Tissington Trail and the Waterloo Inn

My God, what a lovely day. I wanted to get more training in but also not neglect Arthur and Ali, and the weather was beautiful. We drove up to Tissington, parked in the car park on the Tissington Trail, and cycled up the gentle incline about six miles to Biggin, where I knew there was a pub.

It was slightly up hill all the way – low gears, but not a hard ride. Beautiful countryside – stretches are enclosed by cuttings but there are long stretches up high, with wide open country either side.

We arrived in Biggin, not entirely sure where the pub was or what it would be like, and we found it on the main road – with a chap sitting outside it who proved to be the owner. He was very impressed with Arthur’s tagalong, and chatted to us for a few minutes. He also said that as well as having a kids menu, they serve any of the grown ups meals as kids portions too, which is always nice to see.

Inside it was lovely – a bit like a pub from the 70s, but not in a crap way – just pleasingly not like a modern chain pub. Really cosy and well looked after, without any of the bland uniformity that modern pubs tend to have. Unlike most pubs in the 1970s, however, the food and service were excellent.

There was a cheese and onion pie on the menu too – my phosphorus is well controlled at the moment so I thought I’d go for it. I do like a cheese pie (so much so that I am mocked for it by my friends). Anyway – this one was awesome, and it came with chips with gravy on. Chips are a bit of a nono for me because they are high in potassium, but occasionally I eat them anyway – I’ll just have to be more careful for the rest of the day. Excellent plate of vegetables too. The food really was great.

Once we were done, we fought our way back up the little hill in Biggin and got back onto the trail, and from that point on it was basically rolling down the track all the way home. Absolutely fantastic fun. And then an ice cream stall at the end.

What could be better?

Here’s the route we took:

And the usual speedy footage: