Sunday, July 24, 2011

Beautiful little town - Matlock Bath

*Beware of a MANY photos post!*



I went to Matlock Bath yesterday with few of my classmates. It is about an hour and half train journey from Nottingham. When we google about this town, we did not see much attraction besides the cable car thingy.. And the reason we choose this place for the trip is because:

1. Cheap travel fare - £5.15
2. Near and fast
3. Recommended by Nani

Due to the few facts above, Matlock Bath it is. Not much choice since we can't go far as we don't have much time. Can't spend too much money since all of us are nearly broke.. XD

However, Matlock Bath did not let us down. Although it seems there's not much attraction but this little town really show us what we all expect to see of England. A quaint little town, quiet and pretty. 


This is the train that brought us to Matlock Bath. It is the 1st time I sit such a short train. It's just one carriage. Therefore, no seat reservation, which cause troubles when we were returning. We have to stand as there's not much space left. Horrible.. haha..


My breakfast - Sausage Rolls.. 

Reach! 

This is a little station, quiet and nice. Not like the big town, busy and noisy. XD

We reach around 10am+ so it's not many people and it's nice. 


Right infront of the station is this crossing for Cable Cars. 

See the white gate with the signpost? We all go around that gate and a pair of ladies beside us, just give the gate a little push and go THROUGH the gate. Stupid us, just laugh sheepishly. So embarrassing.. omgawd.. 

And... this bee.. stay at my back... it took 3 people to help get it away..Imagine me.. not knowing what is happening while everyone tried to shooo it off.. And everyone knows I'm terrified of..INSECTS! 


The cable cars bring us up to Height of Abraham where we can view the whole of Matlock 

View from the cable car

It's not a long ride..about 1/3 of Genting cable car. Cost us £10 each. At first, it seems a bit not worth it, but when we reach the top, all of us agree it is worth it. 

The cable cars move 3 by 3 


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Group photo at the look out point

Xian, Me, Fiola 

Nice view of Matlock 

Then, we continue to explore the other part of the Height and then, we saw this!


A peacock!

A real life peacock.. XD

I do sound like a City Girl do I? As if I've never seen a peacock before. 

Well, it's true. Where do we get the chance to see a REAL LIFE peacock at KL? 

Ok, Zoo maybe.. but it's been yearrrsss since I visited the Zoo Negara..XD

Back to the topic.. I digressed. 

We took the tour into the mining cave - just a short about 20minutes tour where the guide bring us in and show us various..minerals, shapes, and how in the olden days miners work inside. It's quite amazing story actually as I've never realised that mining IS THAT hard work.. Where everything is dark and cold, and you have to work with your life at stack. I mean, how many accidents happened inside these places? For a living, those days are real hard. I'm glad to say I don't have to go through that. 


Inside the cave

This is the.. plague that the owner of the mine crave to show the other people that this mine DOES belongs to someone already. Those are the owner initials and date. 1705. According to our guide, each of these person have a responsibility and one of them died when the caves falls..I think if I remembered correctly..XD

When we climb the many stairs out of the cave, this is the view that great us. Oh wow.. We are all..so amazed. 

Me, Jin, Fiola, Xian, Peng

There's a rocky path behind the view above, and we climb up to it. It's very easy, not as hard as the photo shows..XDD

And the view is sooo much more breathtaking.. It's really my first time seeing such great scene.
 And I'm loving it!

Behind us the Matlock

So vast area land England have. 

Just let me know anyone, where can I find such places in Malaysia and I'm going to go there. Never been close to nature before in M'sia.. Should try it when I'm back. Where? 

Lying flat on the grass is so comfortable, the sky is so blue and clear, sun shone lightly, cool breeze blowing softly.

Ignoring the ticklish grass...XD

This is the sky I see when I'm lying on the grass... 

Next, we go down again and reach the tower we seen earlier when we reach on the cable car. It's an lookout tower if I'm not wrong..did not really read the history though.. Was too excited to get into the tower..XD

When I peek at the stairs leading up, I'm a little worry and put off but I'm too excited to get up that I push away my fear and climb! It's so.. steep that we keep shouting out that we were going up so no one will come down, or.. XD



I'm so tiny here..I love it



I'm up! 

See the view? Ain't it worth the trouble?


Going down... XD

PS. SiawCheng... It's not that scary.. The view is really worth it!


Then, we take the cable car down to the town and find some lunch.


All of the shops here are so pretty and delicate. I want to own a shop like this one day.

Fabric shop

Ti-li-ta-la shop -> More of gardens stuff I'm guessing..But it's so pretty..XD

Handmade Chocolates! Resist the urge to go in to get some..haha

All the shops are very well decorated.. Nice

And I suppose ice cream is something popular here since we are seeing ice cream every few minutes..haha

See what I mean of the nice decorations?


Quaint little town ain't it? 

After lunch, we continue to explore the rest of the place and reach the garden.. Don't remember the name but it's not bad looking.. 

Now, purple and pink flowers are everywhere! 

Me! 

Nice??? I always love rivers and this river beside the little shops are so.. mine! XD

How can we miss a group photo at this place? 

And there's this nice little bridge to cross the river.. 
(Peng & Fiola) 

It's only about 3pm by the time we are ready to leave. Since our tickets are open return, we can return anytime we like. (Luckily, since we can't find anything else to do..XD)


Time to go back

Matlock Bath isn't a place if you are looking for excitement, it is for relaxing. 
^_^

2 comments:

siawcheng@joanne ♥ said...

i'm thinking about the cathedral... SO STEEEEEP I CAN GO SIAOOOO~~~

Cassie the Missy said...

XD.. I'm thinking about you when I'm climbing up.. It's only getting down that's more scary.. but the view is so worth it! ^_^