Wandering OOF

How can I not Wallaby in England while the weather is so fair? Though, looking at these three, dinner is obviously more important than worrying about the chances of rain. 

Yep, it's been "week vacation" time again and we've been wandering off to see some more of the sights and attractions here in our corner of Merry Olde England. Starting with Yorkshire Wildlife Park. Though, as you can see here, some of the residents were so concerned about the weather they had no time to take an interest in visitors.  

Or perhaps they just couldn't be bothered to acknowledge passers-by. We watched this chap for ten minutes and he never moved so much as an eyelid. I suspected he was made of plastic, but decided against prodding him to confirm this.

Thankfully, there are also plenty of wildfowl and water birds there as well. As will be obvious from previous travel posts, I'm not allowed to plan visits to wildlife parks unless there will be ducks. But I thought these Flamingos posed a much nicer picture.  

The other good news is that some of the residents actually are pleased to see the occasional visitor. In fact, some even pose for pictures, even if sitting to attention is a bit too much for everyone. I think they were expecting us to have been organized enough to purchase a bag of food for them at the ticket booth.  

But, as it was an incredibly warm day by English standards (i.e. above 80 deg.F) you can't blame anything that resembles a cat for being asleep for 90% of the day. Unfortunately we missed the 10% when he was awake. At least, unlike our two cats, you couldn't hear him snoring.

Even the King of the Beasts was feeling the strain of staying awake until mid morning.

But it was a lovely day out. The park is huge, with dozens of different types of animals, birds, snakes, and other creatures. Think Giraffes, Monkeys and Apes, Zebra, Owls, Mongooses (Mongeese?), Meerkats, and many other small furry, feathery, crawly, and scaly things. Well worth a visit.

Wandering around eating ice-cream and waving at animals is OK, but you also need to take in some historical information to make it a worthwhile holiday. There's been lots on TV recently about the Black Death since they found a cemetery full of victims in London. So we decided on a trip to the famous "Plague Village" of Eyam, not far from where we live. It's interesting to wander through the village and visit the church. There's signs everywhere telling you who lived (and died) where, and what they did. The village museum is superb, with tons of information about the plague, as well as details of the population and exhibits showing how they lived and worked in the area. Of course, the main story is how they isolated themselves from the surrounding community to prevent the plague from spreading.

Eyam village also boasts the local hall, now fully open to the public since the remaining members of the family moved out a few years ago. It's an interesting place, with whole rooms left just as they were in Edwardian and Victorian times. There's even one room where the walls are lined with tapestries that are more than 100 years older than the house. Just a shame they cut them into pieces and nailed them to the walls. What's also a little disconcerting is that many of the historical artefacts on display are things that I can remember using or seeing in our house when I was young.      

After we balked at the cost of a National Trust coffee and bun in the hall's restaurant, the nice lady at the museum suggested a ride to Grindleford station, where the old station building is now a cafe that serves rather wonderful sausage and bacon sandwiches. So that was the next stop. Of course, being a railway buff, it also meant getting in some train-spotting time. So, just for fellow railway fans, here's a photo of a local Sheffield MU service that's just left Grindleford station and is entering the famous Totley Tunnel. 

And the bad news is that this is only two of the "days out". There's two more to follow next week...