Ripon 2025: Day 1

Tuesday (29 July) was our first day here. Neither of us slept as long as expected after the exhausting journey, but we had a deliberately slow day altogether.

My room is upstairs. Nothing has changed in here since last year.

The view from my room towards town centre, just a few minutes on foot away.

View from the same window straight ahead to a C of E primary school‘s parking lot. The school is being closed down because there aren‘t enough students to keep it going.

View top down of the bench and table in front of our front room.

Because my sister-in-law had provided us with a starter bag containing bread, milk, butter, jam, tea, coffee, orange juice and shortbread, we didn‘t need to go out before breakfast, but could enjoy a leisurely first breakfast with a view of the road in front of the house, once we‘d rearranged the furniture to suit our needs.

 Front room as we found it; the foldaway dining table can be seen behind the armchair.

We always set the table up in front of the window and move one of the armchairs to another corner.

Food shopping was next, and a bit before 1:00 pm, my sister-in-law arrived. The three of us walked into town and arrived at Oliver‘s Pantry, our go-to place for many a meal in Ripon, ten minutes later.

We pass the Workhouse Museum on our way to Aldi.

We had a table outside and the food was as delicious as always. 

After the meal, we returned to the cottage for tea/coffee and a biscuit. Then my sister-in-law had to go, while my sister and I walked to Mary, my mother-in-law. She lives not far from the cathedral, so it didn‘t take long to get there.

It was nice to sit in her back garden and chat; her cat joined us.

On the way back to the cottage, we went inside the cathedral and were quite impressed with an exhibition of large hand-stitched images depicting Jesus‘ life. Regardless of a person’s faith (or none), the art involved in the design and making the panels is worth respecting. It is called Threads through the Cross, and you can find out more about it here.

That first view of the cathedral is always a special moment.

Back home, it was my turn to prepare our evening meal. I put together a large bowl of leafy salad with bits of cucumber, tomatoes, spring onions and feta cheese. I also made avocado on toast. A nice white wine went well with that. For dessert, we had mousse au chocolat, and for entertainment we watched two episodes of Death Valley with Timothy Spall. It‘s a six episode series with (we think) good actors and witty dialog, very much our sense of humour.

A nice first day all around.