Our Grand Tour of Europe

Saturday, July 17

I got out of bed reluctantly this morning because I really wasn’t ready to leave the Cotswolds. In hindsight, I wish I’d figured out an agenda that would have kept us here two weeks. Actually, we could have easily spent a month—or more.

Kelly and I walked down to the post office to mail a package back home. I’m trying to send a package back every week or two instead of filling our luggage with books and literature from our travels. I bought a few Blockley postcards at the shop. On our previous travels, I’d usually go home after a two-week trip with 100+ postcards… I would use some of these in my trip albums, often alongside of photos taken at the same spot. I’ve shown remarkable restraint in my postcard buying on this trip. When we came out of the store, we saw George Thompson (owner of the Manor House where we’d been invited to tour yesterday) going in—he greeted us enthusiastically. If we were staying another week, we could have met him at the pub for a beer, I’m quite sure. An older man we had also greeted in the store said, “Still chatting up all the girls, eh George?”

The packing up was stressful for me today. Charley and I split the kitchen packing—he has been doing the refrigerator and I’ve been doing everything else—the computer and photo stuff, books and literature, then my own stuff. Probably the stressful part for me is that Kelly professes to need help unpacking and packing—and I realize each time while trying to help her that she’s brought way too much stuff… and accumulated even more since we’ve been on the road. A lot of what she brought she hasn’t even worn yet… though weather has been a factor. One pair of pants I suggested she wear this morning somehow didn’t even fit. (Maybe they’ll fit after the C2C walk… she says they were too small when we bought them.) Then she’s got an incredible pile of books… half read and half un-read. Most of the time we are in the car, she’s reading… looking up occasionally if we point something out. She may be averaging a book every other day—or maybe every day! It’s great she loves to read, but on a long trip like this, the books are very hard to deal with. Given my own love of books, I can’t bear to leave any behind. Fortunately, Kelly has been able to borrow a couple of library books along the way and has read a few books she’s found in our rentals.

But given all this, I was way too yappy this morning. I didn’t get to sleep easily last night for one of the first times on the trip… my mind was racing about things back at home, including my “old” work… didn’t want to leave the Cotswolds… excited (nervous??) about heading to Yorkshire, a totally new part of England for us.

We left about 9:45 am, locked the door of Michaelmas Cottage and slipped the keys back through the mail slot. We drove to the library in Moreton-in Marsh, where I had reserved a computer for an hour. I didn’t have time to do everything I needed to do—post my blog for last week, read and respond to e-mails, look at my banking. I got some good news though—I was the #9 winner in a big contest on the Slow Travel website… my name was drawn based on my Alsace trip report. The contest prizes are just wonderful (donated by various sponsors), and there is a defined process by which the winners (based on their order) have a certain amount of time to select the prize they want. This is a great process for people (like I used to be) who can check the website frequently, but by the time I got the notification, my number was fast approaching. At least I got there in time! I was pleased to see that Wendy Ashworth (the Slow Travel friend I had met in Mousehole) was one or two winners in front of me. I had to very quickly read through the rules and the list of prizes and choose my top three to e-mail to Pauline, the “guru” of the Slow Travel website. I was high enough on the list to have picked an accommodation prize… I seriously looked at a week in Rome in an apartment that would have worked for three people, but our trip is all booked for the next year and I didn’t want to commit us to going to Rome on our next trip to Europe. So I decided I’d pick some things that would provide a special experience during this trip. Kelly and Charley had left the library, so I had to very quickly decide all this on my own—my first pick was a private cooking class in Florence, then for #2 and #3 I picked private tours in Rome. All three would be special experiences that we wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford. Charley and Kelly were really excited when I told them about our potential prizes. We’ll see if I get the cooking class… I’d be happy as well with a private tour of Rome.

I didn’t have time to answer most of my e-mails—that is truly one of the biggest complications of the trip so far… at home I’m so used to unlimited e-mail access. Here in the countryside, e-mail access is very tough! And it’s hard to give up prime touring time to work on a PC in a library. Still, the e-mail has been a wonderful way for us to keep in touch with people who are important to us—we do look forward to our weekly trip or two to a place where we can use a PC.

We made a quick stop in Moreton to get Kelly a key chain and then headed north, leaving around 11:30 am. Our trip to Yorkshire took about four hours—we stopped once for gas and a bathroom break and once to eat our picnic lunch in the car… no sightseeing and no detours this time. We drove up past Stratford, then by Coventry, Nottingham and Sheffield—the highly populated Midlands. This is our first trip to the northern part of England. Most of our drive was on M-roads (interstate-type roads)… very fast travel. Near York we got off the fast road and drove through a pretty town called Wetherby and then through Harrogate. We’re staying in the country about ten minutes west of Harrogate. Harrogate is much bigger than we had thought… my guidebook said 69,000 people, but it felt much larger. We saw a big Sainsbury on the east end of the town.

The place we are staying—Birstwith Hall—is wonderful. This is the home of Sir James and Lady Aykroyd. I was quite intrigued about staying on the estate of British nobility, but also nervous since I picked it based on only a few photos on the Internet. I couldn’t have made a better choice—it’s absolutely great. I can’t believe we’re actually staying here—and that it was so economical. Birstwith Hall is a very large old house on a 500-acre estate… in its own little valley or “dale.” The big house is beautifully situated off a little country road, across a peaceful meadow (cows and sheep) and a small stream called Tang Beck. Behind the big house is a stable building with a beautiful clock tower and a bell that rings the hours—the housekeeper Hillary lives in an apartment that’s part of the stables building. Right behind the stables is another stone farm building, and a two-story cottage has been made on one side of that—our cottage. Our cottage is called the Dovecote, because on the peaked side of the building—above our bedrooms—there is a dovecote… little holes in the stones that allow doves to fly in and build their nests in the attic.

We had detailed directions to Birstwith Hall, but once we were there we weren’t sure where to go. We drove around the back of the hall where a few cars (mini Coopers) were parked, and finally decided to just knock on a back door by the cars. A woman, perhaps in her 50’s, in rumpled slacks, a blue polo shirt and bare feet with light purple toenail polish answered the door and greeted us. I couldn’t tell if this was the housekeeper… or Lady Aykroyd herself, and decided to ask, “Are you Lady Aykroyd?” which she turned out to be, a bit to my surprise. (I unfortunately pronounced it wrong… I said it as if it was “Ack-Royd” and instead it is “A-Kroyd.”) She put on her shoes and walked with Kelly and I back to the cottage, while Charley moved our car. In the building between the main house and our cottage we spotted a stable and horses—Kelly got very excited. Lady Aykroyd said she didn’t really have anything to do with the horses—her husband James could tell us about the horses. We had a hard time understanding her accent, and she had an equally hard time understanding us!

She showed us all through the cottage. There were fresh flowers in the living room (dahlias) and the two bedrooms (sweet peas), which she said she had cut for us earlier in the afternoon. Lady Aykroyd (she did not ever ask us to use her first name, though she did refer to her husband as “James”) also told us we could go anywhere on the grounds that we liked—there is even a tennis court we can use. We asked her a few questions about grocery stores, newspapers, and Internet access… she told us about a small local co-op grocery store and also directed us to the village of Hampsthwaite for newspapers. She recommended the local pub—the Joiners Arms—as a place where everyone had a “jolly time.” I asked a few questions about the house and estate, trying not to seem nosy. She said her husband’s family had owned the house since about 1906 and that they made their money in wool. She was very nice, but distant… we didn’t bond with her like we did Zoe Thompson in Blockley.

We love the cottage—Charley thinks it is the largest and also the cleanest we’ve had so far. The front door opens into a small foyer with hanging pegs for our coats, a small table and a tabletop pay phone. To the right of the foyer is a rectangular great room—a living area with a couch and chair, a substantial wooden dining table and four chairs against the wall, and a very nice kitchen area in the back with a work counter and small eating bar separating it from the living/dining area. There’s even a dishwasher—the first one we have had! The window over the sink looks out to the back drive into pastures of cows. At the far end of the foyer is a bathroom with a shower. Up the stairs are two bedrooms—a large sunny bedroom with a large closet, two twin beds and windows on two walls, and then a smaller bedroom with one window and a double bed. Both bedrooms look out over a large walled flower garden—looks like a cutting flower garden—and a small orchard. We decided Charley and I would take the larger room with the two twin beds and Kelly would take the smaller room. (Kelly put forth a protest, as she preferred the larger sunny bedroom and after all, it IS her birthday week!) Both rooms are beautifully decorated with coordinating draperies and duvets. Also upstairs is a SECOND bathroom with a tub and overhead shower—this is the first time we’ve had two bathrooms… and the showers look like they’ll be great too. It’s been a bit of an adjustment for a family used to having three full baths to share one bathroom for an extended time, so we feel like we’re very lucky this week—a dishwasher and two bathrooms!

We were much faster unpacking than we were packing… Charley helped Kelly figure out how to organize her drawers and closet this time, and then Kelly helped me in the kitchen by putting away the refrigerator things. We were anxious to explore Birstwith Hall, but we decided to do our shopping first and explore later.

Lady Aykroyd had given us somewhat confusing directions to a co-op grocery store, but we decided to make a longer trip back to Harrogate to the big Sainsburys. On the way we drove through the nearby village of Birstwith and also the village of Hampsthwaite that she seemed to consider “their” village. Even though the estate is called “Birstwith Hall,” it’s as close to Hampsthwaite as it is to Birstwith.

The Sainsbury was another great store—we really do like the English superstores. One interesting thing here in Britain—eggs are displayed out on the shelves, not in the refrigerator section. We split up again for our shopping but somehow ended up spending 90 GBP (almost $180!), though it is for the entire week and we don’t really plan to eat out. 10 GBP was for a box of wine Charley bought (which he says is equal to four bottles of wine), but I didn’t buy as much meat, so I’m not sure what happened this time.

We put up all the groceries and decided to go ahead and have our Sainsbury pizzas (no room in the small under-the-counter refrigerator for them)—great oven here too! While eating we discovered loads of tourist literature in the drawers of the big oak table. I studied everything while Charley loaded the dishwasher; beginning to make some possible plans for the week.

After dinner Kelly and Charley went out exploring on the estate… they came back to get me to show me part of what they found… an arbor leading past the tennis court to a beautifully-landscaped natural area… viewing points… a little stream… a field of sheep… even a couple of ducks in a duck pond. This really is a beautiful place.

I went to bed about 10:00 pm… very tired tonight. Charley said there was still a bit of daylight at 11:00 pm. We’ve moved further north, so the days are even longer.

Sunday, July 18

We had a great first day in Yorkshire… it’s so pretty and pastoral here—very green with hills (called fells) and valleys (called dales). We hadn’t expected it to be so beautiful… really didn’t think anything could compete with the Cotswolds. We think the natural surroundings are equal to the Cotswolds, though the building material used for houses and stone walls is not as pretty. In Yorkshire they use a gray coarse stone, whereas the Cotswolds is distinguished by the honey-gold stone. The area is very agricultural, like the Cotswolds. We saw a lot more cows here… fewer sheep. The Cotswolds seems to be more dominated by sheep farming.

We decided to be leisurely in the morning and didn’t set alarms. I woke up around 7:30 am, and Charley was up before me. He and Kelly drove to the little shop in Hampsthwaite to get a paper. I really do enjoy my Times every morning! I actually read almost every part of the paper—the obituaries are even very interesting and there’s a section each day called Court Circular that lists what official duties the various members of the Royal Family performed the day before. I confess to always having had a life-long interest in the British royal family! While we were finishing breakfast (quiche and muffins), we heard the sound of horses on the pavement right outside our window—the horses were walking past! Kelly was out the door in a flash. She quickly met a woman named Rosie who owns two of the horses and must have some arrangement with Sir James to stable her horses here in exchange for helping with his horses. The two brown horses that belong to Rosie are named Puccini and Houdini. Sir James’ horse—a roan stallion—is McIvor. All three are used primarily for hunting, not general-purpose riding. Apparently Sir James is a big pheasant hunter. Rosie comes twice a day—morning and evening—to feed the horses, clean out their stalls, and move them back and forth between the field and the stables. We also met Hillary the housekeeper—and our next-door neighbor. She was very friendly and helpful.

After breakfast, we met Sir James outside. He was wearing rumpled non-descript clothes and introduced himself just as “James.” I knew instantly who he was, but Charley said, “I’m sorry, I didn’t catch your name…” He then said, “James Aykroyd.” He was extremely nice. He introduced Kelly to their three dogs, two little shaggy dogs and a barking golden-colored dog named Molly who is a Rhodesian Ridgeback. Kelly is in heaven—dogs and horses right outside our door! He said the farming on the estate is all done by tenant farmers (people who rent the land and then farm it). In addition to the cows and sheep, there are also some chickens. We found them later in a little enclosure around from the cutting flower garden. Sir James (we find ourselves needing to call him that!) gave Kelly and Charley some tennis rackets and balls to use while we are here. They went off to play tennis on the pretty court while I stayed inside to read and do some writing. There was a knock at the door and it was Sir James, delivering me an e-mail that Wendy Ashworth (my Slow Travel friend here in England) had sent to the e-mail address from the cottage website—asking me to call. She was very resourceful in tracking me down. Her message said it was good news, not bad… intriguing! I used the pay phone to call her back. (First time I’ve ever seen a little pay phone inside a residence, but very nice to have—at the last three places we didn’t have any phone at all!) Wendy wanted me to be sure I knew I was a winner in the Slow Travel contest—apparently she had stalled in her selection for the full 12 hours she was allowed to hopefully give me time to check my e-mail and make a prize selection. (If my time had elapsed, I would have just been assigned the next prize…) She and Richard took a week in Northern Tuscany, and I did get the cooking class in Florence. Yaaay!!!

Wendy and I caught up on our travels—sounds like they enjoyed their week in Mousehole. She was very interested in Michaelmas Cottage where we stayed in Blockley, a place she’s looked at on the internet.

I went down to find Kelly and Charley at the tennis courts. I went through a wooden door that I thought led down to the courts and found myself in a small utility area… gardening tools, golf clubs etc. As I came out of that area, there was Lady Aykroyd with a wheelbarrow, wondering I’m sure what the strange American woman was doing in their utility area! She showed me the correct way to the tennis courts. I further distinguished myself by asking about the unusual flowers in the cutting gardens… turned out they were artichokes. “You know, you eat them,” she said to me.

Kelly packed our picnic lunch today and then we headed out to explore. We’re in an area of North Yorkshire called “Niddlerdale”—the valley of the River Nidd. Like the Cotswolds, this is designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB), and it definitely is. We drove across the river at the village of Birstwith, then up to a place I had read about called Brimham Rocks—just absolutely wonderful. This is a very unique area high in the hills—about 50 acres—with hundred of huge rocks (millstone grit… 300 million years old), many in very unique formations. I’ve never been anyplace like this. There are little trails and paths that crisscross all around and you can climb on the rocks without restriction. There were a few people doing rock climbing with ropes up some of the most difficult faces, but people like us could find their way up most of the rocks. Kelly had a great time… actually we all did. Even Charley climbed up on some relatively high places. We went back to the car and got our lunch to eat on a big flat rock with a fabulous view out over the farmland and hills.

Kelly had fixed us a very special lunch—even had packed mugs from the kitchen for our drinks. We had sandwiches, chips and nuts, apples, cookies—plenty of food.

We decided we might come back later in the week… it was a bit crowded with lots of families on a Sunday afternoon. We drove on through beautiful countryside… many steep little roads… just a short way to the town of Pateley Bridge, also on the River Nidd… another very pretty place. I had hoped to visit the Tourist Information Center there to get some information on walking, but it was closed for some reason. We did visit a couple of shops and I bought an ordinance map of the Nidderdale area. Kelly visited what is supposedly the “oldest sweet shop in England.” We also visited a wine shop that specializes in Australian wines of all things—open on a Sunday afternoon. The young man there (who runs the shop with his father) said they have the widest selection of Australian wine outside of Australia. Who would have thought—in the village of Pateley Bridge in North Yorkshire?! Charley picked out two bottles.

We heard a band playing and walked across the bridge (hence the name Pateley Bridge) to a big park. There was a band from a nearby town playing a concert in an old-fashioned bandstand. First a medley of Tom Jones music… then the Battle Hymn of the Republic—quite a mix! We sat on a bench with a nice man whose wife and son were in the band. On the other side of the bridge Charley stopped in a small shop to try to buy day-old bread to feed the ducks at Birstwith Hall. The lady gave him a big bag full—no charge.

We drove back along a pretty road by the Nidd. I used my new map to get us to Birstwith on small back roads… some no bigger than a driveway at home. Crossing the Nidd near Birstwith, we saw a sign that said Strawberry Farm and decided to stop. They were selling strawberries and some other produce at a farm store, but had pick-your-own (PYO) raspberries. Kelly had enjoyed the raspberry picking in the Cotswolds and wanted to do it again (Charley didn’t), so she and I set out across the fields to the distant raspberry area. Kelly might have picked three raspberries when she realized that she desperately needed to use the bathroom. So I stayed out in the sunny fields and picked a big punnet of raspberries on my own. I’m not sure there was another person out there with me! When I got back to the farm shop, Kelly and Charley were visiting with an American family with three daughters. There is some kind of American military operation here, and the father has been stationed in Harrogate for a few years… he told Charley there were lots of Americans in this area. Kelly played a bit with the girls, and she and the mom commiserated on how much they missed Taco Bell.

When we got back to Birstwith Hall, Charley and Kelly went off to feed the ducks. (Lady Aykroyd had told them it was okay to feed the ducks, but not to feed the harlequins, who must be some sort of special duck-type birds.) They also ran into Hillary who showed them a back way (through the laundry room) into the beautiful formal garden, which I had not discovered. It’s a large formal flower garden with hedges, lots of roses, a fountain in the middle, and a little sitting area up at the top.

I fixed one of my favorite recipes from home tonight—Fettuccine Alfredo. Kelly used to love this, but I haven’t made it for a long time and she’s become accustomed to Lean Cuisine and Healthy Choice Fettuccine Alfredo… watered-down versions. She doesn’t like mine anymore!

We watched Part II of “Island at War” on television after dinner. Kelly and I got nervous over parts of it… the Nazis have taken over the island and some of the islanders are being too uppity about it—they don’t seem to know about the concentration camps! We all stayed up too late.

Monday, July 19

We were VERY slow getting going this morning… probably didn’t leave till 11:00 and didn’t accomplish a whole lot. We slept till after 8 am and then poked around over breakfast. Kelly and Charley started out to get the paper in Hampsthwaite, but then they saw Sir James and Rosie, and Kelly had a chance to help with the horses. Kelly wanted to go to the Hampsthwaite shop, where the owner David has a young dog she enjoyed playing with yesterday. Charley brought back a Times and also a USA Today… imagine, today’s edition of USA Today out here in rural Yorkshire… but maybe they stock it for the people at the American military base. (It wasn’t near as good as the Times, but did have more American sports.)

After we finished breakfast and paper-reading, we drove over to Harrogate, parked in a multi-level garage and went to Tourist Information. Harrogate is a very pretty place—developed around some mineral springs as a health spa in the Victoria era. Tourist Information was right next to a big Victorian building called the “Roman Baths,” which has just reopened as a modern-day health spa. The town is beautifully landscaped with flowers (plantings and lush hanging baskets) and there’s an enormous green field that runs through part of the town. We liked it a lot. Near Tourist Information I spotted an AGA store, specializing in the type of range I had seen in the Cotswolds Life magazine and then at Mrs. Thompson’s house in Blockley. We went in the store and spent maybe 30 minutes looking at the ranges and talking with the salesman. An AGA is an old fashioned-type range… cast iron… using a variety of fuels. Most people leave them on all the time in the cooler months… there are several different ovens used for different things and then a couple of big burners on the top (with a cover for when they’re not in use). You can put up to four saucepans on each burner. They come in all sorts of colors, including some new designer colors that were very appealing to Kelly (such as lavender and teal). I preferred the cobalt blue—would go great with my Chantal cookware! This is the perfect type of stove for a big country-type kitchen. The cheapest AGA costs about $10,000—you’d buy it to last a lifetime. The salesman gave me some literature and also an AGA magazine—he said the first AGA store just opened in America… in New Jersey.

There’s apparently an internet café in Harrogate, but we’ve been having good luck with libraries and decided to try there first. We walked up through the town to get there—by the Victorian buildings and all the pretty flowers. This library had a separate “IT Room” (partially funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation)… a quiet room with about 30 PCs. There were quite a few people in there working away. For a visitor, it cost one pound for an hour in whole-hour increments. I worked about an hour and a half (till 1:30 pm), and Kelly and Charley split an hour. Kelly was able to leave a deposit and checked out a stack of library books. I answered the messages I didn’t have time to answer in Moreton, read a few new messages, checked Slow Travel, and paid a couple of bills. I looked at the website associated with the e-mail address I’ve used to communicate with Birstwith Hall, and it seems that Sir James must have some type of business related to marketing and selling Scotch whiskey. Although his name wasn’t mentioned, the business has a Birstwith Hall address. I also checked the website of Divina Cuchina (real name Judy…she goes by Diva on Slow Travel)—we’ll be doing our cooking class in Florence with her. It looked great!

We wandered back down through the shopping area of Harrogate… stopped at a bakery for bread, Marks and Spencer for a few grocery items, and Boots the Chemist. There’s a BIG downtown shopping area—surprising for a town of 70,000. There’s also a big convention center here, with some type of trade show going on now.

By the time we got back to the cottage, it was almost three! We had planned to do a long walk, and now it would be a relatively short one. Charley fixed sandwiches and we ate quickly. Kelly disappeared for a moment—I went out to look for her and spotted her around the corner with Rosie, leading the gray horse McIvor. Rosie let Kelly lead McIvor all the way to the paddock. Kelly seems to have bonded with him… and with Rosie.

By the time we got in our hiking clothes and out the door it was 4:00 pm. I had used the ordinance map to plan a circular walk from Birstwith Hall… the back entrance into the estate is actually designated as a public footpath and we have seen a few walkers passing through… the footpath runs along the lane behind our cottage and then through the paddock where the horses are kept. When we walked through the horse paddock, McIvor immediately came up to Kelly and followed her halfway across the field. Kelly was thrilled.

We had a hard time with the route I had planned out… we did fine across the couple of fields from Birstwith Hall, but when we got to the tiny lane at the end of the fields, the footpath wasn’t marked and I hesitated to walk through a gate into what appeared to be someone’s front yard. We went down the lane a bit farther and found a marked footpath over a stone stile that led up a hill through the woods. This wasn’t where the map said it was supposed to be, but we took it anyway and it turned out to be the wrong path. We ended up on a road three-quarters of a mile from Hampsthwaite (where I hadn’t planned to go). I’ve concluded that it works better to go on a walk where I have directions along with the map—I just couldn’t find a published walk that went anywhere near Birstwith Hall. We walked probably 1-1/2 miles along little roads to get to the River Nidd and the Nidderdale Way, a long-distance walk through the Nidderdale Valley and very clearly marked. We enjoyed the walk along the river—a mile or so. At one place we had to cut through a field of cows—they all stopped and watched us as we walked across. I really don’t care to walk among the cows… I’m always aware that there may be a bull! I tell Kelly, “Just don’t make eye contact!” Near Birstwith we cut up through an empty field, then through a field of sheep, and came out by a house we’ve seen before—the entire yard is absolutely filled with showy, colorful begonias and other flowers—a blaze of bright colors. It’s almost like those houses you see that are overflowing with Christmas lights and decorations at the holidays—attention-getting, but too overdone. From there it was a short walk and across the fields again to Birstwith Hall. We walked about five miles total. Not quite what I’d hoped, but a decent couple of hours.

Because we had lunch so late, we had a simple dinner—just soup and sandwiches and then ice cream later. Kelly and Charley went to feed the ducks, and I walked around the formal gardens and took a couple of photos—the roses are past their best days and I’m sure a month ago the gardens were spectacular. Lady Aykroyd employs a gardener, a young man named Gareth, but she also seems pretty personally involved with the gardening.

We read, wrote, and did artwork in the evening. Charley did laundry in the laundry room in a nearby farm building—there’s a separate washer and dryer, but it’s a very slow process. He didn’t get to bed till almost midnight.

Tuesday, July 20

We went to York for the day—about 25 miles from Birstwith Hall and about a 40-minute drive. We got a decent start and arrived at the Park and Ride about 10:15 am. Fifteen minutes later we were in the center of York, facing the immense Minster (another name for cathedral). York is one of England’s most important cities, with a history going back about 2000 years… a history that includes the Romans, the Vikings, and everyone since.

We walked down to the entrance to the Minster and decided not to go in after all—too expensive (would have been over $30 for the three of us), and at this point we’ve really seen so many fabulous churches. We decided we’d be happy just to admire the outside. Instead we wandered around the little shopping streets. The most famous little street is called The Shambles, where all the butchers of York used to have their shops. Today there’s only one butcher left and lots of little tourist shops, plus several bakeries and restaurants. The street is so narrow in one place that two people leaning out the windows on the second floor of houses on either side of the street can shake hands across the street. Nearby, a market was underway in one of the squares. We bought a few things (used books, wrapping paper for Kelly’s birthday) and watched a couple of street performers.

Kelly had seen ASK (the Italian pizza restaurant where we’ve eaten in several places) in a beautiful building as we walked from the bus stop. “But it may be my last time I can have pizza for a looonnnggg time!” We saw another Italian restaurant in the Shambles advertising “Early Bird Specials” beginning at 11:30 am, and we persuaded Kelly to go there instead. We just had a few minutes to look around other shops until it was 11:30. The Ristorante Bari turned out to be a real find—a real Italian restaurant… not a chain… with real Italian waiters from Italy. The special was any pizza or pasta for 4.95 GBP. We saved a couple of pounds each. Charley and I each got good pizzas and Kelly got a great pasta bolognaise. We also got free bread before our meal—the first time we’ve gotten free bread with our meal anywhere in England. At the end of lunch we got a complimentary plate of good little almond cookies—another first! This was a really good place to eat.

After lunch we decided to do a one-hour boat trip down the River Ouse. We sat on chairs up on the top deck of the boat. I had seen a coupon in a brochure that gave one pound off for each of us, so we got a deal on this as well. The driver of the boat was also the tour guide and talked very fast. I wasn’t right next to the speaker like Charley was and my hearing isn’t the greatest, but I couldn’t understand a thing the boat driver said and Charley understood very little. The accent here in Yorkshire is very different than what we are used to further south in England. Fortunately, I had a map with some of the key sights noted. Kelly read for most of the boat ride… she had been very eager to do the boat ride… later I realized it was because she could read. It was a relaxing tour, but quite honestly we didn’t see a whole lot from the water. The most interesting part of the tour was when the driver turned the big boat 180 degrees to head back the other way on the fairly-narrow river! The River Ouse runs into the Humber, which then runs into the North Sea. We’ll take our ferry to Brugge in a couple of weeks from Kingston-on-Hull, which is on the Humber. (It must also be on the Hull… I’ll have to study a map more carefully to figure this all out!)

We continued our shopping tour of York in search of a couple of important things—a water bottle for me for the walking tour, a Great Britain adapter for my European hair dryer (I know we will need it in some of the little places we’ll be staying on the walking tour), and some books for Kelly. We found a great Borders bookstore—on two floors— and Kelly made the selections to use the rest of her birthday money. We have an agreement that she will not ask for books the rest of the time we’re in England—we’ll have to see how she does with the agreement. We had to go to three different outdoor shops to find the type of water bottle I wanted. Outdoor shops (for campers and walkers) are very big in England. We watched some other street performers, bought some postcards (10 for 80p), and got Kelly some ice cream—a nice afternoon. We decided to go on back to Birstwith Hall so we could enjoy the rest of the day there. We did detour to the Sainsbury in Harrogate for a few things, but I was the only one who went in. Traffic was very slow in Harrogate this evening.

Kelly and Charley played tennis while I fixed dinner. I fixed a Chicken Tonight in mushroom sauce, along with rice and a broccoli/cauliflower mix. Kelly had plain chicken, rice and broccoli. Kelly fixed another one of her amazing specialties for dessert… including fresh raspberries. It’s a good thing we’re walking so much, or we’d be having a problem with our clothes not fitting! Our friend Joanne Perrine warned us that it is easy to gain weight on an extended trip like this! I know we are much more focused on food—at least I am—than I was at home. I’ve been in more grocery stores and fixed more dinners in the past six weeks than I have maybe in the past two years!

Wednesday, July 21

Our big adventure today was a trip to Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal, a very unique place that was highly recommended to me by Wendy Ashworth and others on Slow Travel. It was only about 20 minutes north of Birstwith Hall, a pretty drive on small country roads.

Kelly was able to help Rosie with the horses before we left—she’s been able to help most mornings and evenings and really enjoys being involved with the horses. She’s especially connected with McIvor, Sir James’ horse. Rosie is very nice to Kelly, as is Hillary, the housekeeper who lives with her husband in the house next to ours. Kelly is really enjoying staying here. She won’t admit that she likes it more than Mousehole, but I know the involvement with the animals and other people is really a plus for her, along with a beautiful and interesting setting.

Fountains Abbey is a National Trust property, described in one of my guidebooks as “the jewel in the crown of the National Trust.” It’s also a World Heritage Site. There are a number of important—and beautiful—aspects to this vast 800-acre property, encompassing hundreds of years of history. The showpiece is the ruins of an 850-year-old Cistercian abbey—truly remarkable—down in a lovely valley. We walked all through the extensive ruins. The abbey was dissolved in 1539 during Henry VIII’s dissolution of the monasteries.

The other major feature of the property is Studley Royal, a beautifully-landscaped water garden, mostly developed in the early 1700’s by John Aislabie and later his son William. It’s called a water garden because it focuses on a number of lakes and canals. The gardens today are almost unchanged from their original plan. Studley Royal was originally unconnected with Fountains Abbey—the son bought the adjoining Fountains Abbey property in the mid 1700’s and incorporated the abbey ruins into his landscape.

Also on the property are an old mill (parts of which pre-date the abbey), a big manor house (Fountains Hall), a beautiful old church, and a deer park. We saw it all.

We arrived at around 10:45 am and started down the hill to the Abbey from the Visitors Center. Near the top of the hill, in some old farm buildings, was a “Family Center,” with a big arts and crafts room. It was unattended, but there were materials for an art project to make stained glass windows. We all made one… Kelly had a great time and would have wanted to stay there for a few hours… we almost had to drag her out so we could see what we really came for!

From there we walked down to Fountains Hall, the big old house. It was built around 1600 and is just beautiful outside. We only saw two rooms inside though, where there were some displays about the house and the property. Apparently the house is in just terrible shape from years of neglect. From the house it was a short walk to the old mill, where the monks originally ground corn. It was quite interesting. There were several groups of young schoolchildren at the mill and also at the Abbey… made it hard to get a photo without little people in uniforms in it! We also saw a number of older people in various parts of the ruins doing sketches and paintings—Kelly wished she had brought her sketch pad, as this would have been a great place for sketching.

We wandered around the abbey ruins… I would have liked to do a guided tour of the abbey (they were actually free), but the tour was 1-1/2 hours long, which I know would be too long to keep Kelly’s interest. Since we didn’t bring our lunch down, we hiked back up the steep path to the Visitors Center (a good half mile!) and then Charley walked out to the car park to get our lunch. We decided the easiest thing to do was to eat on a bench outside the Visitors Center, even though the beautiful picnic spots were down in the ruins or the gardens…. this way Charley could take our little cooler bag back to the car and we wouldn’t have to carry it the rest of the afternoon. (“Next time” I would take it down with me to begin with and carry it around the rest of the day—the other spots we could have eaten were truly special.)

We walked back down to the abbey and then along the path by the stream to the water gardens. We climbed a steep path to a little pavilion. When we walked through the back of the pavilion, we were rewarded with what William Aislabie called the “surprise view”—the view of the Fountains Abbey ruins in the distance. Next to the pavilion was also a statue that was supposedly of Anne Boleyn—it didn’t have a head… I’m not sure if that was intentional!!

We walked all through the water gardens—almost too much to absorb at that point. The abbey on its own would have been enough to justify a visit! The gardens reminded me a bit of Stourhead Gardens—lots of statues and ornamental buildings incorporated into the landscape. Kelly walked across one lake on square stepping stones… against Charley’s advice. (We took the less-exciting bridge across.) I crossed my fingers that we wouldn’t have another Trafalgar Square-type incident where she fell while wading in the fountain… against Charley’s advice. Fortunately, this time she was exceedingly careful and made it across without mishap.

We exited the gardens, and then walked across a big meadow in the deer park to the pretty St. Mary’s Church—pretty outside and inside. We saw maybe 50 deer—there are supposed to be over 500 in the park.

In total we think we walked about five miles, so we decided to count this as one of our walking days. We’re trying to do a meaningful walk at least two days a week in preparation for our Coast-to-Coast walk in just a few weeks.

It was an absolutely beautiful day back at Birstwith Hall, as it had been at Fountains Abbey. I decided to get a little sun and changed into a tank top—I sat at the picnic table in the cutting flower garden, drank a diet coke, and read my Fountains Abbey guidebook. Charley opted for a shadier place down by the stream, and Kelly moved between the two of us… I finally joined them at one of the viewing platforms (a series of architectural elements along a walkway with places to sit), and we relaxed by the peaceful stream. Lady Aykroyd walked by with two of her dogs and later the third little dog wandered by on his own. We took the full route around the landscape gardens—we’re so lucky to have found this place!

Kelly helped Rosie with the horses and showed Rosie a little sketch she’d made of a girl with a horse. Rosie was very complimentary of the sketch and suggested that Kelly make a sketch of each of the horses that Rosie could put in their scrapbooks. This became Kelly’s mission for the rest of the day, and she produced three great little drawings of each of the horses—just their heads in an oval, with their names.

For dinner we fixed tacos, refried beans, and Mexican rice. We have really not seen any Mexican restaurants in England at all—lots of Indian and Thai though… even two Indian restaurants in remote little Pateley Bridge. We miss the Mexican food we could always find in America.

Thursday, July 22

Today is Kelly’s 11th birthday—her first birthday away from home. She will have two birthdays on this trip… this time next year we’ll be in Switzerland, nearing the end of our grand tour. We let Kelly plan the day and she had two things she wanted to do—go horseback riding and go driving through James Herriott country. She has become a big fan of James Herriott, the Yorkshire veterinarian who wrote a series of books (including “All Creatures Great and Small”). The BBC made a very popular television series based on the books, filmed at various locations around Yorkshire. We have a set of the videos from this series, and Kelly and Charley had been watching them right before we left—they enjoyed this series almost as much as A Year in Provence. (Poor me… I was busy each night working trip planning, so I really didn’t see much of the video series.)

I got up early to wrap Kelly’s presents. We had eight packages and three cards. Mom and Dad had given me a card with money in it to give to her on her birthday. The gifts were mostly books that she had picked out herself. I had just a few small surprises for her—a pencil with a little William Shakespeare on the top and a couple of hedgehog items. Charley hung up a Happy Birthday banner, which I had secretly bought in York, and we woke her up singing Happy Birthday. She opened a couple of her gifts and then went out to see Rosie and give her the three horse pictures she’d made yesterday. Rosie had a birthday card for Kelly from the three horses—a card with one gray horse and two brown horses. Kelly was so pleased! And Rosie was extremely complimentary of the three pictures.

We left about 9:15 am to drive to Pateley Bridge for Kelly’s horseback riding. We had gotten a list of stables from Tourist Information in Harrogate. Charley had asked Rosie and Sir James about riding earlier in the week… we wondered if they might volunteer their horses, but they said their horses were really for hunting and at this point were badly out of shape. They did recommend two of the stables though, and Charley had made arrangements at the one near Pateley Bridge for Kelly to go on a 1-1/2 hour “group hack.” A “hack” is a short ride and a “trek” is a longer ride, either half day or all day. The Yorkshire ride was cheaper than the Cotswolds ride (20 GBP vs. 27 GBP), but not cheap enough that all three of us would go.

We helped Kelly pick out a riding hat and a pair of tall black boots. She went out with a guide (one of the older girls working at the stables) and three other girls. They had a nice white pony that seemed just right for her. While she was riding, Charley and I went back to Pateley Bridge. We stopped in a bakery to get something for a birthday surprise, bought a newspaper and two mailer envelopes, bought a little sitting-pad for Kelly in an outdoor shop, and visited a small art gallery. We found a little teashop and had another round of morning coffee and tea and shared a scone with jam and cream. At that point, it was time to go get Kelly. She seemed to have a good time—her pony was named Pod.

We surprised her with a baguette, a J2O drink and the little sit-upon pad she had wanted for our walking trip—she’s gotten nervous about sitting on the ground after a run-in with chiggers in the Cotswolds.

Then we set off on our James Herriott tour of the Yorkshire Dales. I had bought a little booklet about the Yorkshire called “James Herriott World,” that included directions and commentary for a 70-mile loop driving tour through areas related either to James Herriott or where the BBC television series had been filmed. Charley and I were pleased Kelly picked this for her birthday adventure because it would give us a chance to see much more of the countryside. Kelly was interested because of the James Herriott connection, not so much the scenery… but she actually did spend much of the trip looking out the window instead of her normal reading. The route took us through a part of Yorkshire we’ll walk through on the Coast-to-Coast walk, including two of the villages where we’ll spend the night—so we were also interested in getting a glimpse of what we’ll experience on the walk.

The route was mostly on very small country roads. We traveled through lush and beautiful valleys, through major market towns, and then up to forsaken moors… where sheep wandered freely across the road. At one place Kelly had to jump out and open a gate across the road so we could proceed. We ate our lunch on the side of the road on the top of Bellerby Moor… actually just next to a huge military installation. This pass across the moors was supposedly a place James Herriott really enjoyed. One thing we learned is that James Herriott’s real name was Alf Wight… even after all his success with his books, he still remained a practicing veterinarian who truly loved being a vet in Yorkshire. He didn’t start writing until he was 50 years old—beginning in 1970. The books, movies and TV series resulted in a flood of visitors to Yorkshire—tourism in this area increased 45%.

We stopped at the little village of Langthwaite to see a bridge that’s included in part of the opening sequence of the All Creatures Great and Small series. A pub in the village—the Red Lion—was also used in some of the filming. We went inside and the woman showed us a wall of photos from the filming days. We talked with an older couple sitting out front of the pub in their walking clothes—they said they went out for a “muddle” just about every day. They took our picture on the bridge. As we were stepping off the bridge and a woman was driving across, a RAF fighter plane came swooping through so low that we all ducked. We have seen lots of RAF planes out on practice runs in England, but never one this low!

From Langthwaite we went back up on the moors to a place where you cross a small ford—called the watersplash. The James Herriott character and another vet drive across this ford in the opening sequence in an open jalopy. I took my sandals off and crossed the little stream so I could take a photo of Kelly and Charley coming across the watersplash just like the actors in the show.

We also got out of the car at the village of Askrigg, which served as the filming location for Darrowby, James Herriott’s fictional home. (He used pseudonyms for his town, his wife, and his fellow veterinarians in addition to his own name.) We had tea sitting outside at a little shop across the street from the house used for the filming of Herriott’s house, Skeldale House. An old man with a motorized scooter came out of the shop with a few items… Charley noticed that he had a Tennessee license plate on the back of his scooter that said ELVIS1. Charley started a conversation with the gentleman—which I thought would never end. We were the first people from Tennessee he had ever met. He tried to give me money to order him another Tennessee license plate with some other derivation of ELVIS. I did take his name and address, but we explained we wouldn’t be back in Tennessee for over a year. He really really liked Elvis. Although we thought he was elderly, from what he said about his birthdate at one point, it seems that he’s only five years older than Charley. Life in the hills of Yorkshire must be tough for some! We had a very hard time understanding his heavy brogue.

Our tour included the town of Reeth and also the village of Thwaite. We will stay in both of these places on the Coast-to-Coast walk, on days 10 and 11. I inspected the countryside pretty carefully in these areas and found myself getting apprehensive about the walk. We did see a lot of walkers… perhaps some were on the C2C. When we got home, I pulled out all the C2C information to study our route, especially in the areas where we had driven.

We saw a couple of castles. We stopped in a village called Middleham right at 6:00 pm. There was a huge old castle right smack in the village, just closing as we arrived. The castle was built in the 12th century and was the home of a young Richard III.

When we got home, Kelly saw there were several things on the stairs with her name on them. (Hillary must have brought them in.) She came running… “Mom, Dad, look what I got!!” She had cards and gifts from the Aykroyds and Hillary (and Hillary’s dog). The Aykroyds gave her a beautiful silver frame, and Hillary gave her a little photo album, including a picture of Bryn the dog. Kelly was so excited. I let her open another gift from us (some little hedgehog notecards), and she sat down right then to write very nice (mature!) thank you notes to the Aykroyds, Hillary and Rosie. She then went and delivered her notes to the Aykroyds and Hillary. It was wonderful for all of them to think of her, and made her birthday even more special.

I fixed Chinese stir fry—Kelly’s request—while she played outside with dogs, horses and ducks. She really enjoys being in this environment. After dinner I put candles in the brownies we had bought in Pateley Bridge and called Kelly in for a surprise “cake”. We sang Happy Birthday again, and she opened the rest of her presents. Even though she didn’t have the normal birthday party with a group of her girlfriends, Kelly really seemed to enjoy her special day.

Friday, July 23

We dawdled around a bit this morning so Kelly could see the horses. Sir James was back from a trip to Italy, so he was out with the horses too. We left about 9:30 am to go into Harrogate to use the Internet at the library. Kelly had about 20 messages today, including some birthday messages… she is keeping up an active correspondence with friends and family and has gotten messages from several of the teachers at the Lower School. I had quite a few messages also… I worked on the computer for about two hours and posted my Cotswolds blog. I also did a quick internet search to see if I could learn anything more about Birstwith Hall… we didn’t make enough of a connection with Lady Aykroyd to get an invitation to tour the house. I found the website of the architectural firm who had planned the renovation of the house several years ago, apparently when Sir James inherited it—looks like the house is from the early 1700’s. Charley and Kelly ran errands in Harrogate part of the time I worked on the computer. They were very enthusiastic about a big superstore in the downtown area called ASDA, affiliated with Wal-Mart. Charley said it was the biggest grocery store he had ever been in… and very nice. We like Harrogate a lot—beautiful Victorian buildings, lots of green space and flowers and nice shopping a large pedestrian area. It sure does seem bigger than 70,000 people.

We decided to eat lunch in Harrogate—Subway for Kelly and fish and chips for Charley and me. We ate on a park bench in a little park. The restaurant didn’t have any catsup though, and my fish and chips weren’t quite the same without it. We hadn’t had fish and chips since Mousehole, when Charley decided he’d had enough for a while.

Today we finished our James Herriott theme and did one more thing on Kelly’s list—visit the World of James Herriott museum in the town of Thirsk, maybe 30 minutes northeast of Harrogate. Thirsk was the real home of James Herriott (Alf Wight) and the museum is in the building where he had had his veterinary practice along with two other partners. For several years James (Alf) and his wife lived upstairs above the veterinary offices.

Thirsk seemed like a neat market town, and we were very impressed with the Herriott Museum. I didn’t expect it to be so well done. We were there almost two full hours! Several of the ground floor rooms had been restored in 1940’s style to represent his living quarters and also parts of the veterinary practice. There was even an old AGA range in the kitchen! In the back of the house and in some buildings to the rear were some very interesting exhibits about Herriott’s life. We also watched a very good video about Herriott, including some excerpts from an interview with him. The video included the opening scenes of the television series, and we were excited to see the bridge and the watersplash area we had visited yesterday. In another part of the museum they had a few rooms set up just like the television sets used in the series—we took Kelly’s picture at the dining room table and also in the vet’s office. Upstairs there was an extensive museum about veterinary medicine. One very unusual “hands-on” display let you put your hands up the rear end of a model of a cow and pull out a calf! The calf squealed when it was pulled out. This helps you personally experience how strong a country vet has to be! (Charley and I didn’t pull the calf out, but Kelly did.)

The whole museum was very well done and really quite interesting— it’s been years since I read James Herriott, but I’m ready to start reading him again. We enjoyed talking with the man at the entrance and also the man in the shop. Kelly batted her eyelashes at me and managed to get another James Herriott book in the shop. We want to get the movies and the rest of the television series videos when we get home. British videos and DVDs don’t work on American equipment, so we have to wait till we’re home again.

We walked down the street to the pretty old 14th century church where James Herriott and his wife were married, then found a café to have tea and coffee (ice cream for Kelly). We also made a quick stop at the Thirsk Tourist Information Office and a good bookstore, though just looking this time. Before we left, Kelly really wanted to see a chalk horse carved in a nearby hillside, so we drove from Thirsk out into the countryside looking for the horse and then trying out different vantage points for the best photos.

By the time we got back to Birstwith Hall it was 7:00 pm. Charley and Kelly visited with Sir James, Rosie, Hillary, the horses and the dogs while I fixed dinner. Charley talked to Sir James for quite a while, and did learn that Sir James also owns a malt whiskey distillery in Scotland.

For dinner we foraged among our leftovers. Each of us actually had a different meal. We plan to leave at 8:00 in the morning on our long drive to Scotland… about eight hours… so I started packing while Charley and Kelly drove to Harrogate for gas. Charley also did laundry so we have clean clothes to start our new week. We’re excited about heading further north to Scotland and Loch Ness.