Skipton
Topic: Day Trips
It's Saturday and it's beautiful out. Definitely got to go somewhere.
Today Ryan and I went to Skipton. It's about twenty miles west of Harrogate straight off the A59. It was a pretty drive, with rolling countryside. There are farms, hedgerows, and brushy areas dotted with shaggy sheep. I felt a bit of a thrill upon the realization that I had just started to go farther on the A59 in that direction than I'd ever gone before. New territory!
I found a car park that was rapidly filling up. Parking was a bit expensive, but there's not much of an option.
I put Ryan in his stroller and walked back out to the main drag. There was a lively market going on outside on both sides of the road, in addition to the usual businesses there. The roads were mainly cobblestone, so that made pushing the stroller at times.
I wandered around a bit in search of an elusive Tourist Info. center that I never did find. I think they just put up signs to make tourists wander around strange backstreets. I saw signs for canal cruises. It occurred to me that Ryan had never been on a boat. He'd been on a plane and a train, so I thought, "What the heck? Let's go for a boat ride." We left the stroller and got onto the boat. The skipper was nice and friendly. When we began our half hour cruise, there were only four other people on the boat. It had a capacity for 12.
We saw a beautiful swan at the start of our cruise. I was to see one. Click here for photos from our day: Skipton
The cruise went down a side canal around the back of Skipton Castle. It was pretty and nice. The boat was small, so it was fairly quiet. (I've been on some noisy boats.) Ryan of course wanted to be practically hanging over the side looking at things. On the way back I saw a scene I wish I'd gotten a chance to photograph. We were passing a stationary canal cruiser, that I suspect may have doubled as a small houseboat. In a window framed by white lace curtains, there was a vase of pretty yellow flowers with a black cat lounging next to it. With the sun shining on it, it just would have been a relaxing image to capture.
After our canal cruise, Ryan and I went to Skipton Castle. Click here for the website: Skipton Castle I couldn't take the stroller on the castle grounds, so Ryan was going to have to hoof it most of the way. Luckily he's got lots of energy! The castle was a nice size for us to explore. It wasn't too big, so we could see pretty much all of it. There were plenty of places Ryan could run around. I did have to carry him up and down some of the steeper, spiral staircases. Luckily there weren't too many of those.
After a while we took a break at the tea room and got some refreshment. We went back out for a little longer, then headed back to the car.
All in all it was a really nice afternoon. We're very fortunate that there is so much to do in this general vicinity. As the weather keeps improving, it will be fun to get out and see more things.