Sheffield

Last weekend I had a cracking weekend in Yorkshire and Derbyshire.

The Friday night was mainly spent in the Sheffield Tap pub, generally acknowledged with good reason to be the best station pub in the country. The only other thing on Friday night which lasted a similar length of time was the walk at Retford station from platform one to platform three. Down the stairs, on to platform two, walk along to the end of the platform, along a bit further, round the corner, over a bridge, along a bit more, down some more stairs, and then you're there. Luckily we had fifteen minutes to change trains so just made it to the second train on time.

Saturday morning started with me being dropped off by car in the middle of the beautiful countryside. I had a nice six-mile run from Deepcar to Hillsborough along the route of the river, mainly downhill fortunately. It was some glorious countryside just minutes from the city.

We then went to Bradford to watch Oxford play there. There was time for a couple of pints in a very good old man's pub, the Corn Dolly, before the match. They did some good food too - like chilli for £2.10. Unfortunately, this food was only served between the hours of 12 and 2 on Monday to Friday. Our search for somewhere quick to eat between the pub and ground took us to the cafe of a branch of 'Asda Living' in a retail park.

The match itself was a good one for the neutrals, like the three Spaniards we met on the walk to the ground, one of whom was a student at the University of Bradford. It was not as much fun for the Oxford fans, ending as it did 2-1 to Bradford.

We checked out another highly recommended pub after the game. It was a huge pub with lots of different rooms off the bar. One of the rooms had been booked out for a child's birthday party and another for a convention of Country Music Singers.

Then it was curry time. The venue we had selected was the more traditional of the two we had seen recommended. It was unlicensed so we bought some beers on the way from a Polski Sklep selling all kinds of Eastern European beers run by a Iranian. The curry was ok, importantly and notably it was very cheap.

The Sunday was an unseasonably hot day. We went out into the Peak District for a long walk and picturesque along Stanage Edge to Hathersage, avoiding the occasional boggy area on the route. The scenery was beautiful and the sunshine was an unexpected bonus. The walk ended in a good pub which was doing a reasonably priced carvery, perfect for Sunday lunch. After another pint in another decent nearby pub, it was back to the train station and back to London. The strange orange ball in the sky had caused my forehead and nose to go a red lobster-like complexion, but other than that and the football result and the slightly disappointing albeit cheap curry it was a fantastic weekend!