Ripon 2025 - Day 12 and The Voyage Home

Our last day in Ripon was here. Saturday (9 August) was sunny again, and still windy as it had been all week.

After breakfast, we walked to the Leper Chapel once more, knowing this time we would find it open. You've seen pictures of it both inside and out several times on my blog, and nothing has changed really, but I still took another one, just as a cloud was blown away from the sun and the inside was filled with sunlight.

Almshouses in the foreground with the Leper Chapel in the background.

We then bought a few more things for our Mum's birthday (which was yesterday, 12 August) and went back to the cottage, where my sister made us lunch using up what we still had in the fridge. It was a very nice meal, starting with soup (bought ready-made) and then a plate with watercress salad, an omelette with zucchini/courgette in it, coleslaw, goats cheese and toasted olive bread. 

After a rest, we went to say good-bye to Mary. Of course you never know what happens to any of us even just the next day, but when someone is 91, "see you next year" carries more of a realistic possibility that there won't be a next year for this person. We hugged, and when the wind slammed her gate shut and I walked back towards the house with her to open it for her (the gate is rather heavy-going), she said "one more" and we hugged again - I found this rather touching and felt a bit tearful.

It would have been nice to sit on our bench in front of the cottage with our mugs of coffee and a flapjack each, but it was too windy to enjoy sitting out, so we sat inside. 

And soon, it was time to leave for our date with our former landlady at the Claro Lounge, a relatively new restaurant in Ripon. The building used to be a NatWest bank and is very spacious inside, nicely decorated. Service is friendly, and our food and drinks were good. Of course most of all we enjoyed seeing our friend once more.

My room, as it was before packing and stripping the bed

On Sunday (10 August), my sister-in-law picked us up at around 8:15. Our train in Harrogate was at 9:15, but we always plan generously - you just never know, and we ended up not having a very long wait at the station after all, what with tractors in front of us on the road between Ripon and Harrogate.

It was a pleasant train ride directly to London King's Cross through summerly countryside.

Arriving there with a 7 minute delay meant we had just under an hour to make the short walk to St. Pancras and then start the process of border controls (first the UK one and then the French one), luggage checks and waiting for boarding the Eurostar.

We reached Paris Gare du Nord mid-afternoon and had almost 1 1/2 hours before our TGV from Gare de l'Est to Stuttgart was due. Another uneventful train ride followed; even the re-introduced border control upon entering Germany was quick and smooth: Two very young, very fit looking chaps from German Border Police rushed through our train on long legs, not wanting to see anyone's ID or checking any bags. I wonder how effectively this really stops unwanted people from entering the country, but my boss says it's all about making them feel the risk of being discovered has increased and they rather not risk it. Still, I believe that someone with enough criminal energy will always find a way to avoid being found out.

In Stuttgart, we caught the next possible train to Ludwigsburg. We said good-bye at the station, and I was home at almost precisely 10:00 pm. Phew!

From 14C in Harrogate that morning to 34C in Paris that afternoon to still around 20C in Ludwigsburg at night, we covered three countries and as many climate zones within 13 hours (not 14, since we "jumped" one hour the moment we arrived in France).

My posts will now revert back to the usual weekly reports, plus I have a few book reviews waiting to be written.

My downstairs neighbour always takes care of my plants and mail when I'm away for more than a few days... This time, she managed to let my hydrangea die :-(

Ripon 2025 - Day 11

Friday (8 August) was mostly sunny and bright. It was still very windy, as it had been all week, but warm enough to wear short sleeves under my cardigan, and a rain coat was certainly not going to be necessary.

At 10:30 in the morning, my sister-in-law came to pick us up for the drive to York, where we arrived at the Park & Ride an hour later. It's clever NOT to drive into the city itself, with its many narrow old streets and lack of parking. The P&R is good and not overly expensive; you'll always find a space, and buses into the centre go frequently.

We first had a stroll in the Museums Gardens, which were beautiful. There were of course many people about, but it wasn't too crowded. 

Once we had arranged with my niece (who lives in York) where and when to meet, the three of us went for a drink at Baileys Café not far from the park, and then on to York Mansion House.

It is a beautiful Georgian house, formerly the home of York's Lord Mayor, and still in use for ceremonial aspects of the Mayor's role. Click here to learn more about it.

The Georgian Festival was in full swing, and we spotted several people dressed in Georgian costume - the person at the ticket counter was one of them, but there were others outside in the street as well.

We explored all the rooms open to the public, including the kitchen and larder in the basement, set up as if someone had just left the room, with kitchen tools and (not real) food about.

In one of the upstairs rooms, a rack with Georgian clothes for visitors to try on was set up. One lady had a lot of fun with those and didn't seem to want to leave anytime soon, with her husband and son having retreated to some chairs and just watching her :-D

I put on a wig (very briefly!!) and my arms through the sleeves of one of the dresses, without putting it on fully:

It was then time to meet my niece, and to have a (late and very welcome) lunch - actually, it was an all-day breakfast/brunch place we went to, called rise. They had some very nice dishes; I went for Turkish eggs and had a refreshing mint and lime iced tea.

"Turkish Eggs" were poached eggs on yoghurt with harissa and other spices and herbs as well as bread.

The four of us then walked to the Merchants Adventurers' Hall, a Medieval guild hall with tons of history oozing out of its ancient walls and impressive beams. Click here for more.

Eventually, my niece went home and we made our way back to the P&R. 

You can guess why I took a photo of this sign, don't you :-)

This is for Monica!

York Minster. They now want 20 quid just to get in, unless you live locally.

All went well on the drive back to Ripon until we reached our short stretch of motorway - an accident had happened just after our exit, which resulted in us ending up in a holdup, making the journey longer than expected and having to take a detour along narrow country lanes where there'd been another accident.

But by 6:30 pm, we were at our cottage, and a few minutes later joined our landlord and -lady for cheese & crackers and drinks in their beautiful kitchen next door as a good-bye meal for us, since we were to leave the day after next.

Another great day out, with a combination of places new (to us) and old, spending time with family and friends, good food and drink.

Ripon 2025 - Days 9 & 10

I have no photos for you for Wednesday (6 August) and only a few for Thursday (7 August).

On Wednesday, our friends N & F (N is an old school friend of my late husband, and F is his wife) who had to cancel their originally visit with us last Thursday, arrived just before 10:00 in the morning. We had tea and biscuits in our cottage and caught up with each other for about an hour before walking into town.

At the Cathedral, we wanted to show them the exhibition "Threads through the Cross" which I have mentioned here, but sadly found it had ended the day before - we'd been sure that it was going to go on for quite a while, and that N & F would have really liked it. We wandered round the Cathredral nonetheless and then spent some time at its shop before leisurely making our way to Oliver's Pantry for a spot of lunch.

They left at 2:00 pm, and we each retreated to our rooms for a rest.

Friends S & N who live in Ripon, their garden backing the Ripon Canal, were expecting us at 3:30 pm. We had tea (the others) and homemade elderflower water (me) and biscuits in their garden, with their friend R (whom we had not met before) joining us. It was a nice afternoon, and later S went inside and prepared a lovely salad of watercress and other ingredients, topped with flowers from her garden, a bowl of tomato-mozzarella salad, fresh crisp baguette and olives. For dessert, her husband brought out creamy icecream with fresh raspberries - all very summerly and nice. 

We agreed to go for a walk together afterwards, and along the way N - who is extremely knowledgeable about Ripon's industrial history - pointed out many interesting details to us, mainly to do with the mills and how the water from the river Skell was put to use in the past.

At the One-Eyed Rat, we had beers (the others) and rhubarb G&T (S and myself), and the conversation was free-flowing and covering many different subjects, from serious to silly and back again. However, it was extremely noisy in the pub, and by 10:00 pm I had reached a point where I felt all chatted out and unable to listen any longer. 

My sister and I went home, and so did S, N and R.

Much as I love our friends and really enjoyed spending time with them, it had been a very intense day, and therefore my sister and I decided to make Thursday a quiet one to recover.

It was Market Day, and as last Thursday, we browsed both the stalls as well as some of the shops we had not yet been in. 

For lunch, we went to "Realitea", a small Indian restaurant we'd discovered for ourselves only last year. The food is excellent and the service friendly. The lady who owns it comes out to the tables and asks everyone how they've liked their meal. You can see Sarita's beautiful smile and learn a bit more about this place here.

A rest at the cottage followed, then coffee and a piece of Millionaire's Shortbread before we went for a walk by the river Ure. Part of the path we knew already, part we didn't.

On a pasture with cows, we saw one cow laying on her side well away from the other, even her head on the ground, which is not what cows usually do when they are resting/sleeping/ruminating. We were somewhat concerned but then saw a man approaching the cow (he kept outside the fence) and talking to her. To our relief, we saw the cow lifting her head, so we knew she wasn't dead. We walked a bit further on but saw that the path would take us too far out (and it was already evening by now), so we decided to go back. Maybe ten minutes had passed since we'd first been past the cow, and now as we returned, she was up on her feet, busily licking a tiny calf that had only just been born!!! She'd done it all on her own, with no vet or farmer present, and the little one was trying to get up already, as it should.

A man with two dogs came from the other side of the field. When he passed us, he said "I hear we have another calf!", and he turned out to be a farm hand who'd been checking on the cow about to give birth only an hour or so earlier. He said he was actually not working with the cows but with the machinery, but since his boss was away, he was on "calf duty" that day. 

It was really touching to witness the mother cow with her newborn baby, and I just wish all cows had the chance to be with their little ones as long as possible.

For our evening meal, I heated the two pies we'd bought on the market that morning and made a salad to go with it.

Ripon 2025 - Day 8

Tuesday (5 August) was only slightly less windy than the stormy Monday. It rained in the morning, but by the time we were ready to set off, it had stopped and the wind already dried most of it.

Lawrence House in Studley Roger, the hamlet at the bottom end of Studley Royal and Fountains Abbey

For the second and last time during this year‘s holiday, we walked to Fountains Abbey, arriving at the visitor centre at lunch time. 

We ate at the restaurant; the quiche was nice, but stone cold - when I went back to the counter to ask about that, I was told that we would have had to tell the lady where we ordered our food that we wanted our quiches hot… but couldn‘t she have asked us? We were ordering at the part of the counter with a Hot Food sign and therefore it wasn‘t unreasonable of us to expect hot food without explicitly asking for it, was it? Anyway, it was ok, but next year we know better.

During our previous visit, we saw the installation in Fountains Hall first and found all the background information only afterwards in Fountains Mill. This time, we watched the installation with the benefit of what we‘d learned last week.

 

Fountains Mill from the back

We were both ready for a dose of caffeine and had coffee/coke at the mill before walking on, this time taking the path on the other side of the river, and going up the slope to the part of Studley Royal that has Ann Boleyn‘s Seat, the small open temple and the octagonal tower.

View from Ann Boleyn‘s Seat

For the way back to the gate, we chose the grassy path between large old trees and coming down by the gatehouses.

Knowing that we were not going to be back for another year, I found it hard to tear myself away.

In Ripon, I went to see Mary for a chat while my sister was preparing a meal of pasta, fresh vegetables and grated parmiggiano, all very nice. The vegetables (green beans and courgette) were a lucky find - during one of our evening walks, we‘d spotted a crate outside someone‘s (very nice looking) house, with a handwritten sign that these were for free.

Just before 9:00 pm, I walked over to the market square and watched the Hornblower ceremony, a must see for me once a year. Much to my delight, the Hornblower on duty was Allison, Ripon‘s first and so far only woman in that role. I introduced her to you before; click here for that post.

After she‘d completed the ceremony, told the spectators about the history behind it and answered a few question, we chatted for another 15 minutes or so. It was really nice to see her again.

It was not yet dark on my way to the cottage. Another good day was coming to an end.