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Much delayed and still unfinished UK report

Much delayed and still unfinished UK report

Old Oct 29th, 2011, 07:18 PM
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Much delayed and still unfinished UK report

I love Boots. Not the kind you wear. Our trip to Yorkshire.

We spent two great weeks in Yorkshire and Cumbria, and toured several Boots’ chemist shops. Drugstores are a highlight of any trip to Europe for me, and I have to say that I’m totally in love with Boots.

We flew via US Airways, PIT to PHL to MAN. No problems, comfortable enough, and I slept on the flight. We collect US Airways miles and the tickets were 35K each over the end of May/beginning of June. The down side was that the trip encompassed 14 days because of award availability;, which is a long time for us to be away.

From MAN we took a train directly from the airport to the city of York. Easy and comfortable. Because we knew our money was fairly worthless in England, we didn’t spend much time noting prices once we arrived, so I can’t report on the cost of the train tickets. We did our budgeting upfront, with free air, B&Bs, and a good deal on a car from AutoEurope. Once we were in England we just did what we needed to do, and didn’t particularly note prices. It would have been a joy killer.

We took a cab from York station to our B&B, The Bronte House. This place is fine. 80£ for a double with a good shower. I prefer a hotel to a B&B, but I had read a lot of terrible reviews on less expensive hotels in York, and decided on this place. Walking distance from the historic center, with a grocery store very nearby. Decent breakfast, clean. I don’t think you get a ton for your money in York. I don’t want to sound like I hated this place; it was really fine, just not my taste. Wifi was iffy, and breakfast sausage was of the less than 100% meat variety. The people were very friendly. http://www.bronte-guesthouse.com/food.htm

There were some places I found that I think I would have preferred, but I got distracted when making reservations, and my first choices were taken when I got around to writing to them. I hope I learn a lesson from that.

We spent two nights in York. After settling in when went straight to Clifford’s Tower to buy our English Heritage memberships. I had spent a lot of time weighing the cost of various passes against where we were going, and this was the best deal for us. We were able to get a couple’s membership that included a senior discount. It seemed like an even better deal because I was planning on using the membership early next year in London, to see a few off beat sights, but that plan might be postponed and the year membership will be expired before we go back. Still, this was cheapest for us and turned out great.

We enjoyed our time in York, but were a bit beat from the flight and I was a little sick the first day. I have lupus and although I’m not as sick as so many with this disease, it does occasionally kick my butt. York Minster was great, but surprisingly not my favorite cathedral of the trip. I had really been looking forward to it, and that is why I was surprised to like another church better. More on that later.

We had a good time window shopping in York. There were so many shops; I can understand why I had read reports tripadvisor.com of folks going to York to shop. My husband, who hasn’t had a nice piece of clothing in at least a decade, got a Rohan jacket that he wore everyday of the trip. I wore his old wind breaker nearly everyday, and I was glad it was available. I had brought a lot of sweaters, but needed the windbreaker. Our best meal in York was at Café No.8 http://www.cafeno8.co.uk/

After two nights we took a taxi to get our rental car at Hertz at York station. It was really a snazzy car, much nicer than we had payed for. We rented through AutoEurope and as we usually do, took a small manual. Everyone was impressed by the car we got but me, because I absolutely could not crawl in and out of it, or reach anything that was on the floor. I couldn’t sit on the seat to change my shoes. Shoe changing at the car is a major activity in the North. My husband loved the car and said it was fast, but I hated it because I was so uncomfortable.

We had no problem driving to Castle Howard, where we had a very nice day, and I ate the truly best strawberries with cream that I’ve ever had in my life. I’m a Brideshead fan, so this was a good stop for me, but I think anyone would like it. The house is full of amazing art and china; there was much more there in terms of sculpture, painting, and dishes than I expected. We walked way too many miles of the grounds, including the woods, down to the water, over to the temples, etc, and then spent a good chunk of time in the farm shop. We bought all sorts of local cheeses there, and had a grand picnic in our next B&B, where no takeout foods were allowed. We felt guilty, but being uninformed ahead of time, we had no choice but to eat cheese.

When we left Castle Howard, we drove straight to Brickfields Farm in Kirbymoorside, North Yorkshire Moors, close to Helmsley. http://www.brickfieldsfarm.co.uk/index.htm

We spent 5 nights here and were sorry to leave. There aren’t enough good things to say about this place. I don’t know where to begin describing it. When I was looking for a place in Helmsley, I discovered the website for Brickfields Farm and just kept coming back to it. Nothing seemed as good in comparison, and I’m guessing nothing could be as good in reality. It was certainly one of the nicest places we’ve ever stayed, and we both agreed that the 95£ per night was worth more. We had a huge room with a huge sitting area and huge bed with wonderful linens. A hallway, marble floored entrance and kitchen and a gigantic bathroom with a huge tub and a huge marble walk in shower. Every amenity one could want was included, which means terrific toiletries and delicious little chocolate mints that were replaced each time I ate them all.

Breakfast at Brickfields Farm was incredible. Beautiful linens and china and music every morning, with wonderful fresh fruit and nothing cheap. No apples or bananas here, but lovely lovely berries and segmented citrus and all kinds of delightful things in pretty fruit cups. They served the best mueslix I have ever tasted, full of big crunchy hazelnuts and other luxurious nuts and seeds… just incredible. The tomatoes at breakfast were sweet and tasty… there were DVDs in each room (none that were really to my taste; we watched Vicky Christina Barcelona and I thought it was awful)… everything was perfection, and the place was set among bucolic fields with bunnies and lambs; you couldn’t make this place up.

From Brickfieldss Farm we visited Rievaulx Abbey, which was my favorite of all the abbeys we saw. I liked it best because of its wonderful setting, I think. The atmosphere was great, the abbey was suurounding by beauty, and it was very peaceful and uncrowded.

We also went to Byland Abbey on the same day, and stopped in Harome and Helmsley to explore the villages. Byland was much lonelier than Rievaulx. There were en situ mosaics and very pretty fields, as well as an old archway across from the site. We spent more time there than we had planned.

We took a day to drive to the east coast, and stopped in Goathland and Littlebeck to explore on the way to the North Sea coast. In Littlebeck we wanted to visit the waterfall, and spent about an hour meandering along the coast to coast path there. Littlebeck is a gorgeous village with a beautiful stream that wanders through pristine woods.

We then moved on to Straithes were we walked downhill and along the sea, visiting the Life Boat rescue station and it’s tiny shop. I am sorry to say that this was a hard day for me and walking back up the hill of the town was impossible. It was such a tiny place that there were no alternative ways to get up the hill, and my poor husband had to go for the car and come down as far as he could drive to pick me up. This made me sad, but we still had a lot of places to visit that day.

Whitby was our next big stop. We spent a lot of time at Whitby Abbey. These were pretty awesome ruins, but because of all the visitors, they weren’t as pristine as the other abbey and castle ruins we visited.

A note: I had read a few places that if you walk down the steps from Whitby Abbey, you must be prepared to walk back up if you’ve parked at the Abbey. This is not true. I could never have made it up, but asked at the ticket booth about ways to get back up the hill. There are two inexpensive sightseeing busses that make round trips around the town, as well as public busses from near the train station, and about a zillion taxis. We took a taxi for about 5£.

The big draw for me with Whitby was that this was the setting for Bram Stoker’s Dracula. I’m fond of that book, and as a writing teacher, I often used it for lessons and examples. I thought I would pick up some sort of a spooky vibe in the cemetery where the Count bit Lucy Westenra, but it was full of sunshine and tourists.

Whitby was unattractive; tacky shops and a bad dinner at The Magpie Café. To be fair, my husband thought his fish and chips at The Magpie were fine, but I thought they were gross. I had to use a napkin to get congealed grease off the roof of my mouth.

From Whitby we drove to the very beautiful Robin Hood’s Bay. I wish we had spent less time at Whitby and more at Robin Hood’s Bay. The entire coast was very beautiful and we enjoyed our drive.

We spent a big day visiting Ripon and Fountains Abbey. I am in love with Ripon Cathedral. This smaller cathedral was fascinating and accessible, and we found a retired staff member who was more than willing to talk at length about the ancient choir carvings.

From Ripon, we drove to Fountains. There was a medieval village encampment and we spent a huge amount of time there and exploring the extensive ruins. I was unable to walk on to view the grounds away from the Abbey, but hey, you can’t do everything. This was a great day, and I would recommend both these stops.

When we left Brickfields and Kirbymoorside, we took a route across The Yorkshire Dales, This also was a really big day.

There was more to this trip, including our time in the Lakes at Keswick, and then two fun nights in Liverpool with a dear friend..
I thought I'd get nothing up, so this is pretty good. I will answer all questions.
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Old Oct 29th, 2011, 08:59 PM
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This report really wants me to plan our next trip to the UK! Thanks.
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Old Oct 30th, 2011, 12:51 AM
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Loving your report and it's bringing back great memories of my trip to York where i also stayed at Bronte House (thought it was fine) and did most of the things you did.

I loved Ripon Cathedral too. When I was there they were having a festival of Flowers and the cathedral was full of amazing displays of spring bulbs (the flowers therefrom) The fragrance as you walked around was heady indeed.
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Old Oct 30th, 2011, 02:48 AM
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Fountains is a huge estate and I agree there can be a lot of walking involved. What did you mean by 'medieval village encampment'??
Just for any future visitors - there's a main car park with visitor centre, shop, exhibition area etc. But there is ANOTHER car park (called Westgate) which is for less abled visitors and it means you enter the abbey grounds pretty much on the level rather than struggle up and down that very steep hill from the visitor centre. You also don't have as far to walk to view the main part of the abbey.
This map shows the Westgate position - there's 60 spaces so although it's priority disabled parking you can always get parked there even if you don't hold a disabled parking permit.
http://www.fountainsabbey.org.uk/htm...g/what-to-see/
Also, if you want to see the formal watergardens (which are beautiful, with statues, temples etc) you can drive round to the car park by Studley lake rather than walk through from the abbey itself (again the map makes this clear).
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Old Oct 30th, 2011, 05:36 AM
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A most excellent job, tuscan; you include great details, and I appreciate your candor mixed with civility. I await the rest!

(I'm a literature/writing teacher, too; I'd love to compare experiences somehow--but not on your TR thread obviously. Write on!)
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Old Oct 30th, 2011, 06:31 AM
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Thanks for getting your interesting and entertaining report online. One small quibble... I'm a car fanatic and am always disappointed to read things like:

"It was really a snazzy car, much nicer than we had payed for...."

Just what make and model of car was it? ;^)
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Old Oct 30th, 2011, 01:17 PM
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Lovely trip report!

Lee Ann
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Old Oct 30th, 2011, 01:20 PM
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ttt 4 later
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Old Oct 30th, 2011, 01:31 PM
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The car: it was a Volkswagon, but not a model we have in the US. We were complimented a lot, and DH says he will look up the pictures at half time.

Medieval Village Encampment at Fountains: well, I can't describe it much better than that. There was a large group of reenactors, set up sort of like a market or fair, and they were there for a weekend, I believe. It was very complete, very detailed, and they gave lots of demonstrations and were weaving, writing, cooking, making weapons, clothes, and more. It was fascinating, and they were living in tents for the weekend.

It was the water gardens that I missed at Fountains. After Ripon and the rest of the activities that day, I was done in. I was sorry to miss them.
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Old Oct 30th, 2011, 06:11 PM
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OK, the car: Volkswagen Scirroco 250 TDi (numbers and letters may be off; I got them off a picture of the rental car).
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Old Oct 31st, 2011, 12:36 AM
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Ah, I thought you meant there was a medieval village there and(despite living very close by)I couldn't recollect one where you'd have spent lots of time! The re-enactment sounds great.
In the autumn they occasionally flood light the abbey once it gets dark, and we love to visit it then. We've also been when there's been thick snow on the ground - it looks totally magical then.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi..._-_1626793.jpg
http://www.flickr.com/photos/moonrising/4203092052/
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Old Oct 31st, 2011, 04:16 AM
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You got a Scirocco as a hire car? Very unusual to get a sports coupe like this unless you paid A LOT extra for a special group. It may not be to everyone's taste (I preferred the previous incarnations of the Scirocco myself), but it is a bit of a headturner.
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Old Oct 31st, 2011, 05:45 AM
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Wow! Not your average rental junk box... too bad you weren't comfortable with it. It would have been quick too with the TDI engine...
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Old Oct 31st, 2011, 07:26 AM
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DH was loving that car, and got a lot of comments on it. He really enjoyed driving it over the Cumbrian passes. Me, I hated the damn thing. I felt like I was sitting in the bottom of a bucket, and could barely climb out.

We rented, as usual, from AutoEurope.com, and picked the car up at the York railway station. We always get the second class from the bottom, and didn't pay any extra. I think they were out of what we rented, and had to give us what they had.
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Old Oct 31st, 2011, 08:18 AM
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I'm loving this TR but I suppose that being born in Yorkshire and living there for the first 25 years of my life, plus still having family and friends there?

Yeah, that makes me partial to the place

More please.
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Old Nov 1st, 2011, 05:11 AM
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Does chicken tikka lasagne count as British food? (get it in Iceland - the shop not the country)
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Old Nov 1st, 2011, 09:03 AM
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Does chicken tikka lasagne count as British food? (get it in Iceland - the shop not the country)>>

probably!
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Old May 14th, 2013, 12:18 PM
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Planning a trip to Yorkshire- enjoyed this report
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Old May 14th, 2013, 01:21 PM
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Saraho: it is so coincidental that you would top this today. Just this afternoon I was reading about the massacre of Jews at Clifford's Tower in York, and here is my report mentioning it.

I can't tell you how great Bricklefields was as a place to stay. One of the very nicest places I've ever been: surroundings, space, furnishings, cleanliness, comfort, food, etc. It was fabulous.
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