Tuesday, September 28, 2010

The Heights of Abraham

This last week, I was very intent on finding a good day trip for this last weekend because I was getting very tired of the manor! I originally had been thinking that going to the east coast would be fun and easy. However, the more I researched, the more complicated it got to be. Grantham is in a pretty central location for things in England, but as far as day trips are concerned, things are a little bit too far away. Travel time would take up too much of the day and it wouldn't be worth it. I finally went to the Student Development Office and asked on of the English assistants what she suggested. She had TONS of great ideas (I obviously should have just gone to her in the first place) and was really adamant about this place called "The Heights of Abraham". At this point, anything sounded great to me, so I looked into it!

The Heights of Abraham
Ashley was going to London to visit her uncle who now lives in Thailand so I had to find someone else to go on the adventure with me. (It was the first time in a MONTH that Ashley and I weren't going to be together! Good thing we don't have trouble branching out...). Luckily, my friend Rebekah was interested in coming along. Rebekah is a sophomore at Hannibal LeGrange College in Missouri (the same school our friend Jake goes to). She was also very interested in leaving the manor for a bit!

We got up early Saturday morning and caught the shuttle into town to the train station. We took the half hour train north to Nottingham and waited a bit to catch another hour train north to Matlock Bath. We had a great time chatting and getting to know each other a little better. The train to Nottingham was extremely full (because everyone wanted to shop, of course) but the train to Matlock Bath was pretty empty. The area we were headed to is known as the Peak District, which I had been very interested in seeing. As we headed north, the landscape went from being very flat (Lincolnshire is known as on of the flattest areas in England) to having really giant hills (they definitely weren't mountain peaks) and a lot more trees. We arrived at the train station and headed down a path toward the Heights of Abraham.
The Cable Cars up to the peak!

This park(?) was generally a place to view the area and explore the hillsides and caves. We had to take a cable car up to the top of the peak (which Rebekah was a bit afraid of) that gave us an amazing view of the area. Once we were at the top, we walked around climbing up into towers to check out more of the view. It was extremely windy and cold which was a bit of a bummer. But it was still really fun to see such a different landscape than what we were used to at Harlaxton. We also went on a cave tour that was pretty interesting. It would have been more fun but it was full of loud families and older couples who talked right over the tour guide. [Sidenote: I am quickly learning that a lot of the time, college students are the best listeners on field trips and tours. The adults tend to talk right over whoever is teaching and act like they already know everything about what is being said! I always make sure I avoid the tour groups the visiting faculty are a part of when we travel as a school...I want to be able to listen and learn!!] The rest of the time we walked around the hillside taking pictures and exploring. We ended our afternoon pretty early, however, because we were so tired of walking all the hills!
On the hillside facing the town of Matlock.

Although it wasn't the most spectacular adventure with lots of stories, it was still a great day. It was wonderful to get out for the day, but still be able to come back and get some work done during the weekend. I loved getting to know Rebekah a bit more and was glad she was willing to adventure with me! The rest of the week since then has been extremely busy in preparation for our first big British Studies Exam tomorrow. Straight after I head to Dublin to visit Ian and Jen! Very excited!

1 comment:

  1. Very cool Erin,
    On my China trip we got to climb up the great wall of China. It was a hard climb because the stairs were all uneven do to the construction and they were but centuries ago.

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