For one wonderful week, my sister and I were staying at Matchbox Cottage in Ripon. The description and pictures on the website don't do it justice - it is much spacier than we had expected, and since it has been renovated only in January, it still has a fresh and modern look and feel about it, at the same time being very cosy and nice. We felt so much at home there that we really did not want to leave when our week ended.
Matchbox Cottage is part of and belongs to the same people who run Box Tree Cottages. I have posted about the B&B here; Matchbox Cottage is self-catering. It can be booked through here or here. The owners are very friendly and made us feel welcome just as they have done in the past.
A five-minute walk will take you to Ripon's market square and town hall (where the tourist info has now moved to), a further two minutes and you stand in front of the cathedral. The bus stop for buses going to Harrogate, Leeds or the Dales with their villages and small towns is just behind the market square, so you are quite mobile even without a car.
Now for the pictures:
The front of the house shows Matchbox Cottage on the far left; the rest of the building is Box Tree Cottages.
Front door and front garden:
Our own private side garden, secluded from the road and front garden by hedges:
Can you believe we never actually used it - we were mostly out during the day, and by the time we arrived back home, it had become too chilly to sit there. But if our next stay (and there definitely will be a next time!) is a bit warmer weather-wise, I can very well imagine us having some of our meals there.
Back door to kitchen and back garden:
The back garden does not belong to the cottage, but is used by the owners. But they told us that they were perfectly OK with us climbing over the little fence if we wanted to play with their two cats (something we did not take advantage of more than once or twice).
Coming in by the back door, you would see this:
The kitchen is fully equipped with stove, microwave, washing machine, dishwasher, fridge, freezer, kettle, cutlery, crockery, pans and pots and everything you need to make all your meals. One of the drawers pulls out into a small breakfast table, which we never used, because we found it so much nicer to sit in our pretty living/dining room.
Next on the ground floor are a brand new shower room with toilet and one of the two bedrooms:
And of course, there is the cosy living room with dining table, where we had breakfast and many of our other meals. We lit the (artificial) fire every night, it made for such a homely atmosphere (apart from really warming up the room).
Upstairs was my bedroom with en-suite shower room and toilet. I slept very well in that big bed!
The owners have two cats and a dog (we never heard the dog bark - everything was very quiet). The cats came visiting sometimes, but quickly lost interest when they realised we were not going to feed them. Here are Peggy and Callie:
Now you know where we've been, and where the walks you'll find spread out over my next posts have started from.
Dear All,
Last night at a quarter to eight, I shut the door to my flat behind me from inside and heaved a bigh sigh of relief.
It had been a great holiday but a rather long and tiring trip back home. To get from Sheffield to Stuttgart shouldn't take all that long, but we were on the road (or in the air) for ten hours. While still in England, everything went smoothly, and all our means of transport (taxi, train and plane) arrived and left on the spot. As soon as we landed in Germany, the "fun" began: There was utter chaos in Frankfurt at the station, with massive delays and many trains cancelled. As usual, the reasons given were varied, and information not always reliable. There had been heavy thunderstorms in the northern half of Germany, we heard, but that was the day before. Also, some trains were cancelled because of "technical issues with the vehicle" - obviously, they were not able to provide replacement trains. For a while, we were unsure about when (and if!) we would be able to make it to Stuttgart on that same day.
And while the time difference between England and Germany is only 1 hour, temperatures in Germany were well above 30 Celsius, as opposed to somewhere around 20 Celsius in Yorkshire. Although we had known about this and came prepared, it didn't make dragging luggage across the airport and train station any nicer.
Anyway! The holiday was great, it was lovely to see the family, we went for nice, long walks and hikes, saw some beautiful places and had nice meals. I brought back five books, one dress, some chocolate and other little gifts.
In a few minutes, I will leave for the office - hoping that trains today won't be as chaotic as yesterday! It will take me some time to catch up with everybody's blogs, and of course it will also take a while to write up my travel notes and choose the best out of the 300+ pictures I have taken.
Watch this space :-)
(Picture of yellow poppies from my parents' allotment, courtesy my Mum.)
After my first course week in Ulm, I told you about the Minster, which has - according to wikipedia and other sources - the tallest church spire in the world (something I still find hard to believe).
On my Tuesday evening walk during the second week at the course, I had a good view of the Minster. And finally, on the Saturday, I had enough time between the end of class and my train home to actually go there and climb the more than 700 steps to the very top, which lies at an impressive 161 m (or 530 ft).
I left my luggage in a locker at the station and walked across the busy pedestrian area (it was Saturday early afternoon, the busiest time of the week, with the market still going on) to the Minster.
There are occasions for a brief rest to catch one's breath from all the climbing (or to let people on their way down get past you), the first one being not that high up yet. I took the following picture from the first level above the ground.
Further up I went, coming round the tower to the other side with a first view across the roof.
A bit further up, and I saw the roof in its entire length.
Higher and higher, and you meet some strange creatures on the way (apart from the tourists, who sometimes are quite strange in their own ways).
The river you see here is the Danube. It divides Ulm into two cities, Ulm and Neu-Ulm ("new Ulm"). One side of the river is Baden-Württemberg, the other side is Bavaria.
More strange creatures:
Nearly there now! From this level, there is only one further leg of the journey to the top.
To get there, you have to climb up inside this "needle". It is very narrow, and there is only a very small space for people to stand and look. I did not take any pictures from there but went down again to make room for the next person.
A last good look at some of the gargoyles, and a peek at the bells. It is difficult to tell how big they actually are with nothing to compare them to, but believe me, they are huge.
This was the first time I've been up on the spire in about 20 years, and I am really glad I took the opportunity. It was a great way to end the week.
Sometime last year, while I was on one of my frequent hunts for free ebooks on Amazon's kindle shop, I came across this book and downloaded it, getting around to reading it only now.
"Invisible" is listed as "A Christian Mystery" - something I was not aware of when I downloaded it -, but it is not too much "in your face" about religion as to put you off the whole thing. Instead, her faith is simply part of the heroine's life, and it is very credible how her going to church and having the occasional religious discussion with a friend are woven into the story.
Ivy Malone is an elderly widow who finds she has to do something about the vandalism at a nearby country cemetery, since nobody else seems to be able - or willing - to. She has recently discovered that, to most shop assistants, people on the street etc., she has become as good as invisible; nobody notices a little old lady in unassuming clothes. While this bothers her at first, she soon learns to use this "invisibility" to her advantage.
What starts out as her only trying to find out who the vandals are and handing their license plate numbers over to the police for further action, develops into a full-blown murder inquiry, during which several people lose their lives, and Ivy herself gets into mortal danger, too.
I enjoyed this mystery a lot - you can, if you are so inclined, read it without taking much note of the religious elements in it - because the characters are so well described, and the way they talk and act is rather realistic most of the time.
Ivy herself is great, and the way she feels about getting older, her friendship with her closest neighbour, and the other people that are part of the cast for this story, is so well written. She is quirky enough (she sees faces in the oddly shaped vegetables she tries to grow in her garden) without being over the top. She is not "too good to be true", but not completely dysfunctional like so many modern detectives, either.
Less than half way through the book, I guessed at the true culprit behind the vandalism and how it was connected with the murder of a young woman, but the full extent of what had been going on is only uncovered as Ivy herself finds it all out.
There are tnree more Ivy Malone mysteries, according to the author's website, and I'll look for them on Amazon.
Although I went for a walk every evening after class, I did not take any pictures on the Wednesday and Thursday. During the days, it was often raining and quite chilly, but thankfully, by the time class was over, the rain had stopped and I could go out.
On either Wednesday or Thursday I took a shortcut across a field to the supermarket to stock up on snacks, and frightened a hare that had been quietly sitting there. I had not seen the hare until it dashed across the grass from me, and of course it was way too fast for me to have a chance at a picture.
As mentioned in this post, Friday was the hardest day of the week, but also turned out to be the day with the most interesting walk of the week.
I started out in the opposite direction than usual and quickly arrived at a part of the woods where I had not been going any further until now than just the first line of trees. This time, I went straight ahead on the path.
After a short stretch, the path came out on the other side of the woods, leading to a sunny field framed by more woods. Not a single person was in sight.
I had to step carefully to avoid treading on someone's house!
Past the rapeseed field in full bloom, the path led further on, back into the woods. I never knew what I was going to find behind the next bend, and all I could hear was birdsong and the faint noise of cars on the road that I had crossed at the start of my walk.
Someone had obviously been here before me!
From a distance, I could hear church bells and the bleating of sheep. I followed the sound and came across this sign on a tree. Do you know what it stands for?
It indicates that this path is part of El Camino de Santiago, or St. James's Way, Jakobsweg in German. In case you are not familiar with any of these terms, simply read what it's all about on wikipedia. I am not Catholic, or belong to any organized religion, but I liked the idea of walking, at least for a little bit, along a path that means so much to many people, and has been travelled on for centuries.
From the end of the woods, I could see the village where the sound of church bells had come from. I had already been walking for quite a while, and needed to go back to the hotel the same way, preferably before darkness (no street lights in the woods!), so I decided not to walk over to the village. But I definitely want to go there next time I'll be here, which is scheduled for the end of June.
Zooming in (or trying to!) on the sheep. There were many lambs.
Returning, I took one last picture of the rapeseed field, and went straight back to the hotel. I was quite ready for something to eat now, and my head felt much better than when I had come out of class.
