England 2016 – Yorkshire and the Peak District

May 31 – Tuesday

The alarm went off at 4 am.  Groggily, I pulled myself out of bed and into the shower.  We had a 6 am train to catch at Kings Cross and the taxi would be here at 5:30.  Somehow, we both needed to wake up, shower, dress, finish packing, and get to the station on time.

No worries, though, because my Type A personality wouldn’t let me miss a deadline of any sort! Sharon was excited because today she would be meeting her friend (Gayle) for tea in York.  How fun!

We were well in time to meet the taxi.

Tip: Don’t call a black cab.  Take a minicab for a much better rate.

Thing is, we got to Kings Cross station well in advance of our train!  But, that gave Sharon some time to take pictures and me some time to grab a breakfast.

Sharon and I both love trains, and the train to York actually cost us about what a cab to the station had! 

Tip: You can find great train deals at TrainLine.

Sharon slept, but there was no way I was going to miss seeing all of the countryside and taking in every stop along the way.  We arrived in York at about 8:45 am and hustled over to the left luggage shop.

Tip: If you want to make a day trip of York without staying the night, you can leave your luggage within a short walk of the train station.

We noticed the attendee had a “Leave” badge on his shirt indicating his voting preference for leaving the EU as the referendum had yet to happen.  Sharon and I were both interested in this very intriguing vote, and he was happy to give us his point of view.

It was very cold in York, and Sharon hadn’t brought a jacket, so we got directions to a local shop and went to find something for her.  Afterward, it was on to the York Minster (probably my favorite cathedral in England).  We ran into an extremely interesting docent along the way (John Carpenter) who gave us tons of insight into the Minster’s history.

Rose Window – York Minster

King’s Screen – York Minster

Sharon was tired and took a quick nap on a bench while I toured around and went to the gift shop.  Sharon joined me shortly thereafter and we made our way to Betty’s tea room to meet Gayle. 

Luckily, we got a super seat right by the window.  But, when Gayle failed to show, we became worried.  We finally figured out that we had gone to the wrong Betty’s! So, we hurriedly made our way to the next one and there was Gayle! 

Gayle is one sweet and very funny gal!  We had so much fun talking and having tea and just chilling with a good friend.  Sharon had known Gayle when she’d worked in Washington DC, and I felt as if I’d known her all my life!

Joy, Gayle, and Sharon at Bett y’s

Our time was too short, but Gayle had to meet up with a travel partner and Sharon and I had some more sightseeing to do, so we went our separate ways. 

The main thing I wanted to show Sharon was the Shambles (a very historic street in York) and the Roman wall.  I think Sharon enjoyed the ramble, and we stopped by to get her a SIM card along the way.

The Shambles

The Roman Wall at York

It was back to Left Luggage to pick up our things (and chat again with the “Leave” man).  Then, to catch our train to Knaresborough. 

Knaresborough is one of the quaintest market towns in North Yorkshire.  With its castle, expansive viaduct, a petrifying well and the cave of a well-known witch to its name – there’s a lot of bang for your buck in Knaresborough.

I hadn’t taken the train to Knaresborough since the early 80s, and I’d forgotten that to get to the town centre, you had to go up a steep hill.  We almost lost Sharon along it as the grade was exceptionally difficult.  Luckily, a family of Goths stopped and assisted so that she was able to get to our B&B just at the top.  Thank you, Goth family! 

We stayed at the Kirkgate B&B and couldn’t have been more pleased with our host, Karen.  She was a lively, vivacious lady who was very helpful with all the ins and outs of our room, the keys, and the town in general.  Our room was a comfortable affair complete with chandelier and en-suite bathroom overlooking a very sweet garden.  We were also just around the corner from the town centre which made shopping and eating out very convenient.

Karen, our hostess at Kirkgate House

June 1 – Wednesday

The next morning, we had a lovely breakfast and went to wait for our car which Enterprise was to deliver to us at 9 am.  It never showed up.  After calling, we found we had never been in their system for a pickup!  Again, we found ourselves in transportation hell which you can read more about HERE.

Finding ourselves without transportation at this point, we decided to make the best of it and explore Knaresborough.  First thing was the local market which happened to be on Wednesday.  It was quite small, though, so while Sharon continued to look around, I found my way to a pub.

Knaresborough Market

 It was at the pub that I met some of the funniest and warmhearted Yorkshiremen!  Having ordered a pear cider, I moved down the bar to sit next to an older gent who was by himself.  This was Bob (aka Bob “the gob”).

Bob the Gob

Translation: Gob = mouth in Yorkshire.  He regaled us with warnings not to drink the Scrumpy in Cornwall (you could save millions of dollars in rocket fuel research by just using Scrumpy, it seems), and explaining that we should be aware of the pixies whilst there as well.  In the meantime, Roy from Scotton came in (claiming to be Bob’s son) and tried to make a stand for his home county of Durham which sort of withered and died under the vocal hilarity of Bob, who was a dyed in the wool Dalesman.  Later on, the two were joined by Mick who kept making lewd comments to our lovely barmaid, Adele.  It was all in fun… Roy the freeloader (who evidently owed Mick for past beers) and Mick the dirty old man.  All three were much better than any Monty Python skit I’ve ever seen!  I had been so depressed about the car from Enterprise, and now I hurt, I was laughing so hard!  We chatted for over an hour (I got some of the conversation recorded).  It was just lovely to hear such a deep Yorkshire dialect again on top of meeting new friends.

Sharon had joined us about halfway through the conversation and was able to snap one picture of Bob.  Unfortunately, we didn’t get one of the other two fellows.

We grabbed a bit of lunch and headed back to our room for a rest.

That afternoon, we walked over to the castle grounds for the wonderful view of the viaduct and River Nidd.

Knaresborough Viaduct

Walking down a steep flight of steps, you come to the river’s edge and, further down, you can cross to get to Mother Shipton’s Cave. They’d Disneyfied it a bit since I’d last been there in the 80s.  Now there were goblins taking your admission and families eating snow cones while faeries met us along the way.

Mother Shipton’s Cave

There are several parts to this tour:  Mother Shipton’s cave (where she was supposedly born).  The Petrifying Well (leave an ordinary object hanging from the well wall and it will be petrified in a matter of weeks), and the wishing well.  Sharon and I both made wishes and then headed out of the park to meet the Enterprise gentleman who was bringing us a new rental car.

Having parked the new car, Sharon and I headed out for some fish and chips.  We met an elderly couple who were so sweet.  The man had spent some time in Austin coaching soccer a few decades back.  In fact, I don’t think we met anyone who wasn’t lovely our whole trip!

That was it for Wednesday.

June 2 – Thursday

This was a day I’d been waiting for!  We took off early in the morning to drive to Kimberworth and hang out with my friends Linda and Chris for the day.  We had no trouble at all finding their place and traffic was light the whole way.

I met Linda through Facebook.  She is the cousin of a cousin of my mother’s… which makes us family of some sort, I think?  I had seen her posting and knew she was a Texan who had moved to England after marrying Chris, an Englishman.  We’d met once before, but this was the first time I’d seen her new house in South Yorkshire!

Chris

Linda

It is a lovely little place near the Peak District.  We all clambered into Chris’ car to head for the small town of Hathersage and Cintra’s, a very quaint little tea room.  While Chris enjoyed a traditional Full English breakfast, the rest of us had a lovely lunch before heading out into the town.

Cintra’s

Full English

It seemed that Sharon had met her photography soul mate as she and Chris took off to take pictures of microscopic bits of leaves and grass.  Linda and I just enjoyed the walk.  Hathersage has a cute little church, and Linda and I parted as I wanted to walk the trail up to the church where we would meet later.

Footpath Near Hathersage Church

Churchyard View

It was a lovely day, the grass was green, the skies were blue, and all was right with the world.  I entered the churchyard and could see for miles along the rolling hills.  The church, itself, was quite interesting as Little John (of Robin Hood fame) is supposedly buried there!

Little John’s Grave

Interesting Ivy Head

Hathersage, itself, was so small that we decided to take in the nearby town of Castleton as well.

Castleton is best known for its extraordinary scenery, its castle ruins, and a quarried stone called “Blue John” (which is in the Opal family).  I bought my mom some jewelry there and just enjoyed the peacefulness of the town.  I could definitely live here!

Blue John Mecca!

Beautiful Castleton

Peveril Castle Ruins – Castleton

Sadly, our tour came to a close, and we returned to Kimberworth to say goodbye to Chris and Linda and to head back to Knaresborough for the evening.

We had very much enjoyed our time in Yorkshire and were looking forward to spending the next few days heading northward and then west to Cumbria!

Continued…