YORK: York Minster, Afternoon tea!

A rendering of York Minster from one of their info videos.
'Minster' means a sort of mother church that establishes 
other, offshoot churches. York is also a cathedral.
Note the octagonal Chapter House left of center.

 Sa 21 May

The days are starting to feel like they are flying by...but in fact we still have a third of our vacation left. Today we drove the short distance from Helmsley to York, to return the car by noon (the car rental place closes early on Saturdays). Fortunately we were able to check-in early at our B&B (~11:15), leave our luggage there, drive to return the car, then walk back to the B&B. It's nice when theoretical logistics actually work out. 

The last bit of driving near our B&B, running a gauntlet
between parked cars. This is theoretically two-way.

I'm also really happy/relieved that everything went ok with driving. I could say more about the ups and downs of driving, and maybe I will post-trip, when I plan to reflect on a bunch of things I haven't gotten to, like My Favorite Signs. Or food. Or interactions with Brits.

York Minster

After the car return, we had the afternoon free and Doug booked us 12:45pm admit tickets to the York Minster, a famous cathedral in town. I didn't know much about it, and I was a little afraid I would feel overdosed, since we've seen a lot of churches. No worries, the York Minster topped everything we've seen so far, and then some. It is apparently one of the largest churches of its kind in all of northern Europe, and it took over 240 years to build (c.1230-1472). The pictures I include here only give a very tiny taste of what it's like.

Our tour guide. Can you spot Doug?

Note the blue and yellow prayers for Ukraine at lower right

First of all, it is enormous. The ceiling heights are breathtakingly high; for instance the central tower is 235 feet high (that's about 22 stories high), and you can look up into it. As the tour guide pointed out, you can't even appreciate that the tiny-looking tower stained glass windows are the same size as the long ones below; they look much smaller because they are so far away! 

A view up the central tower. If you
look at the top picture of York Minster
you can see the tower windows are 
long. Here they look tiny and short.

There are so many different spaces in the church as well, and each is filled with different kinds of detail and statuary. For instance there's an octagonal Chapter House, with custom-made floor tiles. There's a shrine to St. Nicholas, where all the seat cushions in that area represent The Twelve Days of Christmas. Everywhere you look there are more marvels to behold. We took an entertaining tour which illuminated some of the history and restoration work going on; it was well worth it.

A panorama that catches 7 of the 8 windows in the Chapter
House (the 8th window was behind me).

"Seven swans a-swimming..."

We also visited the Undercroft Museum in the basement, which is a surprisingly extensive museum about the history of the site before the current building: there were once Roman barracks, and after that, there was an older Norman style church, until it was rebuilt and greatly enlarged to be the Gothic cathedral which it is today. 

There is also information about the current church and its work, and its relationship to the monarchy. One of the interesting exhibits in that section had information about staff like the cleaners, who keep the church clean, and the masons, who constantly address fixes to the stonework. We were at York Minster until 4:40 or so, almost 4 hours.

Afternoon Tea

With the hearty English breakfasts we've been having (at our B&Bs), we often skip lunch but find ourselves a bit peckish in the mid to late afternoon. I was quite hungry by the time we left York Minster, and I'd also been having a hankering for trying out the classic British tea experience. As luck would have it, while many tea places require a reservation, we happened by a place that offers classic cream tea or afternoon tea all day long, as well as regular food options, too. The hostess said she could seat us after a short wait. So we got in the 'queue' and fairly soon were seated.

It was a fortuitous choice, because it was clearly a place that knew how to do tea, but it was more casual than the places were you have to make a reservation for a particular 'sitting'. We each ended up with a lovely afternoon tea: 4 savory finger sandwiches, a large scone, 3 lovely desserts, plus of course, tea. I noticed that of the five tables near us, four of them were having tea, too—three the same kind of more elaborate tea as ours, and one was having a simpler cream tea (tea and scones only).

Next Post

There's a number of possibilities for the next couple of York days—walking the city walls, a replica of a Victorian street, a railroad museum. Who knows what tomorrow will bring?

By the way, helpful Beloved Son tells me that the strange animal pictured at the end of yesterday's post is a specimen of Highland cattle.

What is wrong with this sculpture, can you tell?

Doug looking very picturesque by the window in
our top floor room. Note the lovely blue wallpaper.
Every place we've stayed has had wallpaper.

HELMSLEY: Lots of driving, ocean, a scar, abbey ruins

We went from E.Keswick to F.Far Arnsdale (to see
the Atlantic Ocean) to G.Gorsdale Scar, to H.Helmsley

Fr 20 May 2022

Driving through the countryside

We spent much of today's rainy day driving through the English countryside, on the eventual way to Helmsley. I think Doug deserves a medal for his driving today. I thought it was already hair-raising enough to be on the left-side of the road in general, and to cross opposing traffic on right turns instead of on left turns. Today's driving on tiny country roads took my road anxiety up a notch (and that's just as a  passenger). 

This photo gives some sense of the narrow 
clearance; some roads were narrower than this...

Imagine, you are on a tiny, single-lane road, between immovable stone fences, going at a reasonable clip (~30mph) around curves and over hills. You never know when all of a sudden a car will appear, coming right at you. You each squeeze over as far as you can to your side of the road, and fortunately (for us, today) manage to just pass by each other with a few inches to spare. Sometimes, wisely, one car stops until the other one has gone safely by. I totally understand now why most English cars are so small! 

A few roads were so narrow that they provided passing pull-outs every now and then, to help cars get by each other. We simply lucked out on those roads, with having no traffic, and never had to resort to trying to find the pull-outs. But in general, there's not convenient places to pull off of these roads—as I mentioned, in many areas there's a STONE fence on each side of the road, so you can't simply pull off the road if you want to stop for some reason. 

On the other hand, the English countryside is lovely—very green, and full of sheep and stone fences. I really enjoyed all the crazy town names; I'd hoped to list some for you, but only have time for one now:

Ocean

Doug had a hankering to at least glimpse the ocean from England, so we took a detour down from the Lake District to go to Far Arnsdale for a quick glimpse of the Atlantic. It was a bit disappointing, I think for Doug, though we both dipped our hands in the water, to touch the ocean. And I got to use some nifty pay toilets there.

Gorsdale Scar

From the coast, Doug next drove us to see the Gorsdale Scar, an impressive limestone ravine with two waterfalls spilling into a stream. He thought we should see something in the Yorkshire Dales National Park, plus it was also a good way to break up the driving.

Abbey ruins: Rievaulx, Byland

We barely made it to the Rievaulx Abbey ruins before closing (actually we were one minute late but they took pity on us and let us in). The Rievaulx and Byland Abbeys were both started in the 12th century, for Cistercian orders of monks. They were clearly once beautiful, majestic buildings, but both were vacated and largely destroyed during the years after King Henry VIII's Suppression in 1538. The first four photos are of Rievaulx, the next four are of Byland (the sun came out briefly at Rievaulx, then it got cloudy again). They were a sad reminder of a very different time.

Kudos to Doug

I want to put in a good word for all of Doug's planning and logistical arrangements! It takes a lot of work to figure out what to do and where to stay, if you're on your own and not part of a group tour. At least now there's Google maps to help with the navigating, but it's still a lot of work to make all the itinerary choices. He's done a wonderful job, and it's thanks to his efforts that I have the time and energy to write this blog. (Rick Steve should get a shoutout, too—we use his guidebook a lot.)

Next Post

Tomorrow we make the short trip to nearby York and return the car by noon. The rest of the trip, going to London after sightseeing in York, will be by train. I will be both relieved and sorry to part with our little orange Vauxhall stick shift!

Not sure what these are, but there were two of them,
right by the road! 

KESWICK 2: Pencils!! Our 3rd stone circle

World's largest colored pencil!
(almost 26 feet long, 984 lbs.)

Th 18 May

PENCILS!!

I am a lover of writing implements and stationery in general. As you might imagine, I was thrilled to find out that there's a Pencil Museum in Keswick. The story of pencils goes back to the 1500's, when some shepherds in Borrowdale (~three miles from Keswick) found graphite clinging to the roots of an upturned tree. They found the graphite was useful for marking sheep. By the 1800's pencil factories started springing up all over. Keswick built its first one in 1813. but had 13 by 1829. The current factory  makes "Derwent" fine art pencils (Derwent is also the name of the lake here, Derwent Water); I actually own a set of those, but I never realized they came from England.

The Pencil Museum was great. It told of the history of pencils, the details of how pencils are made, and various stories about famous pencils, including a special spy pencil made during World War II that contained a rolled up map and a tiny compass. The intent was to give soldiers ending up in enemy territory a chance of finding a way out. Doug and I were both given a pencil as our ticket into the museum, and a 20-question quiz sheet on a clipboard to answer as we went through the exhibit. Doug aced it; I got one wrong, but we both got a little reward–a paper tag that can be colored in with colored pencils. 

The Castlerigg Stone Circle

There is a stone circle near Keswick, which is potentially some 5,000 years old. Like the one at Avebury, this one is known about but not famous like Stonehenge, so you can walk right up to the stones and lean on them. There's no admission fee or visitor center. We sat at the foot of one stone to have some snacks; I might have felt it was sacrilegious but lots of people were sitting on or against the stones. It's nice to be closer to the stones; of course the downside is that it's almost impossible to get a photo without people in it, if that's your aim. 

The setting of the circle is quite spectacular; it's on a raised mound in an isolated setting surrounded by mountains. I can see how it would have been chosen as a special, ceremonial place. We walked there from central Keswick, and planned on walking this old railway track back, but in the end it was too much walking just to get the railway track region, and we opted to take a bus from Threlkeld back to Keswick.

Internet problems

I was originally going to have one more section for this day—we spent a long time in a local grocery store, and it was interesting to note the differences. But thanks to internet problems, I'm going to skip that topic for now... maybe will circle back later.

Next Post

Tomorrow we move on to Helmsley, a stopover on the way to York.

More sheep. There are lots of sheep!
They often have red or blue splotches on 
their fur; presumably some kind of ID.

KESWICK: Boating, hiking, giant hands

We 18 May

The answer to yesterday's questions:

• California is 3.25 times the area of England: 163, 696 square miles to England's 50,346.
• England has 1.4 times as many people as California: 55.27 million (as of 2016) in England, 39.56 million (as of 2018) in California

I knew California was longer than England (e.g. it takes more time to drive its length), but I didn't realize it was more than three times the overall size! 

Weather and light

Weather here is unpredictable, but fortunately in a way which has blessed us so far. This week was supposed to be rainy; on Monday there were thunderstorms predicted for the Cotswolds. We never had thunderstorms fortunately, and while we did have rain on Tuesday (our mostly driving day), today was another glorious day—warm enough and sunny. It's rainy now, at night, but tomorrow promises to be at least partly sunny. Though I certainly don't trust the weather reports much here! Things change too much.

Another bonus on the trip has been how long the days are. We didn't think about the fact that England is more than 10º further north in latitude than Menlo Park—that means it gets more hours of daylight. It's light here from 5am to 9pm! 

Sunset at 9:17pm, taken by Doug from our room

The Lake District (where we are)

The Lake District is a mountainous National Park area in northwest England that contains multiple lakes; it is also a World Heritage Site, as of 2017. It's a popular recreation site within England, where people can go to relax and hike and see lovely scenery, much as people like to go to Lake Tahoe in California. It's also been a favorite spot for various well-known writers such as William Wordsworth, John Ruskin, Beatrix Potter. At breakfast this morning, we had a pleasant chat with a British couple from Leeds; this is their 9th trip to the Lake District. 

Taking the ferry, doing the popular Catbells climb

Keswick, where we're staying, is right next to Derwent Water (a lake); it was only a short walk from our B&B to get to the ferry jetty. We rode the ferry from Keswick to Hawes End, knowing that from there we could climb Catbells. We climbed up close to the top; it was a steep, scrabbly climb but not as difficult as I feared. You were often clambering on semi-organized rocks, so your footing was more stable than it can be on dirt trails. Also it was easy to find corners to stop and rest for a bit, and the scenery was beautiful all the way up (no trees to block the view). From the point we reached, you could even see another lake off in the distance; the views were glorious.

Doug at the Keswick jetty

View from Friars Crag, along the shore

Search for the giant hands

After the Catbells climb, we walked some lower trails for awhile, in part searching for the Giant Hands. The couple at breakfast had told us about some Giant Hands at the part of the lake where we were going. They were created in 2002, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of that area being bought by Britain's National Trust as public land. Unfortunately, since they are made of wood, they are rather worse for the wear at this point. Still it was exciting to find them.

Waiting for the check...

At the Packhorse Pub

Mostly I haven't bothered to post about food, not because there aren't things to say, but because it would take too long to write about everything. Maybe I'll do some summary food comments towards the end. One thing I thought I'd mention now, though, is how long it takes to get the check in a restaurant! For some reason, restaurants don't seem to be in any hurry to turn over their tables. Tonight I timed it and we still hadn't gotten a check 20 minutes after we'd already confirmed that we were done and not ordering dessert. We had to ask for it. Often, even after we've gotten a check, we have to wait again for a server to come with the portable card reader so we can pay. It's a little frustrating, when we're used to being able to leave more promptly, but we're learning to make a point of asking for the check early on. 

Next Post

Tomorrow the plan is to visit the stone circles in this area, and hopefully also the pencil museum!! 

Saw LOTS of sheep today