Ripon and Ripon Cathedral have featured on my blog many times, and if you have seen similar pictures in previous years, bear with me - I promise there will also be pictures of places I've not been to before.
But since one of the first things we did on the day after our late arrival in Ripon was a walk round the market square and to the cathedral, these are the first pictures after yesterday's post you'll get to see.
Even if a visitor is not religious, I guess the cathedral will not fail to impress - its sheer size and beauty is awe-inspiring. What I like most about it, though, is the "lived in" atmosphere. Unlike many grand old churches in Germany, which feel like museums where you don't even dare speak properly but just whisper, there is always something happening in the cathedral.
There are Welcomers near the entrance, greeting everyone friendly and answering questions or, if you wish so, just let you wander at will.
People go about whatever business they have in the cathredral; they may be members of the choir, or setting up things for the next service, preparing an exhibition or work behind the scenes for the community.
See the illuminated hand above the archway connecting the main nave with the choir? I find that hand a bit spooky and wasn't sure what it was there for, but an information sheet told us it is a wooden hand that can be moved by a mechanism and was used to conduct the choir. Apparently, it still works, but nowadays the choir is conducted by a person.
Of course, those of you who are familiar with Lewis Carroll and his work know that apparently, he was inspired to write how Alice went down the rabbit hole and ended up in Wonderland while looking at this carving on one of the choir stalls. You can see a bird of prey catching one rabbit, while another one is just disappearing down a hole.
No matter how many times I've been already to Ripon Cathedral, I still find details I've not noticed before, or can't remember from previous visits.
For instance, the sad story of this little boy was touching; I thought of the grief his parents must have felt, mirrored by many, many other parents who have lost a child:
You know I have a "thing" for doors and doorways (see this post for an explanation), and of course there are many to be found at the cathedral. Here are two of them:
The cathedral has, by the way, a rather good gift shop where one can buy not just "churchy" things (which I wouldn't buy anyway, as my faith is not in objects), but a good collection of greeting cards and many other things, mostly related to Ripon and Yorkshire. Buying a little something there helps to keep this place up (at York Minster, for instance, visitors are expected to pay 10 pounds to look round!), and so we both spent a little bit of money at the Cathedral.
It was our first but not our last visit to this beautiful place in the course of our holiday.
Hello dear readers,
Yes, I am back - back home (last night), back at the office (first day today), and "fully" back at blogging after my brief foray into "live" blogging.
The 680 photos I took during the last 2 weeks have been transferred from camera to computer, and sorted; quite a few were deleted because they were either not what I wanted, or because I took several shots of the same situation just to make sure I got at least one of them right.
Still, there are more than 500, and I wonder just how many I can pester you with over the next weeks!
Let me start with Matchbox Cottage, the wonderful self-catering holiday home in Ripon my sister and I have rented now for the third year in a row.
My bedroom (upstairs, with en-suite shower and toilet):
Front door; second picture here shows the upstairs window to my room:
View from front door:
Front room/living/dining room:
Our private garden, tucked away nicely behind high hedges:
My sister's room:
Kitchen (you wouldn't have guessed!):
The 2014 pictures are here and the ones from 2015 here. Hardly anything has changed this time, but in my bedroom (upstairs) new carpet was laid. As before, everything was spic and span when we arrived, and our kind hosts had provided us with some groceries to tide us over until we'd get a chance to go food shopping.
Now you've got the scene all set for our Yorkshire Holiday 2016!
We'll be packing our stuff tonight so that we're ready to leave the cottage tomorrow morning just after 7:00 - that will be the start of our journey home to Germany which will probably take us about 12 hours altogether (provided there won't be any significant delays for our trains and the flight!).
It was another beautiful day in Ripon today, sunny most of the time, with some big fat clouds there but plenty of wind and not a single drop of rain.
We took it slow and leisurely as tomorrow will be rather exhausting. Went round the shops at the market square and into the cathedral one last time, where we found there were the flower arrangements of the Ripon Flower Club on display. This picture (my sister took it with her mobile) was the winner of the theme "Summer Palette":
If you look closely, you can see there are strawberries (top) and apricots (far right) in the arrangement.
Did you know today was/is "World Cat Day"? To honour it (just kidding - we don't "do" such days, really), my sister took this video of the friendly cat who lives in the neighbourhood and has been visiting us nearly every day for the last two weeks:
And here's me last night, your very own Live Blogger! (Don't mind my hair - it does not look like that normally.) The picture was taken while I was writing yesterday's blog post about Harewood House.
"See" you soon again, with tons of pictures from our Yorkshire Holiday!
Just a quick "live" update before I go to bed - and probably the last of my "live" posts anyway, as tomorrow is our last day here.
Tuesday morning will see us on our long way back to Germany, and right now I find it hard to believe I will be sitting at my desk at the office on Wednesday morning again.
Today, we took the bus from Ripon to Harewood and revisited Harewood House.
We went there last year, but the day then had been so rainy that we focused on the house itself (which was impressive - see last year's blog posts; simply type "Harewood House" in the search box in the top left corner of my blog if you like) and ventured out in the gardens only very briefly.
It was very windy today, but sunny and dry, and so we were able to thoroughly explore the gardens. Many more pictures will be on my blog over the next weeks; for now, here are some my sister took with her mobile:
Admittedly, as much as I liked the gardens today (and the house last year), I think Harewood House and everything it entails is overpriced - especially if you compare it with places such as Fountains Abbey.
Admission to the grounds (and NOT the house!) is 12,50 pounds per person. If one should feel inclined to take a tour on the pleasure boat on the lake, that adds another 3 pounds. Go for some explanatory talk in the house or garden and they charge you again. Worst of all - try and have some tea and a sandwich, and you'll very easily not only be around 8 pounds poorer (5 quid for a bit of cheese between two slices of very ordinary bread...?) but also have wasted at least half an hour just waiting to be allowed to place your order.
Wasn't the original idea of self-service tea rooms that to speed up the process and not have people wait for waiters and waitresses? Well, at Harewood House, they seem to think it takes two inexperienced girls to make one cappuccino (not for me nor my sister, but for someone in front of us in the queue) while the rest of the customers in the queue wait... and wait... and wait.
On a fine Sunday in high season (school holidays!), places like that should have staff who know their business. And looking at the money they want for even the tiniest bit of food, they should be very well able to pay professionally trained people.
That apart, we did have a nice day out and enjoyed the beautiful gardens, but will definitely not return to Harewood any time soon.
Today was special in that we travelled through three dales in one single day: Nidderdale, Wensleydale and Wharfedale.
In case you don't know what I am talking about: The Yorkshire Dales are one part of Yorkshire (England's biggest county) and were established as a National Park in 1954. Of course, the Dales themselves have been around much, much longer!
This description taking from the website www.yorkshiredales.org.uk sums it up nicely:
"...some of the finest limestone scenery in the UK, from crags and
pavements to an underground labyrinth of caves. Each valley or 'dale'
has its own distinct character, set against expansive heather moorland
tops.
Stone-built villages sit amongst traditional farming
landscapes of field barns, drystone walls and flower-rich hay meadows,
and show how the area has been shaped over thousands of years by the
people who have lived and worked here.
Spectacular waterfalls and
ancient broadleaved woodland contrast with the scattered remains of
former mine workings and other rural industries which remind us of the
area's rich industrial heritage.
Together, nature and people have created a special landscape of immense beauty and character."
I couldn't agree more - beauty and character, and LOADS of both!
Today, as I said, we travelled through three of the many dales (about 10 "main" ones and a number of smaller ones). Ripon, where we are based, is at the edge of Nidderdale. My sister-in-law and my niece kindly sacrificed their day off and took us by car all the way to Hawes in Wensleydale, where Wensleydale cheese comes from - made famous last but not least through "Wallace and Gromit".
You'll see much more about Hawes and the creamery (where the cheese is made) here on my blog when I'll be back home in Germany, where I can transfer the pictures from my camera to the computer.
For now, here are two pictures my sister took with her mobile phone from the car park near the creamery, overlooking Wensleydale:
My sister-in-law chose to take us back to Ripon on a different route, along Wharfedale and through picturesque small towns and villages (such as Kettlewell and Grassington), back into Nidderdale and through Pateley Bridge.
Stunningly beautiful scenery made it a most pleasant drive along the country lanes and roads, some of them so narrow two cars can hadly pass each other.
Now we're back at our cottage in Ripon, ready for a quiet night in, settling in front of the telly to watch "Lewis" and have some genuine Wensleydale cheese with crackers for tea.
The weather today was ideal for a nice long walk or hike - not as unstable as yesterday, when it was sunny one minute and belting it down the next.
We decided to follow a suggested route we found in our cottage among the many leaflets and brochures placed there for visitors by our landlord and -lady. The route lead us out of Ripon along Whitcliffe Lane past farms and across fields, around Fountains Abbey (or through the estate, if we wanted) and back to Ripon.
A place I had neither been to nor heard about before was How Hill. On top of the hill is an abandoned chapel that was originally dedicated to St. Michael. According to what I found on the internet, there was a chapel at this place already around the year 1200. About 500 years later, in the early 1700s, the chapel had long fallen in disuse and must have been in a rather sorry state. John Aislabie, the man who then owned a lot of land around Ripon (including the site where Fountains Abbey's ruins stood), decided to make it part of his garden scheme at Studley Royal, which you have seen a few times already on my blog (and will see again when I am back home and can transfer the pictures from my camera to the computer).
Today, at the bottom of How Hill is a cluster of holiday cottages run by the National Trust. There is also a farm, and the hill is full of sheep... and what comes out of a sheep's rear end.
We managed to find a spot where we could sit and have the cheese scones we had bought the same morning at Ripon market at the top of the hill, right next to the abandoned and boarded-up chapel. The view from there is wonderful - see for yourself! My sister took these pictures and the video with her mobile phone.
One can see not only Ripon Cathedral, but apparently even York Minster and all the way to the White Horse (where we were last year; if you type "White Horse" into the search box at the top left corner of my blog, you will find the pictures). I must admit I was unable to spot York Minster, but we did recognize the White Horse.
We like being silly :-) Can you also hear the "Benny Hill Show" theme in your head when watching this?
My first Yorkshire holiday was in the year 2000 - sixteen years ago, and I have been back every year since. But believe it or not, in spite of Yorkshire being just one part of one relatively small country, the list of places I have not yet gotten round to see there is very long - enough to last me for many, many more holidays.
One place that had been on my list for a while is Aysgarth Falls. Yesterday, I finally made it there, and enjoyed every minute of it.
I will not now bore you with the dry facts about this beautiful (and anything but dry) place; I'll leave that for when I am back home in Germany with full access to the photos I have been taking with my camera.
In the meantime, you'll get to see only those pictures my sister or other people have taken with their mobile phones and sent to me.
This is me (well, you never...!) in front of the river Ure at Aysgarth Falls. My Aunt J took this picture.
My sister took this video with her mobile phone on my request. I think there is something hypnotic about the slow motion of the water. (The first few seconds are real time motion and real sound.)
You'll get to see a lot more from around Aysgarth, including the old mill (now a café/tea shop, gift and craft shops) nearby and the church of St. Andrew's, later this month.
