16 May 2014

Today we got started a little earlier for the day. We had breakfast in the hotel where we met an annoying ex-pat sitting across the dining room who instead on talking to us while we ate. She also made fun of our American expressions with her weird half-English/half-American accent. Once we finished breakfast, we loaded up the car and started our drive into the Yorkshire dales.

Our first stop was at Bolton Abbey. We only had to pay to park and their gift shop had some beautiful post cards and a little post office. Then we went on to see the Abbey. Like so many of the ruins we have seen, it was destroyed during the time of Henry VIII when he introduced Protestantism to England.

- taken by Mom

- taken by Mom

Eventually, a section of it was rebuilt and they have had regular services in it ever since! Much of the old buildings are still in ruins.

- taken by Mom

- taken by Mom

- taken by Mom

old grave

Since the church is still in use, we were allowed to go in and see the inside.

 

The ceilings were quite high and the stained glass was beautiful. The stone itself was light colored which kept the building from appearing too dark on the inside.

- taken by Mom

Behind the ruins is a stream which has both a bridge and a set of stepping stones across it. From the shore, the stepping stones don’t look scary at all.

But once you start to go a ways and see how small they are and that the water is getting deeper around you, it starts to look a little different. I made it about half way before I reached a stone that was a little under water.

The middle stone is actually under water

Easy does it!

I didn’t know if it would be slippery and I was too worried I would fall in and get wet. So the man coming behind me turned around and went back so I could, too. After that it was the bridge for me.

This guy made it look easy!  He was taller so he didn't have to stretch as far between stones

Up on the grass on the other side there were a set of "stepping stones" in the grass made of sections of tree trunks. We walked those instead!

- taken by Mom

  There were some lovely views back to the abbey from there which we enjoyed.

- taken by Mom

Then it was on to the next place which was the Yorkshire Dales National Park. In the movie "Calendar Girls," Annie’s husband works for the National Park. Many of the scenes were shot in or near this location. On the way, we stopped briefly in Skipton, which is a town near where the story takes place.  I got out to take some pictures of the area including the canal and some of the boats.

Then it was back on to the national park. There are quite a few places to go and visit in the park and the place I had planned to go to turned out not to be the place we put into the GPS. But where we ended up had a very nice walking trail on level ground back to a waterfall called Janet’s Foss. It took about an hour for us to reach it as we had to make a number of stops to take pictures and for Mom to rest her hip.

- taken by Mom

- taken by Mom

When we got close, we entered a new estate property and immediately, the terrain turned into forest. There were ferns, streams, and beautiful carpets of flowers everywhere!

As we got nearer, we could hear the roar of the waterfall. When we reached it, there were several people already there, enjoying the respite. Some people were even letting their dog swim in the pool of water under the waterfall.

- taken by Mom

After resting for a while, we walked up to the road and took it back to the village. It was shorter and a little easier to walk on than the path. We just had to watch out for cars as the road was extremely narrow.

Once we arrived back in the village, we were able to eat lunch in a café.

  I ordered a hot cheese and onion sandwich and a bowl of spicy lentil soup (Indian spice) and Mom ordered a jacket potato with cheese and coleslaw (common fair around here).

- taken by Mom

Our meal was only intruded on by a bus full of school boys who were no doubt on a school trip to the park and came into the shop to get ice cream and other snacks. They were polite but there were so many of them!

After we ate, we headed back to the car and started our drive to our next destination.  Mom was keen to see Richmond based on her readings. It would mean going nearly due north about 1 3/4 hours and our final destination was northwest. We still had hours of sunlight so she really wanted to make the trip. We headed up as quickly as we could, starting with the impossibly narrow road we walked on during our hike. On the map, Mom thought it would be faster. Passing oncoming cars was a nightmare and very nerve-racking! Suddenly, the road ended at someone’s house and we realized we had not followed the map correctly. So we had to turn around and take that same crazy road all the way back to where we started! Then we used the GPS and did a lot better finding the way. There were still plenty of narrow roads, but we made fairly good time after getting on the right road.

Once we arrived in Richmond, Mom called the owner of the cottage, Jonathan, we would be staying at in the Lake District to let him know about when we would be coming. He was very nice and told us it was no problem to arrive at that time. It was just after 6pm, so we could park for free which was great! We walked towards the castle and once we got there, we found a walk that went all around the castle.

The grounds were closed, naturally.

 

But it was a very nice walk around and we could see sights of the city, the river, and the bridge; all very lovely.

Then it was on to the Lake District! Once we eventually got on the Motorway, it was a fast drive! Then it was back to narrow little roads again. As we came to a smaller town, we decided to stop and ask for a nearby grocery store. We stopped at the first gas station and the attendant told us there was one around the corner only 100 yards away! Sure enough, it was right there! We quickly went in and got some essentials for Sabbath such as cereal, soy milk, fruit, bread, etc.

Once we came close to our destination, we followed the owner’s directions which did fairly well except when there were no markings on the road as there were supposed to be according to the directions. Jonathan saw us coming and came out to meet us. Once we pulled into our designated parking spot, he introduced us to his father-in-law, Collin, and his dog, Tag. All very nice! He gave us a brief explanation on the cottage and showed us our designated sitting area in the garden before leaving us to settle in.

What a beautiful cottage! We were so impressed.

Entrance to Gable End

Bedroom

Bathroom

Kitchen

Steps to upstairs - looking down

 

Sitting and dining room

The price had been very reasonable when we made the booking online back in the States. The cottage looked even nicer in person than it did in the pictures! We were very happy. We unpacked our things including the groceries and then went to bed.