23/52: Derby, Birchover Apartments and the Heights of Abraham

We will come here again soon, won’t we? – JD, 4

It was really tough to choose just one photo to sum up the adventures we had this week in Derby and Matlock, so here are six.

We stayed in an absolutely stunning luxury apartment in Derby, supplied very kindly by Carl at Birchover Hotel Apartments. You may remember I did a giveaway a few months back for a stay at Birchover. Now that I’ve been there, I can honestly say that it is as stunning as it sounds.

We stayed in a two double bedroom penthouse with en suite bathrooms, a gorgeous living room, dining area and fitted kitchen all to ourselves. There was even a private sauna in our apartment. Truly the nicest place I’ve ever stayed.

After our journey up from Lincoln on Monday morning, we took a stroll round Derby city centre and did some shopping. Up early Tuesday morning, we headed into Matlock, just 15 miles from our apartment, where Carl had arranged a family pass for us to enter the Heights of Abraham.

The attraction is right up in the Peaks, and the majority of visitors took the cable cars that zipped up and down the hillside, but I didn’t fancy dangling precariously at 450ft so we opted to walk up. As it wasn’t really pushchair terrain, Mark carried Miss J while I walked ahead with JD.

It isn’t an easy walk – my hamstrings are still protesting – but we reached the midway point feeling exhilarated and took a tour in an old lead mine, made all the more entertaining by JD shouting, “You already know ALL this, don’t you, mummy?” at every fact the tour guide shared. Oops.

Another trek and we were greeted at the top by a cafe, where we enjoyed a very reasonably priced hot meal while we watched woodpeckers and peacocks play just a few feet from us on the other side of the cafe window.

Next, we explored the Fossil Factory, complete with various types of crystal, rock and fossil. JD was most excited to find a cast of the biggest ammonite fossil found in the area, and The educational benefit of the centre was clear with plenty to learn about the natural history of the hillside.

A quick play in the playground and some time photographing the vista and Everyone was feeling tired so we started to queue for the cable car. As we neared the front, I lost my nerve again so we ambled down the hill, hopped in the car and arrived back at our apartment to slob out on well earned takeaway pizza.

All in all, a perfect trip.

Disclosure: we were given a room at Birchover Hotel Apartments and tickets to the Heights of Abraham free of charge. No payment was received for this post. All posts are 100% honest.

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