England: Coal Miner's Cave in Castleton

I got up early to get on a bus headed back up to Sheffield, to spend my last day back with Princess William.  The bus ride was good for me, as I hadn't really had much time alone at all during the entire trip.  A few days earlier, I'd received a phone call from France informing about something that had happened that would be more than a game changer, but for some of my coworkers, perhaps all of them, a life-changer.  It'd been a heavy phone call, and while I'd been thinking about it ever since...this bus ride was really a time for me to delve deep into those thoughts and prepare my heart to go back to France and face the situation.  I'm thankful for that bus ride.

Princess William picked me up and we headed back over to Castleton, where we'd been the week before to go hiking.  This time, we stopped by a pretty church to take some photos.  I was amazed at how much the leaves had changed colors in the one week since I'd last been there:

I love old graveyards.  I promise I'm not a creeper.

I really love old graveyards with wonky tombstones.

1837!  Amazing.  America is so young. 

Princess William had been wanting to go to this particular coal miner's cave that you get to ride through in a boat.  They gave us hard hats, which I didn't quite understand at first.

Until I hit my head 10 times on the incredibly low ceiling.  So glad for that hard hat!!!

This was not a place for claustrophes.  For reals.  Also, there was a couple behind us on the boat who were clearly in love and on a date.  Seriously?  A dank old coal miner's cave for a date?  Ok, whatever floats your boat.

We had fun though!  I mean, who doesn't have fun in a boat with a hard hat, listening to dry British humor?!

Terrible photo of the cave.

Even worse photo looking way down at the Bottomless Pit in the cave.

Another terrible photo looking up the shaft.

Back out in open spaces, we wandered around the lovely town of Castleton.

We were having a grand ole time when we popped into this store.  I wish I had blogged this moment right away, so that I wouldn't forget all the stuff this guy said, but oh well.  I've already forgotten.  So, it was an old junk store, the kind I just absolutely love to piddle around in.  Out walks this old man.  I mean OLD man.  At first, we just thought he was funny with that British dry humor.  Then he started saying creeper things.  Then he starting looking at me with dirty old man eyes.  Then he dressed us up in sailor outfits and tried to get us to sing karaoke to My Heart Will Go On from Titanic.  (I'm so not making this up.)

I really began to worry that he was going to kidnap us, hide us in a cave, dress us up from various movies and make us sing creepy songs for the rest of our lives.  We skidaddled out of there and tried to shake off the creepy crawly feeling all over us.  If you ever go to Castleton, stay away from this store:

We went had one final cream tea...and afterwards went by this restaurant.  Oh, how I would love to live somewhere there is a Pie Day.  Wouldn't that be lovely?

That night, as Guy Fawkes day was approaching later in the week, there were fireworks all evening long.  Princess William has a skylight window, and so we spent a good deal of the evening staring out the window at the fireworks.  It was lovely.

I mean, isn't it great when you have a vacation, and the country where you go gives you great weather and fireworks in celebration?!  I love England.