Topic: Day Trips
I can't believe it's the end of August already. I also can't believe that as of today, Ryan and I have been here for three weeks. Time is flying by. There were fireworks just now. They were part of the Harrogate Stray Fair. I could only see a little of them. Unfortunately a building across the street was blocking most of the view. What I saw though was neat. Earlier there was a thunder storm with a pretty good downpour. I'm glad it cleared up for the fireworks.
Ripley. Monday was the Summer Bank Holiday. I think it's like the British version of our Labor Day, in as far as it's the last four day weekend of the summer. In the morning the weather was miserable. It was windy and rainy. However, the afternoon turned out to be glorious. I decided to get out and celebrate my first bank holiday.
Ripley is just a few miles northwest of Harrogate. It was not my original destination. I meant to go to Knaresborough, which is a few miles northeast of Harrogate. Oops. I'm so glad we went to Ripley though. Ryan and I had an adventure there before we were even out of the car park (parking lot). The parking area was on grass. It was also free, which from what I understand is pretty rare. There was a fenced off area with some outbuildings, and behind the fence was a horse. (Please see my photo album in yesterday's post for the photos from this trip.) I wheeled Ryan in his stroller right up to the fence. Before I knew it, the horse had bent down over the fence and was nose to nose with Ryan. I figured it was nice of the horse to say hi. Bystanders suggested I move Ryan away from the horse. Ryan just smiled and laughed and apparently enjoyed his close encounter. I picked him up and let him pet the horse, which seemed incredibly friendly, and quite used to people.
On our way out of the car park, I saw a sign for a "Spot the Boar Competition" (over here they use the word "competition" where we would use "contest"). As I walked down the street into the village, I saw my first boar - hanging in a tree! Apparently the point was to walk around the town and find the 26 odd papier mache boars, then turn in an entry form for a prize drawing. I was told by a local that these contests are growing in popularity as a way to engage the kids while the adults enjoy the site. The people who made and hid the boars in Ripley seemed to have a good sense of humor regarding boar placement.
The village itself was quaint and small. In keeping with what I've seen around Harrogate and vicinity so far, there were flowers everywhere. It really makes things beautiful.
I saw signs for Ripley Old Farm. After walking around a bit, Ryan and I found it. There was a small gift shop in front, with an area behind it with lots of stalls around a small, open square. There were different types of sheep, goats, chickens and chicks and at least one rooster, piglets, goats, and horses. It was weird because the majority of the animals were out loose, and you could just walk up to them and pet them. There were also things to do for older kids. You could make your own rope, churn butter, and milk a faux cow.
There was also a horse drawn carriage ride, which Ryan and I went on. Ryan especially loved it when the horse got up to a trot. He stood up on my lap and bounced up and down excitedly.After that I walked around a bit more. There's a castle and gardens in Ripley. I explored the gift shop and asked about the tours of the castle. They highly discouraged children under five. After looking around the giftshop - which had some really nice things - I took Ryan and found a path outside the castle gardens called Hollybank Lane. It was really pretty and from there I could see a little bit into the castle gardens (which are stroller friendly, but I would have had to pay to get into).
I decided to have tea at the castle tearoom. There were benches outside and it was sunny and warm, so we sat outside. I had tea and a scone with clotted cream. It was delicious and really hit the spot. (I shared my scone with Ryan.) We sat with a friendly lady who was kind enough to share the bench with us. It was nice chatting with her.
Before walking back to the car, I stopped inside a shop called, "Hopkins-Porter Ltd." It was a really neat market with all sorts of interesting food and drink. It had a delicatessen, and anything you could want for a picnic. It also had beer and wines, some of which were local. I picked up some fudge.
There's also a church in Ripley that I would like to go back and visit another time.
There are a lot of castles and the like here. Having a stroller makes it difficult to visit those places. However, I do have a backpack that's on its way in the mail, so I imagine carrying Ryan around in that will open up places we can go.
I really enjoyed Ripley. It has a nice atmosphere and is very scenic.
Today Ryan and I went to Knaresborough. I will write about that soon. However, right now it's getting late and I need to get to bed.
Posted by hkvlayman
at 10:26 PM BST
irritated
Afternoon in Riplely
Today I decided to drive to York. It's about twenty miles or so east of Harrogate. However, it takes a little longer than you would think to get there because there aren't many "motorways" (what we would call a freeway) over here. Mostly there are two lane backroads where you can't get much over 40 or 50 mph at any given time. There was a castle I thought it would be neat to see, but Ryan was fussy and we got a late start, so I basically drove to York, turned around, and came back. On the way, I saw one of those brown historical site signs. It simply said, "Ancient Church." Usually the signs are a bit more specific! I thought it was funny, so I said to Ryan, "I'll bite. Let's go!" It was less than a mile off the main road, in a place called Kirk Hammerton. And as advertised, it was indeed an acient church. I didn't go up to it. I just left the car running and jumped out long enough to get a picture. I don't even know if you can go in or not. However, it was an interesting quick side trip, and Kirk Hammerton was a neat place to drive through.
The photo on the left was taken while we were on the ride. The one on the right was taken in front of the ride. Both were taken with my camera phone. Fun with phones! The ride was a very tame version of the buccaneer type ride.
There were also plenty of food concessions, of which I amazingly did not partake. There was one that had fresh donuts, which I did stop at. However, they wouldn't be ready until later on in the evening, so I didn't get to have one. I guess that was God saying, "Don't do it!" There were food stands advertising "American style" hamburgers and food. I thought that was funny. Of course instead of fries, they are called "chips." I hadn't heard of "chip butties," though. I ought to have asked. Another difference in food nomenclature is "candy floss" for cotton candy. I hadn't heard that one before.
It was beautiful out, and the wind felt quite refreshing. From there we walked to the Victoria Shopping Center. I'm not sure how far it was, but it was quite a ways. I somehow wound up at Starbucks. *grin* It had been at least four or five days since my last infusion!
Yesterday evening I went for a walk. On the way home, this particular side street evoked a mood I wanted to capture. I love late afternoon sunlight. I took these pictures with my new cell phone. They don't quite do the scene justice, but they aren't bad considering it's a cell phone.
Also yesterday I saw this "Holly Cottage." Of course I had to take a picture! I looked around online to see if I could figure out what this place was, and found out that the phrase, "Holly Cottage" is used a lot to describe bed and breakfasts. I still need to do some digging to find out about this particular one.