I was sooo
disappointed with last nights dinner.
Why so? Well, on
the menu it said apple crumble for dessert, and I love a good apple
crumble. But by the time we got to dessert time, it was all gone.
Never mind.
And the
entertainment last night was bingo again, so we spent the evening
chatting with out mates again.
So there we were
on the bus, oops I mean coach, again at . 0930, bright eyed and
bushy tailed. On the way to our first stop of the day we drove
through several small country villages called Rimmington and Gisburn,
and no I haven't spelled it incorrectly, it really is Gisburn. Past
fields populated with black faced sheep, shades of the kids animated
programme called Shaun the Sheep. We also spotted some highland
cattle all orange and shaggy.
The country town
of Settle was our first stop, and a bit chilly it was too. We were
well rugged up though, and enjoyed our walk around. First heading
for the church we had seen on the way in. The blackened exterior hid
a modern makeover, and though I do think things need to move with the
times, we do prefer our churches untouched. With only an hour in this
little town, and feeling bit chilly around the ears, we ended our
visit here in the Singing Kettle teashop with a Latte and a piece of
fruitcake.
The run through
more rolling countryside through towns like Giggleswick, Hellifeild,
Thoby, Earby, Fouridge and Ramsbottom had us wondering about the
origin of the names. Unfortunately the answer will have to wait until
we get back to London and so, called normality.
Next stop was
Skipton, another town built out of the grey local stone which with
today overcast sky made it appear rather monochromatic, but not as
cold as is was earlier but then it wasn't as windy either. As usual
we made for the closest church, but the doors were locked. The
Churchyard had been cleared of stones, which had been arranged around
the perimeter wall. We walked around them reading the names and
dates. So many of them with several children in the same family,
dieting at different times. It must have been terribly hard to lose
just one child, let alone three or four or even five.
Somewhere in
town we'd heard that there was a castle, but we knew there was a
canal running through Skipton and it didn't take us long to locate it
and begin our walk along the banks.
It is a fully functioning canal
and there were quite a lot of colourfully decorated longboats moored
along the banks. These old waterways operated like our modern
motorways and it is amazing to think that they were dug by basic
manpower, just muscle and shovel. The autumn-clad canal sides made
for a very pretty walk that we both enjoyed, and it was good to
stretch the legs after sitting in the coach.
As the coach was
manoeuvrings its way through the tiny streets to where it was parked
I'd spotted a sign pointing to the Craven Museum. Now this is the
family name one of my cousins who has fairly recectly begun to
search her family tree. What I didn't realise is that Craven is the
name of an area, not a family name.
However that didn't deter us from
visiting. It was exciting, well for me at least (The Man thought it
was a bit ho-hum) that on display in the museum is one of the very
few Shakespearian First Folios on public display. I wont bore you
with any details, but if you are interested I'm sure Mr Google will
be able to help you out.
After all that
we just had time to call into a local store and buy ourselves a
sandwich to eat on the drive back tot eh hotel.
The journey has
been nice and quiet because one of the pair of Indian ladies behind
us decided not to come on the excursion today.
Tomorrow we have
to be up a tad earlier than we have been as the driver wants all the
cases loaded by 0830.
No comments:
Post a Comment