Kiwis and Fairy Bread

9-10 September 2025

Time to visit Mike’s mum again. For our fifth trip to England in three years we have planned just over a week in Glossop with family, then a night in the coastal city of Blackpool to see the much-touted Illuminations, then up to The Lake District for a few days of glamping and hiking, then lastly, down to Bath to pay homage to Jane Austen for her 250th birthday. Sounds like a good two weeks, eh?

Having flown across the pond so often, we know how to do this. It is common to fly to Europe from the U.S. on “the red eye”, meaning leave at night, arrive in the early morning. One arrives exhausted and having to whittle away time until an afternoon check in. It is certainly an economic option (which is why we chose it when we brought our kids over in June of 2024). But for slightly more money, we like to take an early morning flight which gets in at night, making the jet lag much easier to deal with.

The night of September 8th Mike and I got just about five hours sleep. Woke up at 4am on the 9th and ready at 5am when our son’s roommate Cary drove us to Newark for our 8:30am flight. An easy and uneventful 6.5 hour flight on United Airlines “friendly skies” got us into Heathrow at 8:30pm.

We’d booked a room at our favorite airport hotel, Holiday Inn Bath Road, which we can highly recommend. Nice rooms, great breakfast and Budget Car Rental is right in the parking lot. Times and economics have changed in the last year, and there are no longer any free shuttles from Heathrow to the hotels or car rentals. So we took the public bus for the short trip, and were grateful for the kind assistance of a man who works at the airport for DHL. Into our room by 9, down to the dining room for chips and an England World Cup Qualifier, check in with the friendly Budget rental guy about our car, and then to bed. Being tired from the journey, we slept very well in the comfortable beds.

Holiday Inn Bath Road has a great breakfast spread, but surprisingly terrible coffee. No matter. Having filled our bellies, we checked out, picked up our car from the same nice guy we’d seen last night, (when did he sleep?). And we were off.

Mike: “Driving on the left”

Me: “Yes, you are driving on the left”

Our little ritual continues. In the drivers seat, Mike was non-plussed as always and soon we were on the M1 headed to Derbyshire.

We decided to break up the journey and stop at a place called Baslow Edge, a walk in Derbyshire where we had once hiked all-too-briefly. It is an easy trail with spectacular views.

Looking out at the beauty of the hills, the crisp air, the rocks, the fluffy clouds, the little homes on the edge of sheep pasture, I said aloud “I do love England. I’d like to live here”. I doubt that will happen, but I do feel at home in these peaks.

A bit away from The Edge was a big, unusually shaped boulder in the middle of the field. People were walking down along a path to it. We found our way down and stood at the base. I touched it. I was sure ancient peoples gathered here. Chanted. Feasted. Perhaps made ritual sacrifices.

I thought the rock looked like a frog sticking its tongue out. Did indigenous peoples workshop this as a god? I sat down and contemplated.

Meanwhile, Mike walked on down the path to where some fluffy cows grazed. Apparently people go to Baslow Edge just to pet these big, friendly beasts. Hey, why not?

We would have loved to explore the area even more, but we were expected in Glossop.

A very nice start to our trip.