Eversley went on a tour with our host in the morning, Stephen and I wandered around, considered going to the Yorvik Museum, but decided it would be something like a Disney experience and went to the Yorkshire Museum instead.

On the way we met up with Shaun, then Eversley, and had lunch.

Stephen did the museum and I went to the art gallery after some rest as I had a headache. The headache cleared, and I enjoyed the rest of the day.

We went back to the house at about 4.30, having had enough. Eversley let us know that she didn’t want to go to Evensong and we felt relieved that this sort of let us off the hook as well.

After a fairly early night for all, we were ready to tackle today.

In the park near the museum there were a number of birds in a display, apparently injured and undergoing rehab. But, as people were allowed to handle them, perhaps they would be too acclimatised to people to go back into the wild. Anyway, it was interesting to see this huge owl closeup. It was as big as a cat.

The photos above are just some of the sights we saw on our wanderings. There are remnants of Roman times, like the bottom part of this tower, and buildings from the different ages. The city wall is still standing, having been repaired over time, and it is possible to walk around much of it.

The river has paths along each side, though they sometimes come to an abrupt ending in restaurants, buildings or repair work.

The central part of the city is small enough to walk around and see many interesting places. Perhaps takes a bit of stamina!

We left the house in time to catch an early bus to Mytholmroyd. As the buses only run once an hour we were concerned about possibly missing our train if we went later. It meant that we had quite a long wait at the station, but Eversley and I went for coffee at the Bridge Cafe to fill in time.

As it was a bright and sunny day, waiting at the station was more pleasant than it might have been. Eventually we caught our train and made the change at Leeds for a train to York. That train actually went to Glasgow and was very comfortable compared to the Northern Line trains. We sat in booked seats which were free until after York. Stephen and I remembered this dance from our four week trip through Europe.

At the train station we had to meet Shaun, our AirBNB host. This took a little while and some messaging, but eventually we connected. He had to park his van away from the station, so got us to stand in a spot where he could pick us up. His kindness meant that we didn’t have to immediately negotiate the bus system and was much appreciated. When we said we wanted to do some shopping, he offered to take us to a large Tesco.

I enquired about coffee making when he showed us the kitchen and he said I was the first person to ask. When we went to the Tesco he bought what we call a French Press and the English call something else. It will be a valuable addition to a kitchen with everything else we could possibly need.

This is the very nicest AirBnB we have been in, really on the level of a Bread and Breakfast. It is quirky, despite the attractive decor and comfortable furniture, he has added some ‘boys toys’ with a juke box in the kitchen and odd other things around. Even the kitchen gadgets are ‘boys toys’ like the George Foreman grill. But, we love it and hope we get a chance to use some of them. When you are visiting a city as a tourist most of the time is not spent at home cooking.

There is an Evensong Service at York Minster every evening at around 5.15 p.m. After a rest we walked into town and arrived more or less just in time. But, we had to go really fast and didn’t enjoy the walk as much as we might have it strolling along.

Dinner was at a pub which boasted of being the oldest in York. Two meals shared between three worked well. It was cold afterwards and there was a bit of walking before we could find a bus to catch, plus a bit of a walk after being dropped off. Fortunately the central heating was on and the house was fairly comfortable.

Despite the comfort it was a bit difficult sleeping in a brand new environment. Still, being in such cleanliness and comfort made up for it for me. The house isn’t new, but has been newly renovated. Our host lives in a granny flat at the rear, which he built for his mother when she was poorly. He said that ‘then she got well’ and didn’t need it, so he has started using the front house as an AirBnB. The cost to us of under $50 per person makes it really good value and now that we can make coffee he will get a top recommendation from us!

The beginning of the day in sunshine as we waited at the bus stop.

Sunset on the river Ouse in York.

It was easiest to do a short video of the York Minster as we were standing so close to the building. Eversley said going to the Evensong could be our meditation time and it happened that they were celebrating Hildegarde of Bingen in the service. I have used her music for meditation in the past. The only thing was that there was a requirement to stand for some things, which meant it wasn’t as restful as it might have been after our fast walk into town. You could resist, but it seems discourteous.

Yesterday was spent packing and preparing for our trip to York, but by afternoon the sunshine was calling. We drove to a place we had seen from the road on a previous outing and when we walked up to a reservoir found that we had stumbled on a section of the Pennine Way. The walk was easy, a path all on one level, with lovely views.

Stephen had a problem with his boots when the sole gave way. We worked out that they are at least 25 years old and may not be worth repairing. Hence walking in a ‘Pennine Way’.😀

Yesterday we went to Manchester on a ‘study tour’ of local painter, L.S. Lowry. We met with a friend for lunch at The Lowry, then went into a gallery to see his paintings. We were fortunate to be at the right time for an excellent talk on his life and career as an artist.

The movie was in a cinema complex nearby, with comfortable lounge chairs, we girls put our feet up and fought going to sleep, and gorgeous screen and surround sound. Of course, the sound was too loud, but only during the adverts, not during the film.

The film is based on a stage play and set mainly in Lowry’s mother’s bedroom. He was her carer for many years and the plot explores the complexities of the toxic relationship. Mrs Lowry and son.

I suggest that if you want to enjoy the movie it is best to do some research on his paintings and career as the movie only gives a glimpse of his long life. We had thought that we should see the movie first, then do the gallery, but afterwards agreed that we did it the right way round.

We went to a very modern part of the city which looked particularly bleak on a grey day. There is some beautiful architecture in other parts of the city which we saw on our tram rides.

We ordered large coffees at afternoon tea, but were surprised at how very, very large they were. Eversley agreed to having her photo taken with the cup.

All in all, a great day, with lots of time to catch up with our friend.

The top photo was taken well after sunset at the front of our house. We have power lines aplenty in our view over the valley, it doesn’t spoil it when you are here.

We went for a walk along the road and down the hill to the Hinchcliffe Arms, then up the hill to a reservoir. We hadn’t mean to do a long walk, but the promise of something to see keep us going. Setting off at about 4.30 and arriving home at 7.00 we felt that we had really had a workout, especially as the last part of the walk was uphill.

We had lunch at a cafe, then did some shopping at the Co-op earlier in the day.

Yesterday we had good weather, mostly sunny, and took up Stephen’s suggestion of a walk along the canal from Mytholmroyd to Hebden Bridge. On the way we spent time watching a narrow boat go through a lock. At the village we walked around the main area with its cafes, pubs and second hand shops. Eversley was able to buy a small shoulder bag, with money going towards a worthy charity.

We had lunch at a pub, doing our usual two meals between three sharing.

Catching the bus to Mytholmroyd at the start of our walk and then home from HB worked well. Having bus stops close to the house is great.

Later in the afternoon Stephen and I spent time booking our little trip away. After much anxiety over what we could and couldn’t manage to do, we finally worked out that we could catch the train to and from York, stay five nights, and take bus trips to other places as well as explore the city.

I booked an AirBnB, a small house with two bedrooms, where we can self cater. Stephen booked the train tickets and Eversley experienced her first discount with the new railcard.

Stephen discovered an excellent Tourist Information Centre in HB and filled in time there whilst we waited for the bus to take us home. Eversley and I had coffee at a nearby cafe.

We didn’t do any painting or pottery over coffee, but we had a visit from this fellow/

Now, some photos from the walk.

Equal opportunity work involved in going through the lock. There were two couples travelling together, so they could both work on the lock gates, with someone on the narrow boat to drive it.

The walk was about 1.8 miles, approximately 2.5 kms, but we spent about 20 minutes watching this, so it meant it was lunchtime when we arrived in HB.

We met quite a few other walkers on the path.

No more Brexit news at the moment. Perhaps a lot of negotiating is happening in the background.

The bus that goes past our house runs from Hebden Bridge to Huddersfield and we decided to take the ride to see what it is like. The trip itself went through scenery and villages, much like our car journey, but nicer for me as I didn’t have to drive. It takes about 45 minutes. Unfortunately the emergency exit door had been tampered with and we had beeping for the whole journey. We tried to be philosophical about it and no one blamed the poor driver who had no way of turning it off.

The day was sunny and we started out by finding our way to the Information Centre located in the library. This wasn’t easy and signage was ambiguous, but we made it. We walked down to a town central square with some very impressive buildings, including a railway station. We had lunch at a pub that backed onto the station. I could see trains whilst we had our lunch.

Afterwards Stephen and Eversley went through the long process of sorting out a discount rail card for her, whilst I wandered around taking photos. There was a tourist information desk at the station so we needn’t have worried about the library. Afterwards we each did our own thing before meeting up back at the bus station. By the. It was overcast with rain developing. On the way home it was raining constantly and once again I was glad to be a passenger.

I took some photos whilst we waited for the bus. We weren’t sure where to stand as the bus stop itself was obscured by bushes. However, it all worked out.

Political Rant

We had a discussion with a man sitting next to us. We asked about Brexit and he said that people voted for it because of Asian and African migration, whilst acknowledging that this has nothing to do with being in the European Union. The first thing we had noticed was the large student population in the city which is very diverse, but he was more referencing the adults. We can’t help thinking that the English can only blame their ancestors who colonised Asian and African countries, taking the wealth home. At first migrants from former colonies were welcomed. Now people feel that they take jobs and opportunities away from locals. Taking a longer view, perhaps migrants from African and Asia are owed a good living in England.

It’s a bit like some people in the USA who feel threatened by the non white people in their midst. Thanks to the greed of slave traders and slave owners people were brought to the US against their will and white settlers made their fortunes on their backs. Again, blame lies with their own ancestors for the diversity. All that is left to do is to acknowledge what happened and that they are all simply Americans.

This is obviously an oversimplification and won’t go down well with many people. I also feel with Hong Kong that the British should never have had such a long lease, imposing an imperial structure that was outwardly democratic, but actually allowed most of the wealth to flow overseas. Expecting Hong Kong to remain as it was under the English overlords is unrealistic.

Yesterday we set off at about 10.40 a.m. to travel 15 kms from Cragg Vale through Mytholmroyd and Hebden Bridge to Haworth. We couldn’t turn the car around at the house, and went up to our usual turnout at the first road going left. At that point, Google Maps suggested taking that road. We did, and had a beautiful tour over the hill and down into Mytholmroud via small laneways. It was the long way around, but at that stage we were feeling optimistic and simply enjoyed the views.

From there, the journey went smoothly, though we noticed a ‘road closure’ sign as we left HB. There was no indication of where exactly the road closure would occur, so we travelled on until we were probably around 7 kms out from our destination and the road was closed, with both lanes blocked. There had been a sign for traffic redirection earlier, which we ignored, very silly. Later, when I checked the redirected road it only lead back to the other side of Hebden Bridge and wouldn’t have been helpful anyway.

By the time we were back at HB we needed a toilet stop. Fortunately we knew where to find public toilets at a car park near the centre. We parked illegally as the car park was full.

At this stage we still wanted to continue and decided to go via Halifax. I could see an earlier turnoff, but was wary because it was one of those small roads that go over the hills and could be quite tricky to navigage. The road to Halifax and leading away from Halifax to Haworth was a fairly easy drive, but when we encountered a roundabout I was unable to get into the correct lane. We went around twice, drove into a dead end near a rubbish disposal site, and accidentally landed on the road we had intended.

We find that Google Maps has a slight delay in giving directions and it often means that we go for a distance down a wrong road before we can correct. After Halifax we felt hungry and in need of a rest and found a Morrisons with a cafe. It was good to have a break.

The drive to Haworth was not to difficult from there, though actually finding the museum was a bit tricky, with a bit of driving on a cobbled road before realising how to get to a car park. Later we found there was a car park for the actual museum, but we hadn’t checked the town map before setting off and didn’t know about it. Just shows that in future we need to do thorough research.

We arrived there at about 2.00 p.m., having done many miles more than our original plan.

The museum is set in the parsonage where the Brontes lived and it was very interesting. The house has been described by commentators as being dark and gloomy, but our experience was that it is a very nice house, grander on the outside than I was expecting, with fairly large rooms, high ceilings and large windows. The wallpaper in a couple of the rooms has been replicated to match Charlotte’s choices, and basically the atmosphere in the house was what you would expect of such talented women, homely, yet gracious. Of course, we had a lot of sunshine yesterday, perhaps it is gloomy in winter.

The only puzzling thing is how they managed to accommodate all of the children (6) as the father and mother had a bedroom, the father had a study, the son had his own room, though that was probably when he grew up, there was a servants room and seemingly only one room for the children, with a small ‘children’s study’ attached. There were no bunk beds in those days, perhaps they shared beds and had very small beds for the little ones.

When Charlotte got married she remodelled a couple of the rooms, making a larger bedroom for herself and her husband, and making a study for her husband out of a storeroom on the ground floor. Despite all they went through with losing family members, having to work away from home, and so on, they seemed to have retained their strong spirits and went on studying, drawing, painting and writing books.

The house is located in front of a church, though it is not the actual church building they would have seen, it appears in keeping with the parsonage and rest of the buildings in the town. We also thought it would be surrounded by fields, rather than so close to village shops and pubs, but the fields are still there, behind the house and we went for a walk there later.

We visited the pub where the only boy of the family, Branwell, tried to drink himself to death. Actually, he moved on from the Black Bull after a while, perhaps it was too close to the Parsonage and too easy for his father to check him out. We were puzzled by a sign out the front which states that he became secretary of the local chapter of the Freemasons at a date well after his death. The bartender could only hypothesise that the sign had the dates wrong, by about 40 years. I wonder how many people notice it. Eversley followed up, and we confirmed to our own satisfaction that the sign was in error, about dates and about the Freemasons meeting at that particular pub.

We lingered until about 5.30 p.m., even going into a shop where Stephen and I bought hats, scarves and a dress (for me). Not quite what we were expecting to do. Stephen’s theory was that we would miss the worst of the traffic, but of course, the traffic doesn’t die down until quite late.

Having ‘tangoed’ in Halifax earlier I found a route over the hills back to Mytholmroyd. This proved as tricky in parts as I had feared. Much of it was single lane and we had to risk ditches to pass other cars. There was also the odd hairpin bend, very tricky as we would come wide around a blind corner on a downward slope. We also drove through a village with walls very close on either side, plus parked cars.

When we arrived at the main road into Mytholmroyd we quickly became caught up in the ‘lock’ where we were waiting for the change of lights further up the road where the floodworks take place. As with coming from HB, it was a very long process until we could finally get on the road up to Cragg Vale.

In compensation, our whole drive home was mostly in sunshine with stunning views across the countryside as we climbed up. Although we do feel some compulsion to take in many of the sights of Yorkshire that have been suggested to us, we are also aware that we are staying in an area of great natural beauty, with Hebden Bridge as a sort of ideal Yorkshire village. We have hills and dales and farmland and moors, forests, streams, cascades, small rivers and a canal with canal boats.

I’ve put it to the team that although I am happy to drive or be driven locally, I don’t think we should undertake a longer car journey. The road systems are difficult, whether single lane country roads or getting tangled in complicated roundabouts in larger towns. We are using another person’s car, and our hosts when they were staying in our house only used our car for shopping. We are therefore looking at train/bus combinations for our trip to York and beyond.

I didn’t take a lot of photos. We were allowed to take photos in the house, but I guess I was a bit stressed and didn’t. Now I wish I had.

The outing was very much worth the unexpected stresses of the drive to and from.

We did it for the first week, but feel we have finally mastered it, sort of. The trick is that it’s three soft syllables, no emphasis My(as in mine)-thol-royd said very fast and soft.

Yesterday was an adventure of going by train to Manchester Airport. We caught the first train to Manchester Victoria, then a special new train out. We got to our local station early because we weren’t sure we could park the car there (we got a spot) and we also wanted to print out the train tickets, but it didn’t work and we had the fun of trying to use the reader at the gate with the phone, which kept changing from portrait to landscape and messing things up. Eventually, the person on duty would just let us through.

Eversley, like us, was doing quite well despite having had very little sleep. It’s an advantage to arrive during the day. She managed to stay up until shortly after the evening meal and woke up this morning ready to do a little exploring – as long as she could get back for a nap after lunch. We went down the hill to a small valley with a church and a pub. We walked up hill for about 20 minutes before going back to the pub for coffees and a light snack.

The church and pub probably date from abound the mid 1800s, as far as we could tell. Although the person at the pub couldn’t tell us it’s age, he was knowledgable about the walks and we realised that the best walk was probably the one we didn’t take.

Then we went down to the Co op for some shopping.

There was an upper deck at the pub, which is where these dogs came from, but we couldn’t see the deck and it just looked like they had climbed on the roof.

On Brexit, the parliament in early hours of this morning voted against an early election, hoping to force Boris and his crew to renegotiate a deal with the EU. At the end of the session, when they won’t be able to meet again for six weeks, some of the members started singing and others joined – the Labour Party sang The Red Flag and the Welsh and Scottish representatives sang nationalistic songs. Anti No Brexit representatives held onto the Speaker of the House (in a symbolic way) to show their protest over the suspension of parliament at this critical time. We didn’t stay up to see the result, just caught up this morning. It’s all rather sweet, if it wasn’t so serious.

We don’t have autumn colours yet, but you can see that some leaves are beginning to turn.

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