England 2: Derbyshire

This afternoon(Oct12th)Steve and I went to the National Memorial Aboretum which commemorates all British servicemen killed in action since 1945. I was also fascinated watching a canal boat go through locks at Fradley Junction.
Today(Oct13th) Steve and I went to Calke Abbey, a National Trust "unstately home", because it has been left exactly as it was when the family moved out. It was a huge Baroque mansion with underground tunnels and a clutter of 18th century furniture and paintings, as well as an enormous collection of stuffed birds.Apparently the death duties were £25 million and almost half of their collection was sold to pay these. We went through Repton, which had a prestigious private school and a lovely old church. At night we went to a barn dance, complete with a caller to raise funds for the local church. Off to North Yorkshire all this week, so probably no wi- fi and thus no blogs for a while!

Photo blog of Rolleston-on-Dove

I have just spent a couple of hours wandering around this quaint little village. The old man in the church is the village historian and the Timaru Rollestons have ancestors buried here.St Mary's Church was built in 1130. This is also Mosley country where Oswald Mosley, who married Diana Mitford came from!

England 1:

Now back in England and so nice to stop! I flew up to Birmingham on Monday and am with Ali and Steve until I come home at the end of the month. They live in this lovely little village in Derbyshire. English chocolate box, complete with a close, brook and lovely old trees. The English countryside is so soft and green after the barren brown of Morocco. Today we drove up to Holywell in North Wales to see Ali's 91 year old mother. After coffee with her, we went to see Ali's brother Malcolm and we all went for a pub lunch. Malcolm lives in this stunning house in a lovely lakeside location, complete with gym and swimming pool(Southfork). It would make a fantastic up- market wedding venue or conference centre. The weather was a bit grey, but 'tis the season of mist and mellow fruitfulness', if my poetic memory is correct! We are going up to Yorkshire next week and to Poole in my final week.

Madrid three:

What a wonderful final day I have had in Europe. So much for a quiet day!! Margaret left at 10 am and I went straight to the Prado museum where I spent 3 hours. It is the wonderful National museum with a fantastic collection of the Golden Age Spanish painters - Velazquez, Goya, El Greco, Murillo, Ribera, plus works by the Italian Renaissance painters - Rafael, Botticelli, Fra Angelico; also Durer, Brueghel, Rubens etc. It is a stunning gallery. The photo of me with Velazquez is outside this museum.
It was a gorgeous warm 28 degrees and because there was a demonstration, many of the bus routes weren't operating, so I did a lot of walking. There was a huge police presence with sirens, barriers and helicopters! I had a sangria and tapas for lunch in the lovely Plaza Major and because there's a football match tonight between Barcelona and Real Madrid, the square was buzzing! I am going to do a photo blog of all the funny activities. There was such a festive air, but I suspect it will be noisy tonight here as this hotel is full of football fans!! The big stadium is the Real Madrid stadium. To England tomorrow.