Liking Litton

21 October 2023

It was all hands on deck this morning as we busily packed bags, gave Ellie a clean, said our farewells, booked Ubers and crossed the canal bridge one last time.

John and Jude were headed south, and we were headed for a laundromat. We posed for final selfies and not long after the Uber drivers arrived.

A big thanks goes to John and Jude for all their preparation and planning for our Great Canal Adventure. We have loved our time together, as we always do. Despite our daily badges indicating otherwise, we know the real Admiral and Captain were John and Jude, but I’m not going to say which was which for fear of being made walk the plank. Love you both and thanks a trillion. It’s been said many times but I’ll say it again , “We make a great team”.

Our first attempt at finding a laundromat proved disastrous. No washing powder dispenser!! Not the right change! And no one willing to help us out. After a brief discussion, Grahame and I decided the washing could wait until after the car pick up. Our second Uber in 20 minutes, deposited us to the car rental place where we ran into ….. John and Jude!! They too were hiring a car and were still there when we arrived.

Our little “Baby Blue“ was all ready for us, despite us being a couple of hours early. And we said goodbyes all over again.

We headed to Tesco’s to buy laundry powder and stock up on necessities for the next few days. (Beer and wine, cheese and biscuits!)

We still have a few days before we head home. So, after plonking our finger over a map of soggy England, we have headed to the nearby Peak District for a few days R and R before packing our bags one last time.

In a very short time “Baby Blue“ had delivered us safely to Buxton and our much needed Laundrette. We did pass some pretty spectacular landscape on the way. Not knowing the name of these little beauties, I checked my photo information and was delighted to see that “Apple photos” indicated that it was Mt Etna!!! ( and who am I to argue with Apple?)

Now, I totally get that a visit to a Laundrette probably doesn’t rate as a travel highlight, but let me tell you, this one was a beauty!! Firstly, we were in desperate need, and by this stage a communal washing tub in the village square would have been considered luxury!!

The Laundrette in Buxton will forever be held fondly in our memories. The two women running the joint were amazing. Within minutes they had us scrambling over mountains of laundry (with barely space to move) to pile all our stuff into a massive commercial machine.

A brief walk and 20 minutes later we climbed back over the the same mountain to retrieve our now clean clothes. The women had worked their magic again and voila, a dryer was immediately available. As a clever marketing ploy, they had created a cafe in the extra space (Maybe it was a cafe that added a laundrette in its extra space?!) and we sat, perused some maps, planned our next moves, had a “cappuccino” (not really! ) and ate a Bacon Bap. We were summoned each time we needed to check if our stuff was dry enough. (It took 3 checks and lots of £s, but so worth it!). Within an hour, we had washed and dried all our clothes, been for a short walk, had lunch and met two very lovely , friendly, efficient Englishwomen. But there is one more big tick! We jagged a parking sport right outside the door and it was free! What a Laundrette. Five stars!!!

Anyway!!! Buxton has a few other things going for it.

A spa town in the Peak District, it was developed by the Dukes of Devonshire in the 18th century. The plan was to encourage Victorian English upper class to partake of the healing properties provided by the waters of St Anne’s Spring and other spring fed water fountains.

One of the Dukes of Devonshire built The Cresent based on the famous royal crescent in Bath hoping to attract Victorian era tourism.

In earlier times Mary Queen of Scots even came to visit.

The Buxton Opera House , built in 1903, was nearby and made an impressive statement in the local streetscape.

The attached Pavilion Gardens were pretty impressive too.

We left Buxton with a car full of clean clothes and headed to our Airbnb in Litton.

There are still signs of local flooding due to Storm Babet and although minor, we still had to pass through water over the road in one or two places.

We were there in no time and welcomed by our hosts before settling into our comfy loft. Such luxury!!! A double bed! A shower not dependent on running an engine and a real flushing toilet. What more could we want?

We unpacked , spread our stuff everywhere and did a little research for our next few days of adventure!!

Litton is so cute!! Lots of stones everywhere! Houses, farm fences , pubs, garden walls. We went on an exploratory walk , to get our bearings. It’s a small village so it didn’t take long. The highlights included the village stocks ( of course) …