Ripon Canal

We arrived back home here in Ludwigsburg Thursday evening; as the bells of the nearby church struck 6:00, I put the key in my front door. It had been a rather smooth trip of just under 9 hours from Ripon, with our buses, trains and planes being mostly right on time. Usually, I am not one for seeking the cheapest option, but Ryanair are the only ones to offer a direct flight from Stuttgart to Manchester (and back, of course) these days. Also, I must say the only negative thing I can say about them is their highly inefficient way of managing the whole bag drop-off process at the airport in Manchester: First, you have to use self-service machines to weigh, check in and tag your own bags, and of course you have to queue for them. Then, you have to queue AGAIN to - get this - have your bag weighed once more by a member of staff behind the counter, from where a conveyor takes it (the bag, not the member of staff) to the people who load the plane with all the luggage.
So, queuing twice for a task that you have already performed (and you as a passenger are already checkd in anyway, seeing as you've done it online already days ago) seems a really daft way of handling things. Why offer self-service if you still need members of staff?
Apart from that, I have no complaints about Ryanair; all staff I have met so far were friendly and knew what they were doing, the plane was clean, the seats comfortable enough for such a short flight with more leg room than what you get on, say, an average Airberlin or even Lufthansa flight.

Right - back to topic!
Our walk back from Bishop Monkton to Ripon was partly along the same route along the river Ure, but then instead of walking again through Littlethorpe, we stayed on the path that leads along the two miles of Ripon Canal and ends right in the city.

Come with me for more pictures of grassy paths, flowers on river banks and so on :-)

Crab apples, I think

Renton Bridge

Back in Ripon

Sorry - couldn't get a better perspective, as the road was very busy with cars at that time

The end of Ripon Canal

This had been another great day out, with better weather than it may look in some of the pictures. Bishop Monkton is definitely I place I can imagine returning to.