The Mini Honeymoon

With the young man away on his skiing trip, and the Dancing Queen at Uni, hubby and I found ourselves on our own for the first time in almost 19 years!!!! We decided it was time for a mini honeymoon. In August, I had purchased a book of vouchers from Charity Unleashed. The idea is that local businesses donate goods and services for free (they usually have 2 for 1 offers etc) and the public pay £50 for the voucher book - with all the £50 going to Weston Park Cancer Hospital. Its great value as you only have to use 1 of the vouchers to recoup your £50 and the value of all the vouchers is around £1000. We had a voucher for a free night at the Maynard Arms in Grindleford (should have cost £80) - so off we went.
The Maynard has changed hands over the last few years and they have slowly been refurbishing it. It is a lovely comfortable hotel just 20 miles from home, on the edge of the Peak District. We finished work on Tuesday afternoon, and arrived at 4.30pm

We only had a standard room as part of the deal, but it was lovely and the bed was huge and exceptionally comfortable.

They have decorated the rooms with a mixture of very old and very new bits and bobs. Hubby was delighted to find Sky TV in our room as we don't have this at home. He was a bit grumpy when I asked him to see what was on the Culture Channel, but he was utterly delighted to find an artist painting one of his crushes - Julia Bradbury - in the nude!!! (I think he only fancies her because she walks UP hills enthusiastically, whereas I complain all the way up hills!)

We only got our room for free, we had to pay for our food. We decided to eat in the bar as I have got to that age where I can't sleep if I have a big meal at night!!

The food was delicious and reasonably priced too - we will definitely call back for a meal another time.

I loved the old stained glass windows on each floor.

The next morning, we had breakfast and then checked out. We didn't
talk about the kids as much as I thought we would, and we remembered what it was we loved about each other as this can often get lost in the whirlwind that is life, family and work.

We had both booked the next day off work, so we togged up, and set off into the mists of the Derbyshire morning for a long walk.

I'll show you where we went tomorrow.