A DAY AROUND YORK

We hopped on a train and we didn't have to haul luggage for a change so we really enjoyed our ride from Harrogate to York.  We were meeting a friend of a friend.  Karen Laino , a former Marine who joined the Navy ( there 's no good explanation for that, well actually there is but not for the blog) sent me her Navy sponsor's info who just happens to live in York, a short distance by train from Harrogate.

We had exchanged pictures so we managed to find each other under the large train postings board by platform 3.  Our group immediately took to Judy.   She was a perfect tour guide.  She obviously loved York and she had extensive knowledge of the history of the city and the Minster.  We discovered that she had retired from the Navy and stayed in England to pursue both a Masters and PHD degree in  Medieval and Monastic studies.  Could you get a more knowledgeable guide.  AND the best part she was really personable and knew good places to eat and drink!  We all felt so lucky to have had her as our guide to the city of York

We began by learning about the city wall which goes all around York and which you can literally walk on.  At one time in the not too distant past , prior to the decision by the city fathers to evoke tourism as  a viable source of income, people claimed sections of the wall as their own and built stairs from their property leading up to it and would set up tables, etc which then precluded people from walking around the city using the wall.   When the other sources of industry dried up and tourism became a viable source the "private ownership" was dissolved , the city reclaimed, and the wall became a tourist attraction!

Here's Judy with her attentive students.

The view of York from the bridge over the a River Ouse.

Walking along the wall. (Walking with enthusiasm, no less!)

Having a lunch in an historic old building that was used for Assemblies in the 1730's.  Very similar to our cotillions and debutante balls.  As you can imagine, I felt right at home.  

Judy left us to go through the York Minster( Cathedral) on our own and meet up with her later.  She had armed us with some some interesting history about the Minister and pointed out things that we shouldn't miss. One interesting tidbit which she told us we probably couldn't see since it was on the ceiling and one would have to lay down and have binoculars to view , was a scene in the depiction of the life of Christ done during the Victorian Era which shows Mary feeding the Christ child with a baby bottle.

The walk on the city wall was beautiful- wonderful gardens to view and good views of the city and the Ministry.

Of course we had to stop and rest a bit.

We met up with Judy.

And, what's new, headed to have tea!  It was a lovely day ( I'm getting to be so British - tea and the use of the word lovely) so we found a little cafe which had outside eating. Speaking of new did you notice my new attire.  I hate to brag but I had clean everything on that day!  Unlike JoAnne I didn't bring it up to my group.  There's no reason to rub it in!

Before we went to dinner we went back to the Minster with Judy and attended an Evensong service.

The sermon was delivered by the current dean who just may become the first woman bishop.   

After the service we headed out to dine at the restaurant owned by James Oliver a rather famous chef.  If we hadn't had Judy as our guide I don't think we would have found it.  It's hidden behind another restaurant on a small street, almost an alley.  

Judy walked us back  to the train station, and we enjoyed looking at the wonderful views of the city.

 We got on our train and as per usual we started editing and deleting photo's.  You can see this is serious business!

As I go through my camera roll I realize I have more pictures of stain glass windows ,altars, steeples, and Quires so tomorrow I thought I'd post pictures and you can let me know the Cathedral the picture was taken in.  Won't that be fun?  Good luck!

OFF TO RIPON

Poor JoAnne was under the weather so Ginger,Sharon and I took the number 36 bus to Ripon to see the Cathedral there and the Workhouse Museum.

Our first stop was to find a place for lunch.  Not easy on a Monday we discovered.  Never fear however we managed to find a cute little restaurant and enjoyed a very nice quiche and salad for lunch.  One of the interesting things we've learned about the restaurants in Great Britain is that along with a green salad which generally comes with your meal there is also coleslaw and sometimes either a little pasta salad or potatoe salad. Nice!

We walked to the cathedral down a picturesque little street.

This is an interior shot of The Catholic Church of St Peter and St. Wilfred.

One interesting piece of history concerned the end seat on the north side of the Quire. On the seat is carved a Griffin chasing a rabbit while another rabbit escapes down it's hole.  This is believed to have inspired Lewis Carroll in his writing of Alice in Wonderland. His father was a Canon at the church from 1852-1868.

In 672 St Wilfred built a crypt as a place of prayer and devotion.   He believed it to be a copy of the tomb in which the body of Jesus was laid and from which he rose on the first Easter Day. 

After visiting the cathedral we went to the Workhouse Museum. Very interesting and extremely well done but not an uplifting experience.  It depicted life as it was.  When asked if we'd like to spend the night we didn't hesitate one minute to answer in unison"No thank you!!!!!"  Just not our kind of B&B.  

I mean we have slept in Castles. After a few more weeks on the road however we might give a very different answer.  Paupers might be an appropo  discription and we might very well welcome a free bath, free bed and  and a free meal! -)!

We returned to Harrogate and this photo is probably worth a thousand words.  So consider this a very long blog.  Be sure to note Ginger's shoes.  

As I'm sure you know (people who read my blog are people in the know) the Tour de France is going to be in the area we are currently visiting in July.  We have seen bicycles all over the area decorated,and displayed on top of buildings, store front windows on sidewalks,etc. Additiionally, all around the various villages  etc. are these cute little bicycle jersey's that are waving in the wind.  I regret not thinking of taking more photographs of them.  We just kept seeing them and they became part of the scenery.  To give you an idea I do have two pictures.

The bike on the information center in Harrogate.

Note the bikes and the little spots of color on the fence are the small little bicycle jersey's. They were much like the sheep- all over the countryside!

Now if I can get this published I can tell you all about our day in York.

THE DAILY ROUTINE IN HARROGATE

A little bit about the history of Harrogate is in order here.  When one has sipped scotch in a castle it is only natural that one would seek out a fashionable spa town as a designated stop on one's itinerary.  

This daily routine of the wealthy visiting Hartogate in the 19th century particularly appealed to me.

7:00- 8:00 am

Rise amd visit pump room for a tumbler of water.

7:00  - 8:15  

walk about listening to the band

8:15

take second tumbler of water

8:15 - 9:00 am

Listen to the band and if perscribed take a third tumbler of water

9:00 

breakfast

For some it is advisable that they drive, either by omnibus carriage, or bath chair. but the walk home can be advantageos if it can be done without undo fatigue.  Care should be given to avoid exertion,

10:00

 letter writing or morning paper

11:00 

shopping/ walk/ listen to the band/or bath

1:00 

rest for half an hour

and so the day went.  

Here I am visiting the pump house to begin my day.  Unfortunately no water was given out but it was a most interesting museum which gives a nice little history of Harrogate.

Sharon and  I did visit the Royal Bath House before we left Harrogate and took advantage of the spa there.

We were trying to imagine ourselves as one of the rich and famous.  Hard to do when your poor and getting poorer and poorer as the trip continues.  Of course we are "the beautiful ladies from Iona"so we do have some notoriety and come to think of it Sharon is infamous!

Here are the baths ,darling......

You notice everything is very old. (Now why would I use that word in a caption right under my picture, I obviously wasn't thinking.  There is certainly no reason to point out the obvious!)

It was such a great way to spend the morning.  I ended it with a treatment,  neck, shoulder, and back massage.  I'm sure I looked much younger when I left the bath house. I SURE FELT YOUNGER!

I was hoping to continue the day and write about our trip to Ripon but having trouble with the WIFI again and cannot transfer the photo's from my phone to the iPad.  It was working earlier but not now.  Will continue with our trip to Ripon and our visit to York when things are working. Will just go ahead and publish this while the WIFI is working with the iPad .

MORE HAPPINESS IN HARROGATE

 We arrived in Harrogate in our chauffeured driven limousine. OK,THEN!   (So we hired a cab to drive us to Harrogate so we would not have to schlep our luggage once again. That's pretty close to a chauffeured driven limo.) Door to door service.  How wonderful.  We arrived at our apartment for the stay and were very impressed with the location as well as the apartment - very comfortable.  Two bedroom and two bath.  We just have to walk out our front door, after going down a step or two, OK, 25, to be in the center of this beautiful city! It is beautiful and happy.  Harrogate has been voted the happiest place to live in Great Britain for the past two years.  I can see why!  I have friends from California, who now reside part time in NC , and part time in Harrogate!  As I was roaming the city and visiting some of the places Marge had recommended I realized Marge and Tom were my best friends in the whole wide world.  As a best friend they will surely want me to visit often, and best friends get to stay a long time!  (I know that for a fact,Marge and Tom!)

We immediately tried to find a place to eat, we were starving!  Oh dear, have I written that before?  We found a great little restaurant very close by!

That's JoAnne heading up the group.  She was really hungry!

Here she is reading the menu.  She tries to convince us she's selective, but when she's hungry , she's hungry.,

It passed muster.  In fact it was delicious and we hoped to return.  You can see how much Ginger enjoyed it.  

After eating we headed out for a walk in a park just a block from our apartment.

I don't know what got into a Ginger.  She really enjoyed the park!      

There is a section of the park that is planted in native plants of New Zealand and there is a tribe, the Maori's whose greeting is depicted in the carved tree trunk and demonstrated by Ginger!  Actually the city of Wellington in New Zealand and the city of Harrogate have a sister city relationship.  This was only one of many carvings in the park.

The next morning at breakfast Ginger and I happened to notice a clip on one of our bags of nuts that had been on the inventory list in our last abode in the Lake District.  Sharon was the individual who had cleaned up the kitchen before she left and we realized that she had committed a terrible crime.  I am only telling you this because if this should come to trial and I believe it may, I want you, my friends to be able to testify at the trial that you know of my innocence.  You read it on my blog.  I had no knowledge of the crime until I saw the clip that morning.  I am hoping we can get out of town before the authorities catch up with her.  As you know I have been planning to have her as my companion for the year but this evening I happened to notice this poster on a few trees in the area.

I'm beginning to think this may be  a pattern.  Yesterday at the cathedral in York she picked up a brochure that she said was free.  I however had paid 3 pounds for it.  She claims she didn't see the sign.  I am hoping we will make it to the airport tomorrow and she will be safe.  I will not turn her in but I plan on watching her closely from this time forward.

I digress.  Back to Harrogate.

The day after arriving we just walked around enjoying the beautiful city and the beautiful sunshine.

We then headed to the famous Betty's for a late lunch.

Here we are in the queue for Betty's.  Although a pretty long one we were in before we knew it.  

It was well worth the wait.

We ate in the Spindler Gallery that was decorated with these wonderful wood inlaid pictures of various sizes and themes.

After a great meal we indulged in a few of their desserts.

I think I have caught Sharon looking for a disguise.  I snapped this picture of her in one of the local hat shops.  i just don't know if its going to work but it might keep her safe for a few days.  On the other hand who but a thief trying to disguise herself would wear this hat.

That evening we went to a wonderful concert at St. Peter's church.  The Harrogate and the Romsey Male Voice Choirs

 perforned.  They had a great variety of numbers  including quite a few Amerian songs.  We even got to see the mayor present some awards to the choir directors and accompanists

It was a late wonderful night.

.

HAPPY IN HARROGATE

Having too much fun!  Sun is shining! Lots of stories to tell but you'll just have to wait.  I shall return.  I know you're all anxious to catch up with the travails of Terry, I mean travels.  

I am not responsible for the leaf on the ground

See that bag?  You may not only read about new places you might, just might , see me in something new.  

See that new person in our group.  There's a story there.

Lots of new stories to tell!

I'm hoping to catch up tomorrow but we do have places to go and people to see and worse -

We have bags to pack!  This time for a plane ride to the Cornwall area.  EEK!  That means everything has to be in a suitcase or on our bodies. Four beautiful women from Iona may turn into the four Pillsbury doughboys from Harrogate!