Misbegotten Travels in England (Title courtesy of Carissa Telecky!)
Topic: Day Trips
Today Carissa and her family, Sarah and her family, and Ryan and I went to Skipton's Medieval Yuletide Festival. The weather started out promising enough. It was cold and windy, but sunny. Around 1pm we all caravaned to Skipton from MHS.
The drive there was scenic as usual. The sun was obscured by a bank of silver clouds, however, brilliant Jacob's ladders were shooting out from behind.
We got there and got parked. (Free parking, yay!) It was cold, but wouldn't have been too bad except for a biting wind. I was dumb and didn't bring gloves (and was too cheap to buy new ones!), so my hands froze. Ryan was appropriately bundled, however.
We all walked around the stalls for a while, browsing. The streets were decorated for Christmas, and there was definitely a festive air. We went into an indoor shopping area that was neat. The path there was down a narrow close that opened onto a rectangular plaza. There were garlands all around and a Christmas tree. There was also an old fashioned clock high up on one of the walls, and oddly, it didn't have any hands.
Carissa saw a vendor selling roasted chestnuts and thought it would be fun to try some. None of us had had them before. Carissa bought a small bag and we all tried some. They were interesting. :) I shucked the outside off, then popped the warm nut into my mouth. The flavor was actually not bad. It almost had a bit of a Christmas spice flavor. What got me not liking them all that much was the texture. It became sort of starchy and grainy after a bit of chewing. It was fun to finally have tried one, though.
After a while, it started to rain. We were all cold through and in need of some refreshment, so we went to a restaurant/pub called the Black Horse. It was nice, and fairly kid friendly. While ordering drinks for me and Ryan, I asked the bartender if they had hot chocolate. The bartender replied, "The closest thing we have to hot chocolate is cappuccino," After a quick pause he smiled sort of sheepishly and continued, "Which is really nothing at all like hot chocolate!" Seeing I had my hands full with Ryan, he very kindly took my tea to my table for me. (In pubs you often order your food at the register at the front, paying immediately, then order drinks at the bar.)
We killed some time at the Black Horse, waiting for what Skipton's website promised would be, "a spectacular Lantern Procession through the High Street." After we ate, we took a quick spin through a small indoor craft fair, just to keep out of the cold. Finally, the procession started.
To say that the Lantern Procession was less than spectacular would be an understatement! It was miserably windy, so the lanterns weren't lit. The procession was at best rag-tag, led by a brass band playing a tune in a way that could only be described as mournful. We all looked at each other and started laughing, saying "That was SO not worth it!" The website had given the impression it would be a fun medieval fest. http://www.skiptononline.co.uk/_scripts/linkout.asp?url=www.skiptononline.co.uk/yuletide.asp?Tourist-Info=True However, is really just seemed mostly like a normal market day, decorated for Christmas. There were a few people dressed in various medieval costumes, and I think there were a few demonstrations. We saw part of a drum line performance (which sounded pretty good), and just missed a joust.
We had a good time and I'm glad we went, but it just wasn't quite what we expected. The weather definitely didn't help.
On our way back to our cars, we were talking about various trips over here that didn't quite pan out the way we'd planned. Carissa suggested we pool our stories and write a book called, "Misbegotten Travels in England." I love it!
Posted by hkvlayman
at 6:37 PM GMT