Friday, November 8 through Sunday, November 10, 2024

This morning we needed to finish off the rest of the food supplies we laid in at the beginning of the week. Mark prepared the final Full English Breakfast including beans, but lacking the tomato and mushrooms normally served. As tomato growers ourselves, the sad specimens provided at these breakfasts are rarely eaten, at least by us. The sausage and bacon on the other hand is always delicious. 

We did some preliminary packing and then turned the car towards Leyburn and a final stop for some stocking stuffers and a bottle of wine to take with us in the car for Saturday evening. Friday is Market Day in Leyburn, so the traffic around the square was busy. We were forced to park in the public lot a few blocks away from the Market Square and hoof it back. After purchasing some wine at Campbell’s we dropped in again at the Posthorn Tea Shoppe for a slice of Victoria Cake and a cup of tea before taking our leave and going towards Gunnerside.

This time we drove the high road, over the moors and through the army firing fields. Catterick Army Barracks is located just outside the City of Richmond, and this area is used for troop maneuvers. The Catterick Base is reputed to be the largest Army base in Europe. Similar to Bellevue’s relationship to Offutt AFB in Nebraska, Richmond provides a ready market for Catterick personnel and lots of economic support.

We dropped down through the village of Grinton and then followed the Swale River passing the Dales Bike shop. There is a lot of biking in this area of the Dales. In 2014, the Tour de France even held their opening stage here and the peloton went riding across the moors and over the bridge at Grinton. 

We journeyed on again through Reeth, past its church and market square and followed the Swale along, eventually reaching Gunnerside. Our goal was the Kings Head Pub for dinner. Faithful readers may recall that our first stay in the Yorkshire Dales National Park was at Gunnerside and Burnside Cottage, a small guest house directly across from The Kings Head. That previous stay was the start of our love affair with the Yorkshire Dales. This pub is fairly unique; it closed down around 2015, but the community was so lost without it, they founded a non-profit group, raised the necessary funds and purchased the pub. They cleaned it up, ran it themselves for a few months, and then secured a tenant to run the operation. There is a note in their menu telling patrons that occasionally shares of the community organization come up for sale and urging anyone interested to purchase a share if they become available.

We arrived just at opening time of 4:30, and ordered a pint of ale and a pint of cider. Dinner service begins at 5:30 and we then ordered: Deb a steak pie with chips, and Mark a sausage with mashed potatoes. Both were served with a separate dish of steaming hot vegetables. The food was delicious, and, as this was Friday night, the pub was beginning to fill up with villagers and travelers enjoying a beer and a chat. We took our leave and then proceeded back up over the moors in the pitch black night towards Askrigg and our home base.

Arriving safely, we finished our open bottle of wine and began our preparations for the next day’s travel, We were mostly packed and into bed by 10:00.

Saturday morning we had a cup of coffee, started the dishwasher for the cleaning crew and placed our baggage back in the Nissan for a long day’s travel. We were out of Brook Cottage at 9:02 AM and on the road. We drove back through Leyburn and stopped at the Posthorn for breakfast, an egg, bacon, sausage with toast and a nice cup of coffee. Finishing up, we bid adieu to the Yorkshire Dales for this trip, and pointed the car towards our next destination. Our first taste of how bad the traffic was going be was in Thirsk.  For those of you are are ‘All Creatures” fans, both of the shows and the book, this is the real hometown of “All Creatures.” The Clock in the Market Square was covered in poppies, the symbol of remembrance.

We headed southeast to York, arriving at the ring roads to this metropolis around 12:30 and spent nearly 45 minutes battling traffic to get around the city. Weekends are just an excuse for the English drivers to get out and clog the roadworks. We fought our way towards Hull, crossing over the umber River on the huge suspension bridge then turning southwest back towards Lincoln for a stop at the beautiful Lincoln Cathedral, on the grounds of which their is a large bronze statue of Alfred, Lord Tennyson. Wed left Lincoln just as the sun was setting in the west and pushed south towards our final destination of the day, Headington, joust outside Oxford. 

We arrived at our hotel,The Black Boy, at 6:30 PM, exhausted but glad to see some areas of England we had not visited before. The unfortunate name of the hotel honors a famous British racing horse, and the pub in the hotel is festooned with a saddle, some bridles, and other paraphernalia strewn about. We moved our overnight bags into our room, opened our remaining bottle of wine, and had a cocktail before heading down to the restaurant for our 7:30 reservation. Deb enjoyed a nicely cooked halibut with chips while Mark had a nice piece of salmon on a bed of lemon tanged rice. 

After dinner we trundled up the steps to collapse in our bed for our last night in England. Sunday morning, we loaded up and drove to Heathrow Airport, only missing the car rental drop off exit once! We turned in the car at Enterprise without any further delays and, after driving over 750 miles, we gladly took their shuttle into the terminal. This day, Sunday, in England is Rememberance Day, akin to our Veteran’s Day, and at 11:00 AM, throughout the country, bugles sound and everyone stops what they are doing and stands in place for three minutes of silence. Some other unknowing tourists, especially the ones who do not speak English, moved about, not realizing the solemnity of the moment. This was a silence that would never be heard in the USA for anything that far back in history.  It was inspiring and took both of us by surprise.  When we first came in, not realizing what was about to happen, we asked an agent a question and were hushed with a stern look.  After the silence was over, we were helped by the same agent who was so friendly and gracious.

When the silence ended with another flourish of the bugles over the loudspeakers, the bustle of the airport returned. We checked our bags and headed toward security and our assigned gate. One pleasant note; Mark was traveling with his walking stick, as his back troubles cause him pain while walking for any distance. Not once, but at least five times, employees asked if he needed assistance, perhaps a wheel chair or a ride to the gate? We declined and  made our way to the United Airlines Club for a glass of wine and a quick bite. At 1:30, we boarded our 767 and taxied down the runway towards home and the end of our time in England and Ireland.

 

The nine hour flight was uneventful, the food marginally better than the flight over, and we landed at Chicago O’Hare right on schedule. We collected our bags, waltzed them through Immigration and Customs and then boarded the inter-terminal train to Terminal 2 and our last flight of the day. Again through security where chaos reigned. Deb was sent through the scanner twice, the second time shoeless because the security person didn’t hear her state that she had a replacement knee, thereby setting off the alarm. Mark was warned that he could not have a cloth handkerchief in his back pocket as it showed up on the “moose ears” scanner and he should know better. All in all not a warm welcome.

We made our way to C concourse and soon boarded our final leg towards home. Incidentally, although Mark was offered assistance five times in Heathrow by helpful employees, not a single offer was made in Chicago. He was actually questioned about having collapsed his walking stick to slide it along the scanner belt in security. A sour coda to a great trip. Abigail was waiting at Eppley to ferry us home, help us with our luggage up the home steps and leave us to reunite with Poppy the cat. We had, at this point, been awake and traveling nearly 22 hours, and we fell into a deep sleep (stupor.)

As we look back on the trip, it was, except for the last day, a wonderful time to see friends, enjoy their hospitality, and to visit some of our most favorite landscape.  We are also glad to be home and, even though the future of the political landscape may be daunting and scary, it is still home.  

Bainbridge, October 28, 2023

If we thought yesterday was rainy, today was pouring when we awoke; however it is sleep inducing. Due to Mark’s small wardrobe, and to forestall him having to try on some of Deb’s skivvies, we prevailed upon our hosts to throw a small load into their washer this morning. This will help tremendously with our travels. After our daily eggs, bacon and English sausage, all of which we find is sourced right here in Bainbridge, we perused the hosts large map (ours is tucked neatly in Mark’s errant suitcase) and decided that today we would head northeast.

As we set off towards Sedbergh, the rain quickly disappeared. We passed Hardraw, promising ourselves to return tomorrow to view Britain’s highest waterfall. We had stopped there last year, but as the country was in a bit of a drought, it wasn’t that impressive. With all the moisture this year, it should be spectacular. As we headed onward, a strange light appeared in the sky overhead - sunshine! We pulled into a parking lot, cratered like the moon, but each crater filled with rain water. these were so deep that, with a slight breeze, ripples formed as if waves were blown across a lake. We took some photos of the high peaks to the northwest emerging from the clouds. These peaks are the eastward ones surrounding Lake Windermere to the west.

Reaching Sedbergh, we turned north toward Kirby Stephen, a larger town along the A685, a modern two lane highway with the locals speeding at 60 mph! Startled, we tried to keep up. We reached Kirby Stephen, a veritable metropolis, complete with traffic backed up for seemingly miles. Once through the traffic snarls, we were back on the highway and soon hopped off at the small exit for Kaber. We pulled over for a moment just to check our maps and bring our heart rate down. It seems we are becoming country yokels averse to the “big city.” We continued along the small roads eastward headed again to Tan Hill with the idea of stopping for another pint. As it was now 2:30 in the afternoon, we expected perhaps we could score a table. Not a chance. The parking lot area was more crowded than yesterday. We forgot that this is a school holiday week, and every caravan in the British Isles had loaded up all their children and were converging on the Yorkshire Dales National Park for a long week or weekend. We drove right on by, headed now to Reeth, a destination we knew well. Upon arrival, Mark quickly parked at the city lot, through open the door and digging a 20 pence coin out of his pocket, headed for the “public convenience” building.

Relieved, we turned southeast through Grinton and across the moor towards Leyburn. The sunshine we had enjoyed to the west was now gone and the clouds descended, covering us again in fog. We reached Leyburn just before 3:00 and pulled into the market parking lot. Today had been market day and the vendors were just packing up. We stopped into our favorite Posthorn Tea Shop for a cup of tea and an afternoon snack. Deb enjoyed a bowl of potato leek soup (entirely too large) and a few pieces of cheese scone, toasted. Mark was wishing for a sultana scone with cream and jam, but the fruit scones were all sold out, so he settled for a tea cake, a small round loaf of bread split and toasted, upon which he spread his butter and jam. We also enjoyed two small pots of Yorkshire tea.

Finishing our afternoon tea, we stopped in the home and kitchen store we enjoy and then on to the local petrol station for some fuel. Next we headed back west towards Bainbridge and home. We arrived shortly after 4:00, parked and climbed the stairs to our lodgings. We kicked off our shoes, Deb picked up the phone to do battle with United regarding Mark’s bag and we poured ourselves a glass of wine. Shortly after five, we looked at each other, toasted our good fortune and decided to call it a day. We turned on the British telly to see what we could find, agreeing that we had experienced a wonderful day.

Saturday, our final day in the Yorkshire Dales. We enjoyed our last tremendous English Breakfast courtesy of Jane & Neil McNair. We spent an hour or so working on our morning puzzles and then set out to cover the last few areas of the Dales for the day. We first headed to Aysgarth Falls National Visitor Center, arriving around 11:30, a perfect time for Deb to have her final gelato cone of this trip. Next we headed to Leyburn, looking for a map of Ireland, but instead finding a little bookshop that relieved us of some funds as we stocked up on some gifts and books. No map though.

We turned south to explore a final corner of the Yorkshire Dales National Park that we had not yet covered. We stopped in Kettlewell for a pint and a bathroom break, and then headed over the tops to pass through Gayle, ending in Hawes. No time to stop here again, so we then turned west to Hardraw to visit the Hardraw Force - the tallest waterfall in Great Britain. We paid our entry fee and walked up the paths to the waterfall - truly impressive.After strolling back to the car we drove on towards Askrigg and the Crown Pub, arriving around 4:30. We hoped to catch an early meal before turning back to Bainbridge. However, the pub does not serve food until 6:00. What to do?

We nursed a pint of ale and a pint of cider for 90 minutes and then stepped up to the bar to order our dinner, A steak pie with mashed potatoes and a burger with chips. The steak pie was excellent, the burger not so much. When we had arrived the pub was nearly empty, but it quickly filled up with the members of the Askrigg football team, and all their wives and children. They filled the bar, drinking and chattering. We expected them to thin out as meal time neared, but no such luck. On a more mischievous note, this pub featured the most unique urinals Mark had ever seen. (A specially refitted beer keg - how appropriate!)

We returned home by 7:00 ready to pack our bags and prepare for tomorrow. We had received an email early in the day that, reportedly, Mark’s bag was waiting for us in Leeds at the airport. As it had spent most of the last week in Amsterdam, presumably rolling around the red light district, partaking of the ambiance and probably carrying on with some racy two-wheeler, we are looking forward to seeing its walk of shame in the airport lobby. Our flight is scheduled to depart Sunday at 12:30 headed to Dublin. From there we pick up another car and drive to Tubercurry to see the Highlands and begin week two of our 2023 Adventure.