Today our little diesel Mercedes headed west through the Yorkshire Dales. We began to notice slight subtle differences as hedgerows turn to stone walls and old stone houses are smattered with the occasional white washed house. We still see sheep everywhere. We came upon one sheep and her lamb who caused quite a stir by jumping the stone wall right into the road with on-coming cars.
I guess for Yorkshire sheep the grass is always greener on the other side of the road. This grass is certainly greener than any grass in my neighborhood. As we approached the idyllic town of Bedale we came across a saturday English tradition... The Car Boot Sale. We call them flea markets but they seem more festive and a real community event. We often get the bug to sort through antique stores so with a spring in our step we headed up the hill to the sale.
As you can see from the picture they really do use cars. This enterprising saleswomen used the Boot, the Bonnet and everywhere else on the car. I of course can't resist a sale and I was able to find a english coffee mug for my grandson's mug collection and an old wood molding plane for my collection of old tools, The planes were selling for 3 pounds, about five dollars. Had I been home I would have bought her whole supply as they were beautiful as you can see in the next photo. By the way, all you collectors of coronation mugs (Michael Smith); they were available for 50p a piece. My only problem with my purchase is how am I going to get my plane on the plane? A little Blog Humor...
Speaking of humor, Julie is in heaven each evening as she is getting to watch BBC 1,2,3 and 4. I do say they have some bizarre programming that would not fly back home. We watched one night "Clergy Telling Jokes". Real clergymen from all over England stood in front of a blue screen and told their best joke. It was an hour of church jokes with a few off-color ones thrown in. Very funny but definitely strange.
Our next destination was the town of Middleham and the castle ruins of the home of Richard III (You know the hide and seek champ they recently found under the parking lot in Leicester). The castle was a unique ruin because the walls were somewhat intact and you could imagine life going on there. You can see the smoke stained stone of the kitchen ovens, cooking fireplaces and the original granite counter tops. We followed our guide leaflet and stood in the grand hall pictured below.
Julie had a strange fascination with the number of toilets in the castle. This should have not surprised me living in a house of two occupants with five bathrooms. The toilets emptied into the moat and provided an early form of chemical warfare. When a soldier waded through the moat, no doubt with scratches and cuts from his profession he would be sure to get infected and later die. The toilets also served as closets. You would hang your robes over the loo so that the rising ammonia vapors would kill the lice you collected during the day. Here's Julie at a 3 hole water closet - no doubt men's, women's and handicapped.
Having discovered all the bathrooms, we left the beautiful ruin and wandered our way back to our last night in York. As I sit reviewing our day I am snacking on a very tasty Wensleydale Cheese (of Wallace and Gromet fame) and a bottle of Durham Bitter. Tomorrow we pack up and move to our next location in Kenilworth to explore the midlands and visit with Julie's brother and her auntie. We recommend a visit to this county of Yorkshire; history, beautiful countryside and very friendly people, who are happy to converse with you in pubs, tea shops and guest houses.
LOVE! Reminds of some spots in Ireland that we visited. By the way, I do believe that you could write a travelogue book. I would buy it! Hugs to you and Julie.
ReplyDelete