Holiday in Yorkshire - September 2017 - Days 7 - 8

On Thursday, we headed to Wakefield to visit The Yorkshire Sculpture Park. We spent an hour or so wandering around The Park before having lunch in the visitor centre.

Ai Weiwei, Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads
Photographs by Jane Paintin

Sophie Ryder [Hare Sculpture]
Photograph by Jane Paintin

Anthony Caro, Promenade

Zal Ové, Black and Blue: The Invisible Man and the Masque of Blackness

 Trying to blend in!

Thomas J Price, Network

 

To give some idea of scale...

Mikayel Ohanjanyan, Diario
 

Maker/title not known

After lunch we drove on to the Hepworth Museum.

As well as the exhibition of Hepworth's maquettes, tools and prototypes that Rob and I had seen in March: a few images from that visit below...

... there was an exhibition of Howard Hodgkin's "Painting India", which was excellent. I thought so, anyway, but it was less popular with the other members of the party!

These were three of my favourites. I love the abstracted forms and colour palettes evocative of India.


Watch a YouTube video here to get a taste of the exhibition.

https://youtu.be/LmlfJnqsP_Y

Dinner that evening was courtesy of my parents at The Coconut Lagoon: our second visit there. They have an excellent menu and the food was delicious, and there was plenty of it. The only slight downside was that the service is a bit on the slow side.

Friday came around and it was time to head home.

We stopped off in Grassington where my brother, Philip, kindly bought us lunch in The Retreat Bistro - an excellent egg sandwich on gluten free bread followed by GF chocolate brownie for me. Lovely!

If you have time, the walk down to the river is well worth a detour and there are lots of nice, small shops to explore. I enjoyed a browse in Annie and Betty's Vintage Shop, which also has a tearoom.

Holiday in Yorkshire - September 2017 - Days 5 - 6

On Tuesday, Mum and Dad went into York, while Rob and I headed out to Robin Hood's Bay. It was a warm and sunny day, so too hot to leave Brock in the car.

We had checked the tide times in advance, so were able to time our walk to take in the whole of the bay and around the picturesque fishing village. Dogs are allowed on the beach at all times of year, and it is popular with fossil hunters as the cliff is continually crumbling - we saw small rock falls occurring as we were walking.

Lunch was taken outside, overlooking the promenade and sea, at the Swell Cafe Bar. We had the ploughman's lunch and mineral water or green tea. It was busy and the service was a little slow, but very friendly and the food was good.

The walk back up to the top car park is extremely steep!

Later that evening we treated my parents to dinner at The Nags Head in Askham Bryan. The food is always superb in there. We all ate far too much, but enjoyed it thoroughly. I had the three egg omelet with cheese and onion, and chunky chips, followed by banana split. Yum!

The next day we went to York and Mum and Dad had a rest day after all of their walking in York the previous day.

We gave Brock a 50 minute walk along by the river, before he had a 'little rest' in the car (we parked in the Piccadilly multi-story car park: a 'bargain' at £7.50 for three hours). We looked around The Shambles, bought some food for dinner in M&S and had lunch in Molly's Tearoom in The Antique Centre. I had a very good egg mayonnaise sandwich on gluten free bread and Rob had a veggie breakfast of eggs, mushrooms, tomatoes, toast and baked beans. Recommended! The antiques were interesting to browse, too: numerous cabinets of well grouped and laid out treasures. I was very tempted by some red and blue faceted, glass jewellery, but managed to resist.

Holiday in Yorkshire - September 2017 - Days 3 - 4

Rob and I went to Sutton Bank to walk Brock on Sunday, while Mum and Dad decided to explore the village at Askham Bryan.

The views range over the Vale of Mowbray and the Vale of York. There is a visitor centre, cafe and bike hire available near the car park.

Afterwards we drove to nearby Thirsk, where we had lunch in The Lord Nelson pub, and bought delicious yellow plums from an excellent greengrocers, and some food for dinner. The pub did not have any vegetarian choices on the menu, but the helpful landlady arranged for a plate of 'Sunday Lunch' vegetables with vegetarian gravy for both, and a Yorkshire Pudding for Rob. The bar area is dog-friendly.

On Monday we took my parents to Harrogate, parking in the multi-story car park next to the green - an ideal area to walk Brock. We had a look around the shops, buying postcards and food for dinner from M&S, and had a very good coffee and cake in the independent Starling Coffee Shop. Mum and Dad treated us to lunch in Wagamama's. The restaurant now has a separate gluten free menu, which made ordering much easier for me. We all enjoyed our food, which was brimming with fresh vegetables, spices and flavour - Thai fusion-style - with noodles or rice. Mum and Rob had the fresh juices, which were delicious. It was fairly quiet and we had a window seat, so it was a relaxing atmosphere with a good view of the busy street.

We drove on to Knaresborough next, parking up near the castle. The view is quite breathtaking with the Victorian viaduct, River Nidd and black and white checked building housing Mother Shipton's Cave ("England's oldest visitor attraction" - opened in 1630!).

 

After a look around the town and an ice cream, it was a leisurely drive back to Askham Bryan to eat our MandS curries with rice, and desserts for dinner! 

Holiday in Yorkshire - September 2017 - Days 1 - 2

We booked a week at Blacksmith's Cottage in Askham Bryan, which is a convenient base from which to explore Yorkshire.

 

 Blacksmith's Cottage and part of the garden.

Our first stop on the journey was at the Llama Karma Kafe for coffee!

Later in the journey, we stopped at Barnard Castle and had lunch at Penny's Tearoom (good food and dog-friendly). Rob had the veggie breakfast and I had a jacket potato with cheese and beans. There are lots of nice, independent shops to explore, and the castle, of course.

The first afternoon and evening were spent settling in at the cottage. My parents had come along to share the cottage on this occasion (our third or fourth visit). The cottage has three bedrooms, and a new, comfortable sofa, arm chairs, and new dining table and chairs. The beds are comfortable and the quiet village location is nice, yet very close to York. The shower is good, and there is now a huge flat screen tv for evening entertainment. There is a large, fenced garden, so Brock was able to stretch his legs whenever he wanted, not to mention the pleasant walks around Askham Bryan. So, in short, the cottage has all that we need for our accommodation.

On the second day, we took my parents to Burnby Hall Gardens and Museum in Pocklington, where there was an opera singer performing outside in the gardens, as an added bonus. Rob and I walked Brock by the Pocklington Canal. There is a Society working to clear the canal, and it would be lovely to see boats along the length of it again. At the moment, the section we walked, was quite choked with reeds and other plants, but the other end is navigable.

 One of the numerous locks - this one very overgrown.

 Brock enjoying the walk - lots of other dogs to meet and greet along the way.

 Enormous bracket fungus - as large as a serving platter.

Near the start/end of the walk for us, at Canal Head.

A glider passed overhead as we were walking.

Pocklington was rather a nightmare to park in - extremely busy. Of the three cafes we tried to get lunch in - the best one was full on the two attempts we made to enter, and two others that we saw were not tempting due to lack of customer service and/or lack of table clearing. In the end we bought some soup for lunch and 'ploughman's lunch' ingredients for dinner and had a relaxing afternoon at the house instead.

Holiday in Yorkshire - Days 7 and 8 - York Racecourse, Ripon, and Grassington

We had been going to Fountains Abbey to walk Brock, but the £11 per head entrance fee put a stop to that, and we did the walk at the York Racecourse again, before driving on to Ripon for the second time.

We went back to Ripon for a second visit, to have lunch at Oliver's Pantry, a very nice cafe in the town. I had hummus and halloumi sandwich on GF bread; Rob had the all day 'veggie' breakfast. We bought a couple of their traybakes to take home for afternoon tea.

There are some good local shops, and there was a market on, where we bought some beautiful auriculas and cowslips.

We retired to the cottage in the afternoon and just had M&S veg curries with a glass of wine for dinner.

On Friday, we had a quick clean and hoover round before piling everything into the car for the journey home.

We stopped at Grassington on the way home and had a walk by Linton Falls and along the river back into the town.

We found socks for sale at Linton Falls, made using an antique sock knitting machine, and using mixed recycled yarns. We couldn't resist buying four pairs: payment is via an honesty box (actually the letter box of the house). They are long, without soles, so fit a wide range of sizes and there were lots of colours to choose from. The fabric is a little coarse, but they should make good socks as a second pair in walking boots. The maker is R A Horner, 24 Church Road, Linton Falls, Skipton, BD23 6BQ. They offer mail order, but don't have a website.


Lunch was at the highly recommended Retreat Cafe, a vegetarian and vegan cafe that welcomes dogs. I had an egg mayo GF sandwich, followed by GF coffee cake; Rob had quiche and chips followed by a sponge pudding and custard. All delicious, and served by friendly staff. A great end to our holiday.

I also bought some fabric with the last £3 in my purse, from some bargain bins with remnants and samples in, outside an interior decoration shop - they really were a bargain at just £1 per item.  The pieces in the bottom left corner are linen from a sample card.

Holiday In Yorkshire - Day 6 - Knaresborough and Harrogate

We had a very pleasant walk along Abbey Road in Knaresborough, along by the River Nidd.

Some of the lovely riverside houses in Knaresborough.

There were three carved tree stumps along the route of the walk; the work of chainsaw sculptor Tommy Craggs of Consett, County Durham. A kingfisher (above) ...

 a green man...

an owl eyeing a mouse.

The walk reaches a medieval hermit's (Saint Robert's) cave, then doubles back through woodland and so back to the town centre.

We had a walk around the ruined castle, then stopped for very good coffees and cake at The Moat Buttery, a cafe overlooking the castle. We were able to sit outside for the first time this year - it was almost too hot.

A view of the Victorian railway viaduct, seen from near the castle. A history of Knaresborough by Alyson Jackson can be found here.

It was a downhill trek to the car park, and then we drove on to Harrogate. Having covered 3.5 miles in the morning, Brock had a little 'rest' in the car while Rob and I went off to Wagamama for lunch.
I had their new warm salad with tofu, little gem lettuce, roasted vegetables and nuts. The dressing was replaced with Tamari to make it GF. Rob had the Yasai Chilli Men with noodles and a side order of Japanese pickles. We both had a vegetable juice: Rob's had tomato, carrot, orange and apple in it; mine was apple, mint, celery and lime. They were both delicious, as was the food.

We sidled straight off to Hoxton North for excellent coffees, and Rob had a flapjack. We bought a big bag of coffee beans of the same blend to enjoy at home, then had a happy hour looking round the many interesting shops.

Much later that evening, my brother Philip came back to the cottage at Askham Bryan to join us for dinner at the Nag's Head. Philip had scampi and chips, I had cheese and onion omelet and chips and Rob had lentil and mash pie. Philip and Rob had lemon cheesecake for pudding, and I had banana split. The food was superb once again - everything homemade and locally sourced, where possible. Highly recommended! The only way it could be improved, as far as we are concerned, is to serve more vegetarian food, with gluten free options.