Dine In Style Then The Golden Mile!

From the Lake District’s Grasmere to Blackpool in one leap, is akin to dinner at the Ritz followed by coffee in Primark (if they had a café!).

But, sometimes, it is the small extremes of life that can make for a fun day out, presenting the opportunity for a touch of class with the lure of donkey rides and kiss me quick hats beckoning after a classy, sophisticated dinner.

And so it was decreed as we set off to Wordsworth country via Windermere and Ambleside, leaving just enough time to pop in for a cuppa at Grasmere Gingerbread’s head office before checking into the nearby Daffodil Hotel & Spa for dinner and brekkie.

Then it was on to Blackpool’s Pleasure Beach, the Central Pier and back to Leeds for the evening’s entertainment: an Abba Tribute band at Guiseley Town Hall! Life is for living!

I’d wanted to see the illuminations but was sternly advised, by my wife, that the two Abba tickets – one for her and a second for her sister visiting from Manila - had cost £40 and ‘there was no way we were going to waste them.’

We would be on our way by 4.30pm, illuminations or not. Who was I to argue or convince?

“Great to see you again,” said Grasmere Gingerbread director, Joanne Hunter.

She explained that she, along with her PR guru and stage manager were preparing for the company’s milestone birthday celebrations the following month, however, she still had time to make the three of us coffee.

“Ooh,” exclaimed Joanne excitedly, “did you know that we have set up a new collaboration with Sheffield based Bullion?” I didn’t.

The South Yorkshire company has produced an innovative luxury milk chocolate bar incorporating crumbs from the Lake District’s world-famous Grasmere Gingerbread®.

The culinary unification of two counties, I mused!

With www.bullionchocolate.com just eight years old and Grasmere Gingerbread® currently celebrating its 170th anniversary, the successful fusion of two very different artisan foods from two very different eras is the realisation of a long-cherished dream for 31-year-old Bullion founder Max Scotford.

Bullion Chocolate - described as ‘the best chocolate I’ve ever tasted’ by Martyn Nail, Head Chef at Claridge’s - was founded in 2016 by Max and produces a wide range of craft chocolate bars at its Harvest Lane HQ in Sheffield.

It even supplied a gold leaf chocolate bar to the Royal Mint and has been appointed Chocolate Maker to The Roald Dahl Museum!

In the Grasmere Gingerbread kitchen area there was no chocolate to hand so we settled for a pack of traditional gingerbread to wash down with our coffee!

All this talk of food had made me hungry and evening dinner at the Daffodil Hotel’s first floor restaurant loomed large.

We said our farewells and drove another mile to reception, check in and our 7.30pm feed: It had been booked for 7pm but the excellent spa beckoned first! A delay was vital!

The Daffodil Hotel & Spa is one of many properties and businesses in the vicinity that borrow part of their name from the Wordsworth legacy, fairly you might conclude considering that Dove Cottage, the poet’s home for many years, is just opposite this beautiful 78-bedroom hotel, operating under various guises since the 1880’s.

Fully refreshed and ‘spa relaxed’, the Hopkins massive made its way to the hotel restaurant.

It was nice to see a few familiar ‘serving’ faces including Ramona from Romania who quipped that, these days, non-Brits were largely running the Lakes because of major staff shortages in the area.

Our hosts were perfect, dishing up Lancaster smoked salmon and wild mushroom tartlet for Jamille and myself.

“I think I’ve eaten too much gingerbread,” said Mrs H. “I’ll go straight to the mains. I’m going to have road corn fed chicken breast,” she said.

“And I’ll have the steak,” chirped her sister, declaring that it was the first time she’d ever savoured centre cut fillet.

“It would cost me a month’s wages in the Philippines,” she told her wide-eyed brother-in-law! I settled for the pan seared salmon fillet.

It is a relaxing restaurant environment where portions are substantial with none of that nouvelle cuisine nonsense: Cumbrian servings with Yorkshire appeal; good stuff and plenty of it!

“I think we should share a sweet,” chorused the two sisters. With waistlines groaning they were right of course. We settled on pistachio and orange cheesecake. As usual, I was left to finish the lion’s share of it. “Now I feel I’ve overeaten,” I moaned.

“Don’t worry, you’ve got all day tomorrow to walk it off at Blackpool,” came the clever dick reply!

Next morning we were on our way to the Vegas of the North.

I eagerly encouraged Jamille to play the game me and my three brothers played as kids.

“The first one to spot Blackpool Tower gets a pound,” my dad would say.

Of course, he never paid up but the game kept us occupied for hours!

A brisk walk along the Golden Mile….

….was followed by a chilly but glorious stroll along the Central Pier ahead of our arrival at Blackpool Pleasure Beach, a must for every UK family that has dared to call itself British at least once!

Even my Filipino wife managed to regale her sister with tales of the illuminations, which we would not see that day courtesy of Guiseley’s Abba tribute act later that evening (!) – however, they ‘were’ wonderful she said.

Jamille and myself headed for the Big Dipper and, within an hour, had gone a curious colour of green, after several class A rides, eventually deciding that enough was enough and that we needed to begin our journey home.

“I wanted to see the illuminations,” she whispered in my ear, “but my sister is insisting on Abba. I’d better keep the peace.”

Later I was informed that the tribute act hadn’t been that clever but that her experiences in both the Lake District, The Daffodil Hotel & Spa and that great British institution, Blackpool, had been…….well just fantastic!

Britain is alive and well with Blackpool Pleasure Beach still offering gut churning rides.

Best advice? Dine at the Daffodil after the Big Dipper!

Dining At The Daffodil
Daffodil Hotel & Spa, Grasmere, LA22 9PR. Tel: 015394 63550. Web: www.daffodilhotel.co.uk.

Blackpool Pleasure Beach
www.blackpoolpleasurebeach.com