Category Archives: England

Fountains Abbey ~ Wow!

 

On Saturday September 23rd, day nine of our travels, we had our buffet breakfast at the Knaresborough Inn, checked out and journeyed to nearby Fountains Abbey which is one of The National Trust properties in England at the Studley Royal Park. It was a rainy morning and we were wondering if the clouds would clear for our time at this property. Yes and hallelujah the rain moved on and the skies were glorious for our time at this magnificent property.

 

History of these largest Monastic Ruins in the country can be found here.

We paid our admission fee and walked down the pathway to the ruins. What a treat it was to be here and to see the wonder of it all. This was way up there in the Wow Factor.

Be forewarned that this post has a lot of photos.

The timing for our visit couldn’t have been better. As you can see, we are enjoying the grounds without other people around. A few more people arrived as time went on but we never had to dodge anyone.

I’m sure Laura was saying WOW! here.

 

 

This was a wonderful setting to remember all our Savior completed for us on the cross 2000 years ago.

I’m ending this post here. We walked on to more of the Studley Royal Park grounds and enjoyed some other sights before we walked back to the main entrance and had some lunch at the visitor center restaurant.

If you’ve made it all the way through this post you deserve applause! Thank you for coming along on my travel journal of our time in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Just a few more posts to go.

Our Father’s World Hodgepodge

Thank you to Joyce for the Wednesday Hodgepodge Questions this week.

1. This week’s Hodgepodge lands on National Clean Out Your Refrigerator Day. Is yours in need of a cleaning? Will you get that done today? How often do you tackle this particular chore?

I would say in particular the freezer sections are in more need of cleaning than the refrigerator sections. We have two Refrigerators. It won’t be done today. No regular schedule for cleaning this appliance.  The question that comes up when I do tackle it is, ‘Why did I buy that only to let it live in my refrigerator past it’s enjoy by date?!’

2. November 15th is also National Philanthropy Day…tell us about a charity (local or otherwise) you like to support when you’re able.  

Our church just had it’s campaign to fill Shoeboxes in support of Samaritan’s Purse Operation Christmas Child. I like to participate in that.

Our local church is generous in it’s support of missionaries world wide and we like to contribute to that effort. Our tithes and offerings to our local church also fund generosity to our local community. Right now in the month of November we have teamed up with Colville Toyota and offered free oil changes to widows and single moms.

3.What in nature inspires you and why? 

So many things I could mention here. We are so grateful to have been able to be out and about in the midst of God’s creation enjoying his handiwork with our oldest son and dear DIL this past September.

“The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork”

On our trip and walks about the United Kingdom this past September our daughter in law would quote that regularly.  Laura has ‘eyes to see’ and we get inspired to see when we are with her. Greg and I would want to sing This is my Father’s World.

1 This is my Father’s world,
And to my listening ears
All nature sings, and round me rings
The music of the spheres.
This is my Father’s world:
I rest me in the thought
Of rocks and trees, of skies and seas–
His hand the wonders wrought.

2 This is my Father’s world:
The birds their carols raise,
The morning light, the lily white,
Declare their Maker’s praise.
This is my Father’s world:
He shines in all that’s fair;
In the rustling grass I hear Him pass,
He speaks to me everywhere.

3 This is my Father’s world:
O let me ne’er forget
That though the wrong seems oft so strong,
God is the Ruler yet.
This is my Father’s world:
Why should my heart be sad?
The Lord is King: let the heavens ring!
God reigns; let earth be glad!

4. What’s something you own that makes you feel cozy? 

Cozy is my happy place! Being in my home with nothing on the agenda makes me feel cozy. Soft comfortable clothing makes me feel cozy. My Ugg slippers make me feel cozy. The older I get the more comfortable clothing I buy. Life is too short for tight underwear!

5. Who did you thank today? Who thanked you? 

My mind went right to ‘Praise God from whom all blessings flow, praise Him all creatures here below, Praise Him above ye heavenly hosts, Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

I thank my dear hubby in the morning because he graciously makes my coffee for me.

A bloggy friend, Dianna, thanked me on Tuesday with this post.

I’m working on the Hodgepodge on Tuesday morning. I’ll wait and see if anyone else thanks me today and add that later.

Our granddaughter Addy thanked me for coming to her basketball practice on Tuesday evening.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

I’m very thankful for my hard working husband. He is working most days on completing our master shower renovation. A complete re-do on his own. Demolition, prepping the walls meticulously, cutting when needed and attaching tile on the walls and floor. Cleaning, cleaning, cleaning each day after his days work. All of this with the handicap of his left hand still being numb and having no sensory feeling from his stroke a year ago. Soon I’ll be able to share the before and after of this project.

Thank you, Greg, for your perseverance.

Knaresborough~ Day 8

We continued Day 8 of our travels on September 22nd from Skipton to Knaresborough. It was a short journey. We arrived in Knaresborough before our rooms were ready at the Knaresborough Inn. When we walked in to inquire about our rooms the employee behind the counter looked at us and asked, “Are you for Trump?”.  Cheeky question and I gave him a cheeky reply with a smile. I suppose it was no secret we were from the USA. Our rooms were not ready so we continued on to see the iconic view of the Railroad trestle over the river Nidd at the Knaresborough Castle grounds. It took us a while to find a good parking spot near the castle grounds.

Like in most towns in England there is a lot of history to explore but we were at a place in our travels that we just took in the views. You could spend days in each of the towns we chose to visit and take it all in.

The Kanesborough War memorial is set up on the Castle, overlooking the River Nidd. 156 names from the First World War and 55 names from the Second World War are commemorated on this memorial. One soldier who served with the Yorkshire Regiment is commemorated on this memorial.

After taking in these beautiful views we continued to some of the market streets.

This is the ‘oldest chemist shoppe in England’ or so they say. It was right to get a photo of our resident chemist in front of this establishment. It is now Lavender Tea Rooms & Coffee.

This Blue Memorial Plague stood out to me as we walked a few of the streets in Knaresborough.

A blue plaque is a permanent sign installed in a public place in the United Kingdom, and certain other countries and territories, to commemorate a link between that location and a famous person, event, or former building on the site, serving as a historical marker.

Persecution of the Jews continues to this day. It is evil and should not be tolerated.

We finished up in town and drove back to our Inn to check in and get freshened up for dinner at the Inn.

I took the photos in the collage above in the morning without the crowds that we experienced at the dinner hour. Things were really hopping in this newly refurbished Inn. Tables were at a minimum and we finally found one for the four of us. We had to find a waitstaff person to give our order for food and then we had to go to the bar to put our drinks orders in, too. The staff, many of who were young and new were responsible for making drinks with the help of cheat sheets. We had some fun interactions with James, our server, who we watched running about for all the ingredients for the drinks we chose.

The food was good.

It was nice to finish up our day with a good meal and just steps away from our room for the night.

Again we had the most amiable weather and were thankful for another good day to enjoy the beauty of God’s creation.

Skipton to Knaresborough ~ Day 8

Friday September 22nd was the eighth day of our travels in the UK. Originally we were going to be driving straight to York from Grassington to return our car and take a train to Liverpool. The reason we were traveling to Liverpool was to attend the Liverpool v. West Ham futbol/soccer match which was scheduled for Saturday the 23rd. After we had made reservations for a hotel and flights back to Dublin based on that date the game was switched to Sunday the 24th. We scrambled to make different plans than we had prior to the game change. Instead of spending an extra night in Liverpool we decided to spend Friday night in Knaresborough. On the way to Knaresborough we stopped in Skipton to see the castle.

Before we packed up and checked out of the Devonshire in Grassington we enjoyed breakfast.

Breakfast was very good each of our mornings here.

On the road to Skipton Laura managed to get snaps of all these great road signs. We don’t see Hedgehog area signs on any roads we travel in the USA.

We had reservations for the castle and the castle car park.

Over 900 years old, Skipton Castle is one of the most complete and best preserved medieval castles in England. If you are interested in the history of this castle follow this link.

The ancient Yew tree in Conduit Court.

Lady Anne Clifford (1590-1676)
Born at Skipton Castle, 30th January, 1590, the daughter of George Clifford, she was the last Clifford to own Skipton Castle. She fought equally tenaciously for her rights and for the King’s cause in the Civil War, when Skipton Castle withstood a three years siege.

Lady Anne was also remarkable for the extensive post Civil War restoration work on her Castles. In 1659 she planted the yew tree in the central courtyard to mark the Castle’s repair from its Civil War damage.

The beautiful Conduit Court where a 350-year old Yew tree planted by Lady Anne Clifford still survives today

We enjoyed our time here especially since we were early enough to enjoy the castle mostly on our own.

This door called out to me at Holy Trinity Church in Skipton. Before we left Skipton we popped into the church.

The window of the Ministry and Ascension of Jesus. Centre-Ascension to his Father in Heaven, whilst his disciples watch from the ground as they receive the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. Left panel: Jesus the Good Shepherd. Right Panel; Jesus walking on water.

Window by; J.B. Cappronnier of Brussels, 1899.

Love the rest of our journey to Knaresborough. That will be another post.

Back to the Present: Greg is working hard to finish up the redo of our Master Bedroom Shower stall. He is almost there. He needed a break from all the hard work so we did a little drive on Friday to some craft fairs. We had breakfast in Chewelah and then took some roads less traveled to see the beautiful larches in our area. Before we left home I put a roast in the slow cooker so dinner would be taken care of while we were out and about.

Saturday was back to work for Greg and he finished the grouting while I did some shopping. We enjoyed leftovers on this day.

We had a wonderful Sunday at church including our annual business meeting. After church we stopped for Mexican food in town. We were happy to see my cousin and her husband at the restaurant and had a good catch up with them. Hope you all had a good weekend.

The Dales Way ~ Part 2

This continues the post of our walk over hill and dale from Grassington to Hebden and back to Grassington along the River Wharfe. The whole walk was closer to 6 miles than 4 miles but the steps that Laura’s device clocked were 20,077! This was on Thursday September 21, 2023.

We left our cozy Pub and headed through the village towards the River Wharfe.

The Old School Tea Room, Hebden. Family run, traditional but quirky tea room. Gifts, crafts and cards also available. School dates back to 1874 and the old bell still chimes every hour! (Laura, we missed going in here)

Hebden suspension bridge: The bridge, next to stepping stones, was built in 1884 to connect Hebden with Thorpe after a man drowned trying to cross the Wharfe. Nearby Burnsall Bridge, also on the river, had been swept away in a storm the previous year. The new bridge was built by the Hebden blacksmith using 262 yards of redundant steel rope from the old lead mines. It was restored in 2014/15.

If my hips were any bigger I wouldn’t have been able to squeeze through here! 🙂

 

The water at Linton Falls was in full force due to the storms the day before.

It was tempting to go down this lane and investigate Linton Church and village but our feet said no.

Back in town we treated ourselves to some famous Love brownies and got a recommendation for dinner and made reservations. As if we didn’t have enough steps in already to strolled in town and did some last minute shopping before we got ready for dinner.

Our dinner this evening at the Grassington House would be in honor of Greg’s 70th birthday, a treat from Josh and Laura.

Cheers to Pops on 70 years!

It was a lovely dinner and an American couple from Utah stopped by the table for conversation since they noticed we were from the States, too.

After dinner we took some evening shots for our memories.

We were thankful for being able to walk in sunshine with glorious blue skies and fluffy clouds and to see the wonderful landscape of a portion of the Dales. Capping the evening off with a delicious meal was a nice treat.

Although there was talk of taking part in Quiz Night at The Devonshire we all opted to tuck in and rest our feet and legs and get ready for Day 8 of our trip.

The Dales Way ~Day 7

On Thursday September 21st, day seven of our travels, the fire alarms went off in the Inn while we were getting ready for breakfast. Yikes. I was happy to be dressed when one of the owners knocked on our door to check our smoke alarm. After a full check of all the rooms in the Inn it was determined that there was a faulty wire somewhere that set off the alarm. The noise stopped and we finished getting ready for our breakfast.

I ordered the American Pancakes on this morning and they were excellent. The coffee was decent, too. After breakfast we headed out from town for a 4 mile walk or so we thought.

 

We learned that the day before our glorious sunshine filled walk there was lots of rain and flooding. Again we were so thankful for Providence in our timing. So thankful for blue skies, fluffy clouds and nice temperatures for walking.

Once we were off the paved road we begin to see what the storm left behind. At this point we could call our walk. Around the puddles and through the Dales.

 

We spotted some grouse ahead…

 

After seeing them we felt like we were going off track so we headed back.

We were confused on which way to go to get to Hebden. We saw another walker and she pointed out the way or the direction we needed to go and we bumbled our way through someone’s field and finally made it to this sign.

Over the Stile we went and continued on.

We were happy to see our first destination in sight.

 

I wanted to call this walk, ‘Sheep Shite and Mud Puddles’, because we had to really work at dodging all three.

We were thrilled when we made it out of the fields.

A few more mud puddles to navigate.

We made it to this Pub just before it opened for the day.

We enjoyed our time here very much. It was nice to sit a spell and enjoy some good food. Josh had the Pheasant Burger and got a chance to compliment the chef on the goodness of it.

 

From here we would make our way to the Dale Way trail along the River Wharf to get back to Grassington. That will be another post.

Goodnight Day Six ~ Grassington

From Ripon on Wednesday the 20th of September we continued on our journey to our final destination for the next couple of nights, Grassington. This part of our journey was a short 22 miles on B6265.

Grassington is the home of the fictional market town of Darrowby in All Creatures Great and Small, the 2020 television series set in 1937. Based upon the classic James Herriot books written by Alf Wight which follow the adventures of a young country vet in Yorkshire. Click here for more information on this charming town.

We would be staying at the Devonshire for Wednesday and Thursday nights. We were very happy to find a parking spot in this very popular market square. If we hadn’t we would have had to park at the Grassington National Park Visitor Center. We checked into our rooms in time to freshen up and have a walk about the town before our dinner reservations.

We had the Darrowby Suite and our kids had the Tristan Farnon room.

It was nice to be in a small quiet village with everything we needed at our doorstep.

We were glad we had made reservations for dinner because things filled up fast and the seats were full.

After dinner we regrouped in the bar area to play Phase 10. All the seats in the Inn were full with people and many with their 4 legged friends. Some were well behaved and others…not so much.

We shared another Sticky Toffee Pudding in the bar while playing our game.

We tucked into bed after a nice full day.

Day Seven took us into the ‘Dales’ for a nice long walk.

Postcards Day Eight

On our 8th day, Friday September 22nd we left Grassington after breakfast and made a stop in Skipton to see a castle and enjoy some lunch before heading to our stop for the night in Knaresborough at the Knaresborough Inn.

Skipton Castle in the Market Town of Skipton in North Yorkshire.

We are back in the U.S.A. and driving across our state to get home today. It will be nice to be reunited with our own pillows tonight. Thank you for following along with my postcards. Hope to visit fellow bloggers soon and see what you’ve been up to. I have enough photos from our trip to bore you all to tears in the near future! It definitely was a ‘WOW’ trip.

Great Britain 2003, 2004 and 2006

Ever since our first trips ‘Across the Pond’ before we were married we had a tugging to return and enjoy these lands that held great memories for us. It took twenty nine years for us to book a trip in February of 2003. It was a short trip to London with a day trip out to Cambridge. We stayed in South Kensington and used the Tube and Trains for our sightseeing. Our children were all able to care for themselves at this stage which made travel easy for us. Seems the travel bug took hold.

In April of 2004 we took our daughter to Great Britain for a graduation gift. Our itinerary included tracking down her favorite author’s haunts in Oxford, The Cotswolds, Bath, Devonshire, York, Edinburgh, and ended our trip in London. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Jane Austen, and Monty Python thrown in for fun.

In 2006 we traveled with best of friends in May to Wales, The Lake District, Oban, The Isle of Iona, Edinburgh, and York.

We left our fellow travelers in York and took a train back to Manchester Airport and on home. Our friends traveled on to Bath and London.

The next time we traveled to England was with our oldest and his bride and with a digital Camera!

We traveled in 2013, 2014 and in 2022 and those trips are well documented on my blog.

On this trip in 2023 we will return to York but none of the other locations we’ve been to before.

Today, Friday the 15th of September we land in Dublin with four of our family for a new adventure.

I’ll try to post a photo a day if possible while we are traveling. Cheers and Sláinte!

Walking Again

Last Friday we got up with the birds and tackled the Rotary Trail. Started our walk at 5:30 A.M.

This was something new on the trail path. Different languages on each side of the post saying May Peace Prevail on Earth. Nice sentiment but, with all the ungodliness, unrighteousness, lying and suppressing of the truth going on these days, I can’t see that happening anytime soon.

We have finally scheduled walking again in anticipation of another trip across the pond. We will be flying in and out of Dublin this time with a hopper flight to England, too. We are going with our oldest and youngest and their spouses. While in England we will stay to the North visiting York and the more of Yorkshire. From Yorkshire we will head to Liverpool for the Liverpool v. West Ham game before hopping back to Dublin. Our youngest and hubby are staying in Ireland for the full time we are on the trip. They have a 6 day tour and then will be on their own until we all fly home from Dublin. This trip will be in September.

Any suggestions for which villages/towns to visit in Yorkshire?