Today we went cycling again in the morning. This time in Nottingham on Steve and Fiona’s non-e-bikes given it’s a pretty flat ride out along the River Trent as far as the water sports centre at a place called Holme Pierrepont.   It’s a ride that Fiona does a couple of times a week and is about 16km and takes about an hour. 

The route is entirely along cycleways and took us firstly past the Vat and Fiddle. My friend Niels suggested the pub may have had a name change after the Inland Revenue was built so I investigated on google and sure enough. The owners have a good sense of humour and an eye for a marketing opportunity. 

The road along the Trent is not a through road and doesn’t allow parking during the week so it was lovely to bike along. 

After crossing Trent Bridge we cycled past the Nottingham Forest football ground and then out through fields beside the river. All very rural. 

The water sports park has every type of water sport imaginable including a 2km rowing course, canoeing and water polo.

It’s a big place and interesting to bike around when it was practically deserted – except for dog walkers. There were fishing spots all along the river where you can rent a spot and Mike was quite taken with some of the gear they had. Might as well have been camping out!

We grabbed some sandwiches and drinks from Tesco on the way back and bundled ourselves into the car for a quick trip to Derby. Steve was keen for us to see the Derby silk museum which has floors devoted to the railways, the silk and pottery industries and to Rolls Royce. It was well worth the visit.

Derby itself is quite attractive and leafy (in parts). This pub is typical of the buildings near the canal.

We detoured back to Steve’s former neighbourhood for a photo of the skinny doors. They are actually not as skinny as we thought as there is not much frame but you get the idea. Hopefully the back doors are wider.

There are loads of roundabouts in Nottingham and on the motorways (and everywhere) that are really complicated and almost always controlled with multiple traffic lights. You really have to have up your wits about you as a driver or pedestrian. In addition, the pedestrian crossings don’t have a sound so you have to watch for the red or green crossing sign. Goodness knows how blind or even colour blind people get on.

We got back in time to throw on some washing (which dried on the rack overnight) and then catch the tram up the hill to dinner.

We were booked into Browns which is a very nice brasserie restaurant in a lovely Victorian building. It had a great menu with good service and reasonable prices. It was still reasonably warm and light at 10pm when we set off back to the hotel. Time to pack up ready for the next part of our adventure.