The approach to Hardwick Hall.  This, along with a lot of CGI, was used as Malfoy Manor in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. When we were there this part of the grass path was closed.  We picked our way through the garden on the other side of the right-hand hedge and emerged at the intersection in the background.

A couple of statues hidden in the hedges outside Hardwick Hall.

Hardwick Hall is known for its many tapestries, which they had recently completed conservation work on and we apparently were seeing ALL the tapestries for the first time in decades.  Ironically, while the tapestries are a main feature of the house the National Trust acknowledges that the works themselves are not particular GOOD.  Beth Hardwick apparently didn't spend top dollar for what she purchased.

 
Earlier in the morning I’d received email from Avenue House with self-checkin details in case we arrived after they’d left. However, as we were gathering the room card from the lockbox he door opened and Jeorgi, the girl manning the office during the morning and early afternoon, greeted us and welcomed us in. Our room on the 3rd landing was up narrow stairs which required us to lug our luggage with us, but our room was nice.

After a quick pit stop, we ventured back outside and made a 15 minute walk to the Bakewell Old House Museum. Along the way we had a rather dramatic sighting of All Saints Church Bakewell when we rounded a corner and found it majestically displayed in front of us. Completely unexpected and quite a nice surprise! If we’d had a bit more energy (and the Old House Museum wasn’t going to close in about 90 minutes) we would have tried to go inside. Didn’t know it at the time but the church dates from about 990 and has the best collection of original stonework anywhere in England – although the current building dates from about 1230, with the original stonework having been discovered at that time and either incorporated in the rebuild of 1220-1240, or perhaps on display inside? Not sure. Our path took us right through the graveyard outside the church filled with tombstones from (mostly) the 1800s to the museum.

The museum was one of those unexpected finds that pop up from time to time. The house itself IS the topic of much of the museum, accompanied by some exhibits illustrating several facets of life in Bakewell at various times. We spent about an hour – and would have likely spent more if our brains weren’t still tired. However, we were kind of glossing over a lot of the informative text scattered around the rooms so we probably missed a lot of good stuff.

We walked back down into central Bakewell and found a charming little town, fairly busy with pedestrian activity. We window shopped, including one place advertising vacation rental homes and another real estate firm showing homes for purchase. Alas, no ice cream or other snack place leapt out at us, which was a shame as we were getting a little puckish. So we ended up back at Avenue House around 330P or so and available ourselves of a couple of packs of complimentary cookies up in our room while catching up on email, etc. (I’m typing up today’s earlier activities as part of this downtime). We know we SHOULD be maximizing our time here by being outside exploring…but we’re also not in our 20’s anymore and we’re aware that we’re not as spry as we once were, nor are we rebounding from the long flight and time change as quickly as we used to. So, yes, we are sitting in our room on our tablets when there’s a lovely town outside to see…and we’re OK with that!

Dinner for the evening was atThe Woodyard, an English restaurant alongside the River Wye housed in an old marble works dating from 1810. At some point in the building’s history it was apparently split into two, with the second part becoming a woodyard. There’s a glass floor in the bar area where you can see the old millstream running through the building. The restaurant was a simply 9-10 minute walk from Avenue House, along streets we hadn’t seen on our earlier trip to the Old House Museum. At one point we had to cross the river on a small foot bridge. From a distance, we both thought the bridge had two stone sides, but upon getting closer we realized that the “stones” were actually…padlocks! Hundreds – maybe thousands – of padlocks were clipped to the bridges side rails, many with notes attached. Obviously a local custom.