The hotel in Buxton and pink hydrangeas.
Chris and I were heading back to London today. Chris originally needed to be back in London for a meet and greet dinner in the evening, but his co-worker decided not to attend meaning Chris did not need to attend either.
We explored in Buxton by the Crescent (Buxton Crescent was built in the 1780s by the fifth Duke of Devonshire as the centerpiece of his Georgian Spa development.)
There were small craft markets in the Gardens (a Greenhouse next to the Opera House). I bought a package of Christmas cards. If I didn’t have to worry about getting things home, I might have bought a few more Christmas decorations.
The Crescent used to house famous baths. Today, it was full of shops and a hotel.
We made a quick stop at the Palace Hotel to check it out and then returned to the hotel to start back to Manchester.
We did make a slight detour to Winnats Pass again today, after all the sun was shining. It was beautiful and the sky was filled with about a dozen paragliders. We made a quick drive through the pass, found a place to turn around among all of the parked cars lining the way, and continued back through the pass and onto Manchester.
It would have been so much nicer to hike to Mam Tor today. It is likely still windy at the top of the hill, but…no rain!
We only had to make one stop on the way to Manchester to fill the gas tank.
Chris is pretty much a pro at driving on the left side of the road!
Our road to the Sixt car return in Manchester was pretty slick without delay.
Since it was Sunday, we left our car at the car return and dropped the keys in the bin. The walk to the train station wasn’t too far and we were quickly boarded on our train back to London.
As we neared Manchester, Chris had AirPods in and didn’t hear all of the announcements for the stop prior to ours. The name of it was Milton Keyes, but Chris thought I was the crazy one when I asked “Milk and Beans?” Apparently that is the nickname for the stop and Chris laughed when he finally heard the announcer using the nickname interchangeably.
We left the train with our luggage in tow to catch our next train; it was out of the same station we took the Eurostar to Paris from years ago as a family. Chris had meetings in the morning close to Sheffield (a suburb of London), so we stayed in a Hyatt on that side of London. It just happened to be in the Olympic village surrounded by venues, a shopping mall, restaurants, and hotels.
After checking in (Chris scored an upgrade because he now has Globalist status at Hyatt), we walked around a bit and then enjoyed dinner at Gordon Ramsey’s "Bread House".
Look at Chris’ fish and chips! I had baked cod.
Since Chris was going to be in meetings from 8:30 am to 9:30 pm on Monday, I opted to just go home a day early. Chris was able to change my flight without any problem.
Kristen’s 8:00 am in Australia was our 9:30 pm in London. We chatted with her before drifting off to sleep. If you haven’t read her email corresponding with the date of this post, go check that out. She had an amazing experience with a baptism for a family of four just two weeks before she completes her mission. It was a life-changing experience for her and the family. She found “her people.”