Wednesday at Fountains

Wednesday (24.07.2024) was probably the warmest day of our two weeks in Ripon. At a high of 24C, with a mix of sun and clouds and a pleasant breeze, it was a summer‘s day directly out of a picture book.

We chose that day for a walk to Fountains Abbey, as we do every year at least once during our stay here.

From our cottage to the large area that combines Studley Royal (deer park and water garden) and Fountains Abbey (the actual abbey ruins as well as Fountains Hall, Fountains Mill and a few other buildings) run by the National Trust, it takes about an hour at a leisurely pace.

St. Mary‘s, the beautiful church in the deer park, was closed for lack of volunteers.

Entrance to St Mary‘s

View from the church towards Ripon, all the way to the cathedral

another door to the church, rather narrow…

…and a much wider one.

The visitor centre has a shop we very much like and nearly always leave with some purchase or other; this time, I found a book I wanted. Next door is a restaurant where we sat at an outdoors table for lunch.

From there, we made our way to Fountains Hall, where we found the four rooms open to the public furnished differently from previous years, and new guide sheets with information about the hall itself and each room.

The gardens between the hall and the river are particularly beautiful this time of year, and the summer house (built in 1911) has always been a firm favourite of ours.

Next was the mill, with an exhibition of sketches and paintings by Peter M. Hicks. I liked some of the preparatory sketches more than the finished paintings.

The grass and wild flowers around the mill have grown very high.

On to the ruins, as impressive as always. With the wet spring and summer the area has been having, the plants on the walls are more abundant than usual. It looks beautiful but is of course not ideal for the already crumbling structures.

stairway to heaven

looking back towards the abbey

and forward to Studley Royal water garden

Before we left the estate, we stopped at the tea room at Studley Lake for cold drinks and a brownie. 

Studley Lake with the tea room to the right

Back at the cottage, it was still warm and nice enough for us to sit on the bench outside. In the garden, a set of swings had been set up since our 2023 visit, and our landlady got the swing seat out of the shed for us.

First Full Day (23.07.2024)

Tuesday was our first full day in Ripon. After the long journey, we both slept soundly in our familiar rooms, but not overly long.

The day was beautiful, sunny and relatively warm for North Yorkshire at 22C.

First things first: A trip to Aldi, which is about 15 minutes on foot from the cottage. My sister-in-law had put together a small hamper with local goodies for us, including a bag of muesli, and there were a few complimentary tea bags, instant coffee and sugar in the kitchen, but we had no milk for the muesli, no fresh fruit, no bread and nothing for any type of meal.

After having stocked up on basics, we enjoyed our first breakfast here.

We then walked the short distance to my mother-in-law‘s cottage and spent a pleasant hour sitting with her in her garden, chatting and catching up. Mary turned 90 in March and has her age-related health issues, but apart from her not hearing very well, conversation flows easily. She still takes an interest in current goings-on and has not lost her sense of humour.

Mary does not live far from the bottom of the hill with Ripon Cathedral on top.

For a late lunch, we went to our favourite eating out place in Ripon, Oliver‘s Pantry. They were busy but we still found a table in the sunny back yard. The food was as delicious and the service as friendly as always.

We then made our way back to the cottage at a leisurely pace, browsing three or four shops along the way. Coffee (me) and tea (my sister) on the bench in front of the cottage came next, and then a chat with our landlady who was just setting off for a walk.

view from the bench

A little later, we too went for a walk before I retreated to the kitchen and prepared a big bowl of salad, which we ate watching an episode of Midsomer Murders.

Ripon Road Trip

The week between the end of my last post and the start of this week will have to wait a while before I‘ll get round to writing my usual report. For now, until Monday the  5th of August, my sister and I are in Ripon, our home away from home.

I shut the door to my flat from the outside at about 10 to 8:00 on Monday morning and walked the short distance to Ludwigsburg train station, where I met my sister for the 8:05 train into Stuttgart.

There, we had almost an hour‘s time before the TGV to Paris was due. We planned it that way because German trains in general and our local trains in particular are notoriously unreliable, and we certainly had no intention of missing the TGV or arriving out of breath at the last minute.

We made use of the extra time by getting sandwiches from one of the many kiosk stalls at the station.

The TGV was on time, and it was odd to ride on exactly the same route as when I travel to O.K.‘s, until at Appenweier we took the detour to Strasbourg and then on to Paris, where we arrived at about 12:45.

Again, we had allowed ourselves plenty of room for a possible delay, much more than what is actually needed for the short walk from Gare de l‘Est to Gare du Nord (10 minutes), now made much easier by a newly built escalator (in time for the Olympics) where before there was only a long, steep stone stairway where one had to drag up all the luggage.

Border control and check-in for the Eurostar were easy and quick, and we had time for a cola before boarding the train that then carried us through the wide open French countryside, through the Euro tunnel, and directly into London St. Pancras.

Crossing the road to Kings Cross station is super easy, no steps involved. We got ourselves another set of sandwiches for the rest of the journey, and then spent the remainder of the time out in the sun on Kings Cross Square, people-watching (and of course there are plenty to watch there!) until the platform for the LNER Azuma train to Harrogate was announced.

St, Pancras

Kings Cross

We found our booked seats, stowed away our suitcases and waited for departure… which was delayed by about 15 minutes, because the train driver was delayed and so a replacement had to be found. Eventually, we set off, reaching Harrogate only about 10 minutes later than scheduled, at 8:40 pm.

My sister-in-law met us outside, and after big hugs all around, drove us to Ripon and ‚our‘ cottage, where we arrived at 9:00 pm - still in daylight!

It had been a long journey, but there had not been any problems or serious hold-ups. From the trains through France and England, we enjoyed watching the countryside pass by and observing the changes from south to north.

We found our cottage as welcoming as always, with beautiful fresh flowers from our hosts‘ garden. For us, it is the perfect home base for our Yorkshire Holiday.

a garden bouquet in the living/dining room

flowers in the kitchen

my room

Summer Weekend

This is the continuation of my previous post, which ended with Thursday, 11 July.

Friday (12 July) started off warm and sunny, but clouds were drawing in during the morning, and just after lunch time, it rained with a sprinkle of small hailstones.

With my usual pattern of work in the morning, household matters in the afternoon and getting ready for O.K. spending the weekend at my place, I wasn't paying too much attention at the weather. But in the course of the afternoon, it became darker and darker, the wind picked up, and all of a sudden my town found itself in the middle of a hailstorm - and what a storm it was! Not so much for the wind, but for the size of the hailstones; they were as large as cherries, I kid you not!

Hailstone on a saucer, as collected from my kitchen window.

The hail fell for a several minutes (I can't really say how long, but it felt pretty long for such an event). I had to shut some of the windows in spite of really wanting fresh air in my rooms. It was incredibly loud, with the hailstones clanging on the metal windowsills and against the glass. My Mum was scared that the hail would smash her attic windows in, but thankfully, nothing worse than a really messy balcony happened at her place, with torn leaves covering every surface.

My sister's car, parked on the street in front of her house, suffered hail damage as did almost all other cars parked outdoors in Ludwigsburg that afternoon. At the nearby garden center, 1,000 glass panes of their vast greenhouses were smashed to bits. Crops on the fields, vineyards and orchards suffered, and some gardens here looked very sorry for a few days with flowerheads crushed to the ground and shredded leaves.

But as far as I'm aware, nobody around here suffered physical harm - I was just glad to be inside and not on an after-work walk! O.K. was not yet on his way to me, otherwise his car would now be covered in dents, too.

He arrived at my place at around 8:30 pm, in time to spot part of a very luminous rainbow from my kitchen window:

We had a summerly meal of tabouleh, falafel and a dry white.

Saturday (13 July) was much cooler at 22C/71F, mostly sunny with a few clouds, and completely dry (which has become a rarity this summer). 

We had a late breakfast/early lunch in town at "Bubbles", our favourite café these days, watching the world go by on their way to and from the market. 

A stroll through town centre and a few shops followed, until I felt the need for caffeine early afternoon. We stopped for an espresso and then made our way through the palace grounds and the deer park to near the ruined castle above Hoheneck, where tents, tables and benches had been set up between stalls of three local wineries and a food counter.

Ludwigsburg palace grounds - always worth a visit!

That small local event had been our aim, and we had a meal there before walking on towards the ruins and down the hill into Hoheneck itself. From afar, we could hear live music, and found that there was another small local fête on the other side of the river. We crossed the river via the footbridge and had a look around, listening to the music (good musicians at the instruments but not very good singers) for a little until we felt they weren't going to get any better.

drystone wall in the vineyards

castle ruins above Hoheneck

River Neckar, as seen from the footbridge between Ludwigsburg and Neckarweihingen.

We made our way back up the hill, once more through the palace grounds and into town at a leisurely pace, stopping on the market square at the outdoors area of "my" Irish pub for a pint of cider - very refreshing after the long uphill walk through town.

North front and oldest part of Ludwigsburg's Residential Palace

Click to enlarge, and spot the ferris wheel.

It was 9:30 pm by the time we arrived back at my place - a wonderful day spent almost entirely outdoors, something I love doing in the summer.

Another rain-free day was Sunday (14 July), the day of the European Championship Final (Fußball/football/soccer). It was warm again at 27C/80F, and after breakfast, we went for a walk on the fields, visiting my Dad's and friend R's bird markers at the cemetery on the way to my Mum's, where we had coffee and cake.

Later, O.K. and I had a snack before he packed his things and started on the long drive home just after 8:00 pm. I walked to my sister's to watch the final game together - of course we were rooting for England. The game started at 9:00 pm German time.

Sunset around 9:30, as seen from my sister's.

When I walked home after the game, I was wondering where all the Spanish people and supporters of the Spanish team were - no auto corso on the main roads, just a handful of cars honking as they drove into town.

Another week gone, and just one more to go before our Yorkshire Holiday!