Martha's Marvellous Munchies

The next section of the Derwent Valley Heritage Way took me from Duffield to the suburbs of Derby. It was a showery Saturday afternoon, so I went prepared with both waterproofs and sunhat. I parked at the southern end of the walk, at Darley Abbey. There's a footpath that runs along the edge of Darley Park into the village. gate to Darley Park  I soon came to St Matthew's Church, which was open. It had lovely large windows and some brightly painted woodwork in the tower. In one corner was the Millennium Window, celebrating the Light of God through 2000 years of history. Millennium Window As soon as I left St Matthew's, it started raining. I sheltered under any trees I could find, but still got wet. The road took me towards Allestree, crossing the A38 at Palm Court Island. This is less tropical than it sounds. Round here, island  is the word for a traffic roundabout, but the Palm Court Restaurant that gave this one its name is long gone. Palm Court Island, A38 below The rain ...

For the first part of our Greek holiday, see here . Day 4 - continued After much waiting around, we acquired a hire car and set off for the second part of our holiday. I am so glad that Graham can get into a strange car in a foreign country and drive away with no problems. I would be a nervous wreck. Even Graham was a little spooked by the Athens traffic - very narrow lanes crowded with cars and buses, and mopeds zipping in and out of every available gap. I had left Google Maps set to "avoid tolls", which meant that we stayed off the fancy new highway and took the old road towards Corinth instead. There was practically no traffic, so although it was slower, it felt very relaxed. We passed hills, hotels and oil refineries. Along the way, we stopped at a supermarket for supplies and drank Green Cola at the beach over the road. Crossing the Corinth Canal at Isthmia, we started heading south through the mountains of the Peloponnese. The sky had been growing darker and darker, and...