G & J away from home

Friday, 29 May

Although we'd had a little light rain here and there since our arrival in the UK, this morning was wet. Very wet. We were drenched just getting out to the car and had to have the heater on for some time to dry us out.  When we took to the roads heading north toward York the conditions were terrible and while our side of the road flowed quite well there were huge traffic jams on the other side.  I've included a photo of one but it's a little difficult to see through the rain!

Traffic stopped in the other lane

Luckily the rain eased a little by the time we reached York, where we drove right into the city and found a park under the castle - which made it easy to find our way back to the car as on every corner there were signs pointing to the main tourist features of the historic area, and 'Castle District' was one of the signs.

As we walked along I managed to get the following photo of the tower on All Saint's church (High Ousegate).  I liked this one because of the open centre in the octagonal lantern tower (circa 1400) which at some periods during its history used to house a light to guide travellers.

Tower of St Mary's Church

Since it was lunch time and still drizzling we popped into a pub for a hot lunch.  Gary had sausage and mash which looked a lot different from what we'd expected:

Gary's lunch

While we were ensconced in the pub the weather cleared and we could see blue sky peeping out between the clouds.  It was time to get on with a whistle-stop tour of York.

Gary at The Three Tuns where we had lunch

I also liked the Barclay's bank building on the corner of Parliament Street (built in 1901) especially the terracotta panel decoration which reminded me of some of the Prairie School architecture we'd looked at in the US.

Terracotta panels on the Barclay's bank building

I'm not quite sure why but I had only ever seen the outside of York Minster but Gary has been inside. And this is still true as we only paused to take a few photos before we wandered back through the town to the car.

York Minster

On the way back I got photos of a couple of very nice clocks - almost as interesting as lights and lamps.

Very fancy clock

Another clock

Here are some photos of what we saw on the drive from York to our motel at Killington Lake.  The first is a classic 'what Gary sees' view through the front windscreen and which includes some of the lovely Yorkshire (Cumbria?) countryside we were travelling through.

What Gary sees - on the road in Yorkshire

Also on the road in large numbers were horse-drawn vehicles, especially in this traditional style.  We assumed there was some sort of gathering going on in the area somewhere.  Most of the traffic was very good at getting around these caravans with the minimum of fuss and quite a bit of patience.

The driver pulling into the turning bay to let the car traffic past

Just by accident we caught sight of an interesting looking bridge as we turned off the main road near Kirkby Lonsdale and (for a change) it was relatively simple to pull off into a car parking area and get out to have a closer look.  We walked over the bridge and climbed down to the rocks below to get the classic shot:

Devil's Bridge near Kirkby Lonsdale

Devil's Bridge was built in the late 14th century for St Mary's Abbey in York and was in use until 1932 when another bridge (Stanley Bridge) was built nearby.  It's amazing to see an engineering structure of this age still in everyday use, even if only for foot traffic now.

Another of Gary's photos of Devil's Bridge

While we were driving along progressively narrower roads toward the motel we followed this van for a while and had to smile at the 'Warning' (the photo can be enlarged by clicking on it):

Warning!

As I said we were turning onto narrower and narrower roads in our tricky navigation to avoid getting back on the motorway and the last road was more of a track.  Though sealed it wasn't much more than one lane wide and when another car came along we had to pull over and wait for them to pass.  Not really a problem, though, as I was able to get this shot of Killington Lake (a reservoir).  Our motel room had a similar view.

Killington Lake

As well as the view over the lake from the window we could also see a variety of birds, including this oystercatcher. Quite a chunky bird he (or she) was, and busy finding something to eat on the lawn between the motel and the water.

Oystercatcher

Thanks to the RSPB 'bird identifier' webpages for the help in putting a name to this chap:
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