings it can really liven it up, make it seem less scary.

A day in York

I went to York on Saturday. My aunt and cousin were in York for a couple of days for my cousin's school trip and as I happened to have a day off I decided to take the train up and meet up with them. 

York is such a gorgeous city. I had not been since the last time I lived in the UK so it's at least 5 years since the last time I was there. I love all the little independent shops and all the pedestrian streets. To me, York symbolises one of the many things I love about the UK, one of the things that made me want to move here in the first place: There is just so much history and old buildings! I think I could probably spend a month in York and still not see everything there is to see, or learn all the history there is there.

I met up with my aunt and cousin outside the Railway Museum. I've never been before so it was really nice to see something new, or as it turned out, something old. The old trains they have there are absolutely amazing! I love old things, especially when they are well preserved. It was really interesting to see how the trains have changed over time, and it was also really fun seeing the royal carriages.  I actually wouldn't mind going back to the museum as well as we didn't get around to seeing it all. 

After the museum we took the little train that runs from the museum to the minster. It's not a long walk, but it is always nice to be able to sit down for a little bit when you got a day planned that involves a lot of walking. When we arrived at the minster we walked through town to find a place to have lunch. When she had heard we were meeting up, my grandmother had given my aunt some money to pay for lunch, which was really nice!

After lunch I wandered over to York Dungeons with the school trip, and while they got in line to go inside, I decided to explore a bit of York on my own. It had been nice to see my aunt and cousin again, even if it was just for a few hours, but they were there because of the school trip, not to see me, and I didn't want to disrupt their visit too much.

I wandered around in York for a bit before I decided maybe I should head back home, it was still early but my aunt had given me a bag with salt liquorice, which was really nice of her!! However, I get tired and cranky when I have to carry bags (one of the reasons I don't like shopping) and so all I wanted to do was to sit down and not have to carry anything. 

As I headed in the general direction of the train station I came across a sign that said there were free guided walks of York at 10.15 and 14.15, I looked at the time, 14.13, perfect timing! I wasn't in a rush or anything so I figured I might as well go on the walk, which is arranged by the Association of voluntary guides to the city of York. Even though I had to carry the bag of liquorice I didn't want to pass up an opportunity to see more of York.

There were maybe around 15 of us on the tour, a couple of germans, a few Americans, a few Brits and me. The guide we had was very knowledgable, it was really interesting to learn about the history of York. As soon as she mentioned the Vikings I made sure to tell her I am here to take over again. It was also really nice to see parts of York I might not have seen had I just walked around on my own, and if I had seen those places when I walked around on my own I would probably just have though, "that's pretty, I'll take a picture", but I wouldn't have known anything about it, whereas now I do. So if you are in York, a guided tour can be quite useful, just make sure to check the times on the website as they do change them depending on the season.





A guided tour can also be a nice way to meet new people. One of the guys on the tour started talking to me and when the tour finished he gave me his ticket to the minster! He had already been in that day, and as he was going up to Edinburgh in a couple of days before heading back to the states, he asked if I wanted his ticket! I just can not believe the kindness of some people! It did make sense in a way I guess, but still, it was just really nice.

I have never been inside York minster, but I've been wanting to ever since I first saw it. I might not be religious but I do think old churches and cathedrals can be really pretty. A free ticket meant I could actually go inside it this time! It is absolutely gorgeous inside, like most old religious buildings, they just put so much more effort and detail into them before than what they do nowadays. When I looked at their website today I actually found out they do free guided tours every hour. So, as my ticket is valid for a full year(!), I can go back and do the guided tour. It would be interesting to learn more about the minster, the voluntary guide on the city tour did tell us a little about it, but it would be interesting to learn about the inside of it as well. If I do go up again within a year I might also go up to the central tower, I bet there is a really nice view from up there.

Once I finished inside the minster I headed back towards the train station. It was a really good day. Quite a cheap day as well in a way, all I ended up paying for was the train ticket! I am going to try and get back up to York again in the not too distant future, it really is a lovely city. Maybe next time I will even go to Jorvik, and walk along more of the city wall than what I did on Saturday.

Things to see and do in Italy

Wikipedia Commons

I've already done posts about the top 10 places I want to visit on each continent (North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia and Oceania), but I wanted to have a closer look at a couple of countries.

Italy is, at the moment, the country I would most like to explore. There is just so much culture, architecture, history and delicious food all wrapped up neatly in a country that also has one of the most beautiful languages in the world! So far I have only been to Rome and while I was there I also visited the Vatican City.

I think Italy is one of those countries where it would be best to just get a car and drive around, exploring the little Italian villages would be part of the charm. I have however compiled a list of things I want to see and do if I go back to Italy.

Italy

• Verona, ever since I learned about Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet I've been wanting to go to Verona to see the place for myself, there are tours where you can explore the Romeo and Juliet side of the city
• Ruins of Pompeii, I've always been fascinated by volcanoes so to go to a city that's been so affected by one and well preserved for about 2000 years would be really amazing,  while I was in the area I would also visit the
• Ruins of Herculaneum, it's upstaged by Pompeii but was actually destroyed by the same Mt. Vesuvius eruption. It's smaller and easier to navigate than Pompeii and personally I think visiting the less known places is better than just seeing the same places as everyone else
• Venice, before it sinks too much I would love to go and see Basilica di San Marco
• The leaning tower of Pisa, it started leaning shortly after construction and they didn't just knock it down and start over! 
• Valley of the Temples, I love old historical buildings so Doric temples dating from the 5th century B.C. would be absolutely amazing to see
• Trulli di Alberobello, just because it would be fun to see a whole town of limestone buildings with cone shaped roofs
• Naples, food like pizza and spaghetti originated in Naples, meaning you should go there just to eat
• Grotta Azzurra, the blue grotto in Capri, a cave where the light from the sun coming in through the opening makes the water look neon blue (image below)
• Cooking class in Tuscany, I would absolutely love to do this! The Mediterranean diet is one of the world's healthiest diets, in addition Italian food is one of the tastiest cuisines, I would love to learn to make Italian food from the masters themselves
• Florence, thanks to the architecture of the old buildings Florence has been dubbed an outdoor museum, there are also loads of statues of "David" scattered around Florence, so you could do a "David" treasure hunt

Grotta Azzurra, Capri - Wikipedia

These are the places I would really love to see in Italy, but like I wrote above I would prefer just getting a car and driving around the country (getting a licence first would probably be a good idea).

If you haven't been to Rome and the Vatican City you should definitely go there as well! Rome is just and amazing city with so much to see! Just be careful as people basically shove things on that they then want money for. My top picks for Rome would be;

• Colosseum 
• Trevi Fountain
• Pantheon
• Spanish steps
• Monumento a Vittorio Emanuelle II
• The Vatican City, a country of its own but it's kind of in Rome so I'm going to count it as Rome
• The Vatican Museum, if the Pope is speaking try to go to the museum while that is happening as it's VERY crowded afterwards, also it might be a good idea to get a guided tour so that you can get all the important things pointed out to you, I'd like to go back as I didn't feel like I actually saw anything when I went last time

Have you been to Italy? 

What places would you suggest/want to go in Italy?

10 places I want to visit - Europe

I was going to just do a list of 10 places I want to see for the whole world, but there are just too many places! So I decided to do a list of each continent instead (excluding Antarctica).

Of course there are more than 10 places to see on each continent, some places I haven't even thought of, but I had to have some cut-off-point. So without further ado, in no particular order:

Europe

Wikipedia Commons

• Italy, I have only been to Rome so far, and it's just such a beautiful country with so much great food and culture, who wouldn't want to explore more of it?!
• Athens, been wanting to go since I learned about Greek Mythology in school
• Iceland
• Monaco
• Berlin
• Switzerland
• Moominworld in Finland, I grew up watching the Moomins on TV,  so I think this would be a very nice experience
• Crete
• San Marino
• Moscow, Russia to see St. Basil's

What would your 10 places in Europe be? 

If you could go anywhere in Europe right now, where would you go?

Blue John Cavern

Simon and I went to Blue John Cavern on Friday.

Driving through the Peak District easily makes you wonder if you missed a turn, you go through a few villages but mostly it's just empty countryside, which is gorgeous, but sometimes makes you worry you've gone the wrong way somewhere. 

When Simon and I got to the Blue John Cavern parking lot we weren't sure if we were in the right spot. There was a sign for the cavern on the side of the road, a footpath leading from the sign down to a small cottage all on its own, the parking lot consisted of a few spaces on the side of the road, and the road continued past the sign for the cavern. I like the fact that it's quite small though, and that it's not really commercialised, makes it seem more special.

It was quiet at the cavern when we went, so Simon and I got a guide all to ourselves! We got along very well with our guide, Ben. It was more like just walking around with a friend who told us various facts about the cavern. Another benefit of working shifts instead of Monday to Friday, you can go places when it's quiet.

I enjoyed walking through and learning about the cavern, it was a really nice day out. If you're in the Peak District I do suggest putting a couple of hours aside for visiting the cavern. I suggest wearing good shoes when you visit the cavern though, the ground is wet and slippery in places. 

Twycross Zoo

At the end of February I went to Twycross Zoo with Simon. I'm only just getting around to writing this post thanks to studying.

We had perfect weather for walking around outdoors when we went, a bit chilly but nice and sunny.

I had a lot of fun watching the animals. When the animals were playing their personalities really shone through, especially the primates'.

Simon and I went in the middle of the week, when there was no school holiday,  so the zoo was really quiet. The very few people in the zoo made it feel like we had the place to ourselves most of the time!  I don't know how busy it gets in summer or on weekends, but if given the opportunity you should go mid-week while the kids are in school. Unless you have a school-aged child you want to take with you of course!

In all Twycross zoo is a nice day out. If you like the zoo and you live close by, a zoo membership might be worth considering, you will only need to go 3 times a year to pay off the price for the annual pass.

1940's Weekend - Life on the Home Front

I usually walk past the Chesterfield Museum and Art Gallery every day on my way to work. 

As I walked past on Saturday I noticed some lovely 40's cars parked outside, I took some quick pictures but as I was heading to work I didn't have time to explore more. I was quite upset I didn't know about the exhibition that caused the cars to be there but it's only my own fault for not paying more attention to what goes on in town.

As soon as I got home from work Saturday night I found out that the exhibition was on for the whole weekend and as I was off on Sunday I decided to go then. 

Chesterfield Museum and Art Gallery is very small so it wasn't a huge exhibition but they did have a lot of interesting things concerning life on the Home Front in the 1940's. 

Unfortunately they didn't have as many of the gorgeous 40's cars outside on the Sunday so I didn't get any more pictures of them.

Vestnes

Last week I was back in Norway for a few days. It was really nice to see some of my family and friends again, and there was even a little bit of snow!

Asterix

One of my friends who lives in Trondheim had travelled down to Molde for a few days so I was very happy to see her for a few hours on Tuesday before she had to head back north. 

Before I left the UK I had already decided that I wanted to walk up one of the small mountains and watch the sun rise over the mountains, weather permitting. As my mum was off work I managed to convince her to come with me. I'll admit, when I woke up Wednesday morning I was kind of hoping for an overcast sky so I could go back to sleep but as soon as I saw the stars when looking through the blinds I was happy to get out of bed.

When we parked at the parking lot for the mountain we were nervous we were going to miss the sunrise as the sky was already pink above the mountaintops, so we walked fairly quickly to the top… Which isn't really that quick when there is snow on the ground and you're very unfit.

When we got to the top the sun luckily hadn't come up over the mountains yet so we found a nice place with a view to sit down and have some tea and "tjukklefse" (a local snack). 

How we didn't loose our fingers to frostbite I don't know! The sun took its sweet time getting all the way over the mountains. In the paper it had said sunrise would be at 9.45, but as we came to realise that means the sea-level sunrise, not the mountaintop sunrise. 

It was still completely worth it though and we both got some very nice pictures, I only had my phone camera to take pictures with as I didn't pack my DSLR for this trip to Norway.

Although I had things planned for every day I was in Vestnes I din't feel like I was rushing about at all, it still felt like a relaxing vacation, but then again it's more like going home than anything else, and I don't have to go to work!

The best game in the world!

10 Lake Spectacular Winter Tour

On Friday I had booked the 10 Lake Spectacular Winter tour with Mountain Goat through GetYourGuide. I had actually booked it for Thursday but right after I booked  it they told me that one was full, luckily, since I was still planning to be in Windermere on Friday, they offered to move me onto that tour instead. 

The minibus picked me up from my B&B and once everyone was picked up we were 6 passengers on the minibus. Our guide for the day was Tony, who I have to say have a perfect voice for being a guide, he spoke clearly and not too fast, he also seemed very knowledgeable as well as interested in what he was telling us about, as all good guides should be.

I'm not going to tell you about every step of the tour as I think you should go and experience it for yourselves if you can. I also don't have pictures of every single lake anyway as sometimes the minibus stopped in places where we couldn't get out to take pictures. It might be just as well though as I think sometimes I get too focused on looking through the camera lens and I don't actually see what's around me.

The first place we stopped was Kirkstone pass, with its 500meters it's the highest pass in the Lake District, going up it was kind of like going up a steep mountain road in Norway. The view was amazing and I bet it's even more so when the sky is clear, but at least it was dry on Friday, and seeing the top of the fells hiding in the clouds is pretty cool as well.

With the high fells and big lakes driving through the Lake District was a lot like driving through Norway, until we came to the very typical small british villages; some of them very small but packed with character! Some places along the road there were flood markers, apparently the water sometimes get as high as 3 feet!

One of the best views on the tour was from the lookout named Surprise View, where we could see Derwent Water and Bassenthwaite Lake in the distance. Apparently even prettier in summer but I really liked it with all the pretty autumn colours. A little bit down the road from Surprise view is Ashness Bridge, built in the 1600's and apparently the most photographed bridge in England.

We stopped for lunch in Keswick, I have been there before, in 2009 but couldn't really remember much other than Moot Hall. It's a nice village to wander around in, we had just over an hour for lunch and since I just grabbed a sandwich from an independent sandwich shop I had plenty of time to do just that. There are a lot of shops selling hiking equipment (not surprising when you consider where you are) and also a lot of sweet, chocolate and fudge shops. There was even a Norwegian store.

After lunch we stopped at Castlerigg stone circle which is about 4000-5000 years old, the stones are smaller than the ones at Stonehenge but like Stonehenge they don't really know what it was used for. Part of it is called the Sanctuary, and I kind of wonder if that's a name they have come up with in later times, as I find it strange if they know what part of it was called but not what it was used for… Why would only the name of part of it be preserved through history but nothing else?

The reservoir that provides Manchester with water, Thirlmere, is also in the Lake District, a long way to go just to get some water. Two villages were lost when they created the reservoir, but at least it looks pretty.

We also stopped in Grasmere for half an hour, this is where the Wordsworth graves are. The Grasmere Gingerbread Shop is of course there, it is over 100 years old, stepping inside it is a bit like stepping back in time, definitely worth a visit for more than the special gingerbread, which tastes a lot more of actual ginger than the usual gingerbread you get at Christmas.

In all the 10 Lake Spectacular Winter Tour was good, I learned a lot and saw lots of beautiful places.