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Feb 10 / Administrator

5th to 9th of February 2017 – Yorkshire

Following on from recent trips, we travelled to Thorner near Leeds to spend Sunday with our friends David and Bridget Lindley.   The four of us had a lovely curry meal at Rajas in Leeds in the evening where we were joined by Annie’s godson Chris, his wife Lindsey and son Henry. They are all regulars at Rajas and Henry who is two years old has his own curry made specially for him.

270-20170206.JPGThe next day we headed off into the mist to walk around Fountains Abbey. The walk was bracing but very pleasant although the lakes in the grounds were frozen!  From there, we headed to Pately Bridge, Aysgarth Falls and Aysgarth’s lovely church St Andrews. The graveyard extends to about four acres and is supposedly the largest in England. The church itself preserves a number of fittings including a large rood screen and the abbot’s stall that were rescued from Jervaulx Abbey at the time of the dissolution of the Monastries.

We 270-20170207.JPGbooked into our favourite Bed and Breakfast (Pear Tree House) in Pickering and enjoyed our second curry meal of the trip at Spice4U (as good as ever). Tuesday was the day for the long awaited lunch at The Magpie in Whitby. Normally we would travel to Whitby on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway but it was out of season. In order that we could enjoy some wine with our lunch we travelled by bus – a great way to see the countryside especially from the front seat on the top deck.

Our lunch was terrific; Gerry enjoyed a starter of Mussels in wine sauce followed by fish, chips and mushy peas. Annie had a couple of Gerry’s mussels and followed that with fish pie. The streets of Whitby were quite empty really but both floors of The Magpie were full of diners when we left the restaurant.

270-20170208a.JPGThe weather forecasters got it right when they said that the rain would stop at around 9am on Wednesday. We had decided to do our favourite walk at Farndale and so were pleased with the cold but dry weather. Recognising that the walk could be very muddy we asked a Park Ranger (who happened to be in the car park) what he thought. His reply was slightly disconcerting in that the first half of the walk would be fine but that the mud and surface water would be over our ankles in parts of the return leg. We decided to do the first half of the walk along the side of the River Dove from Low Mills to Church Houses and then return walking along roads. The outward leg was really pleasant despite coming across a road works sign where the path was being refurbished. We also came across a delightful small waterfall and enjoyed listening to the sound of the water in the absence of all other sounds except for the birds.  Although the return leg we chose was marginally longer than walking through fields and farm yards, and despite walking on the road, the views were worth it. We came across some sheep who decided to see if they could out stare us. I think we cheated by making a noise!

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We spent the afternoon visiting a couple of small towns and villages including the picturesque village of Thornton-le-Dale. We had saved a visit to Pickering Church to see the rather special frescos until last only to find a funeral in progress. Still there is always next time.