I flew from Chicago O’Hare to London Gatwick to start my return to Bob and house sitting/traveling for a few weeks. From Gatwick, I took a Thameslink train to the large and lovely Saint Pancras train station from which I would catch an East Midlands train to Derby to reconnect with Bob. I had some time in the Saint Pancras station to grab a coffee and nibble and have a look around before my connection.
Bob met me at the Derby station. I arrived about 4:30 pm, and we walked to our Derby house sit home. It was in a nice, quiet neighborhood and Bob had done a great job of tending the house and the cat, Nero. We had a day together in Derby before we did the final cleaning and said our good-byes.
Bob and I had spent a couple of days in Derby on a prior trip, so it was fun to see it again. The city has a population of about 250,000 and includes a university.
When we were planning our time between our UK house sits, Bob had found a library fairly close to Derby that you could stay at. It only had one night available, but we decided to do it. It is the library of William Gladstone, four-time Prime Minister of the UK. He was also an avid book collector and created a library to allow public access to his collection at the end of his life. The library continues to collect books and make them available through reading rooms as well as offer about 20 hotel rooms, a dining room, and educational courses for the public. There was a Latin course going on while we were there. The library is in the cute village of Hawarden just across the English border in Wales. We had a quick tour of the library as well as the little community while we were there.
Peckish Travels 