Stephen had a thought to visit the neighbouring village of Todmorden. To travel there we caught the bus to Mytholmroyd Train Station. Stephen had a hair cut nearby, then we caught the train. As the train was arriving our payment for tickets at the machine failed for some reason, but we got on the train thinking we could could buy them from the conductor. The conductor ignored Stephen’s signal and went and sat with the driver and we didn’t actually pay for the ride of two stops.

At Todmorden it was raining fairly consistently. Eventually we gave up waiting for it to ease off and went down the road to the Visitor Centre. We have noticed the Town Hall from the train and there are some other interesting buildings in the town as well.

We had timed our visit well and arrived on their monthly market day, so had a wander around the indoor and outdoor stalls. The food stalls were tempting, but there wasn’t much seating indoors and none outdoors, so we went to a local cafe recommended to Stephen at the visitor centre. There we had a full English breakfast, shared between two of us for £5, a bargain as there was lots of food. Hot chocolate went well with a rainy day. It wasn’t cold enough for getting a bit wet to be a problem.

We left earlier than planned as the rain did not look like clearing in the slightest. The bus was closer than the station so was our first choice for getting to Hebden Bridge. As we boarded the ticket machine wasn’t working and all of us who got on at that point were told to sit down without paying.

Eversley had chosen the Hebden Bridge Library as her place to visit for the day. We joined her in a rather nice upstairs section with comfortable sofas where we could pretend to read whilst we actually napped.

Our plan had been to have tea at a Trades Club, but when Eversley checked it out she found it not really comfortable and very noisy with a brass band practising. Instead we went to a very nice pub and shared our usual 2 between 3 to have an interesting and varied two course meal, with cider to drink.

Then it was back to the bus stop and home.

Today is a day of cleaning and packing in preparation for our departure tomorrow morning, but we will take the car out later to fill with petrol for our hosts and do some last local sightseeing.

When we arrived at the station the ticket machine was out of order. Someone suggested that we photograph the out of order notice to show officials when we arrived in Leeds. So we did.

When we arrived and went to buy our tickets we were told that many of the machines were out of order due to the heavy rain. We were charged £5 each for our return journey, possibly a special price due to the problem.

Stephen wanted to visit Leeds because he had been told that there are wonderful Indian restaurants there. He checked out an special exhibition celebrating 300 years of immigration in the city museum and E and I thought it sounded interesting, and indeed it was. But, we didn’t go to an Indian restaurant, basically because we don’t like spending a lot of money on lunch.

We went first to the gallery/library where there was a Visitor Information Centre. First after tracking down a Three shop to get vouchers to top up our mobile accounts. It took a bit of searching. We had a look at the gallery as well.

The city has some impressive public buildings. Unlike York, they are mixed in with modern buildings of varying styles. It is still a city with great cultural diversity and we felt quite at home, of course, since this is what it is like in Perth.

I noticed some kids with health problems as we walked around, and I think there may be a children’s hospital in the city.

There was some rain during the day, but not enough to get us wet. We took a walk to the river and canal before catching the train home. The river runs under part of the station. The canal has the usual collection of canal boats, but there was one that was unusual.

At the bus stop in the morning we ran into a local woman we have met before at the bus stop. We will miss her as it is nice to have contact with one of our neighbours.

In fact, we explored lots of options of a day or overnight trip in the Yorkshire Dales, and it was just too challenging in terms of transport and finding accommodation that wasn’t really expensive. This morning, we concluded that there were things to explore in our local area.

First, we drove up a road we have been on before with the idea of stopping a few times to look at possible walks (all downhill, with a promise of uphill later), but mainly to enjoy the views.

Then, we drove further on to Hollingworth Lake in Smithybridge. The walk around the lake is probably about 4.5 kms. We stopped at a cafe to enjoy a light lunch, then on return to the start of our walk we had a cafe visit for tea, coffee and cake.

I was able to get lots of photos on that walk as well. The last time we went to the lake we only walked part of the way and it felt quite an accomplishment to walk all the way around, including past some wetlands. The day was cloudy, but it didn’t rain until after we got in the car to drive home at about 2.30 p.m.

We’ve identified another possible walk, with parking on the side of the road and a path that stretches across the moor (not up or down). We have a bit more local exploring to do in the next few days before we leave here on Sunday morning.

The image at the top was taken yesterday in Vienna as we walked through a park.

Today we got up early, for us, and travelled by train to Dresden. We felt anxious each time we boarded a train because we didn’t reserve seats and knew there would only be a few left over. We caught two trains and were lucky both times to find seats together.

We came through some interesting scenery, especially just over the border from the Czech Republic. The area is the Saxon Switzerland National Park, which has karst formations similar to those we have seen in China. We were travelling along the Elbe River. Of course, we could only see a little part of the National Park from the train.

We napped on the train, but have arrived here very tired and ready for an early night. We had lunch in Prague as we had enough time between trains to find a proper restaurant, but have only had a light supper of things we had in our food pouch, plus bread, milk and butter that we bought at the station before boarding our tram. We are located out of the city in a tiny home at the side of our hosts’ house. It’s delightful, and I will take some photos in the morning. With low ceilings and lots of wood we really do feel that we are Hobbits.

And just a couple of photos of our tiny home.

We have travelled from Vienna, through the Czech Republic to Dresden today. We are not sure of the distance, but it must be a few hundred kilometres. Perhaps that is why we feel so tired.

Some better photos of our little Hobbit house. The only place for a couch is in the bedroom, which is larger than the living room. I haven’t included a photo of the couch, it is where I’m sitting to write this update.

from Lucerne to Vienna by slow/fast trains.

Our plan yesterday was to walk over the covered bridge and to visit the Wagner museum. We achieved both of these things. We had a leisurely waking up and didn’t leave our little apartment until about 11.30 a.m. After wandering around and going over the covered bridge, we had a healthy lunch at a cafe, very expensive, and then set out for the Wagner museum. It is in a house he lived in for about 5 years, now in an outer suburb of Lucerne.

The house is beautiful and although I didn’t go through the museum I did get to go inside to the WC and noticed how lovely and gracious the rooms were and how easy the stairs were. They had a very gradual gradient which would have made living in the four story house very easy.

I stayed outside in the courtyard where there was a kiosk and tables. One coffee and my book (on iPad) kept me happy until Stephen finished. We decided to walk back to the town centre along the river. There were little signs of humans with backpacks or help us follow the path around yacht clubs and parks.

Back near the station we found celebrations of the Swiss National Day (which is actually today) in progress. We had a beer and sausage and sat back to enjoy the proceedings.

Later, we walked by the river and up to the battlements to enjoy the view. We found our way to the nearest bus stop and got home by about 9.00 p.m.

Just a few more photos from the day, including the motorhome called ‘Home Car’.