We had the perfect window seat for breakfast so once again we sat and lingered enjoying the atmosphere and view.

The forecasted weather wasn’t favourable but we decided to stick with our plan to visit Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal. The weather was cloudy with the occasional burst of sunshine leading to an ever changing palate of autumn colours. We enjoyed our walk around the grounds, remembering some views from our previous visit which I estimate was over 20 years ago! Where does all the time go?

We had lunch in the National Trust Café, I chose Yorkshire Parkin, which was delicious and filling. Unfortunately the food and drink was served on disposable plates, cups and cutlery.

By the time we left the café it had started to rain so we headed to Ripon thinking that we might visit the Cathedral. After a walk around the town we noticed people in elegant clothing arriving at the Cathedral and realised that a church event must be taking place and it was inappropriate to go in. Reluctantly, we left Ripon and drove back to Harrogate, taking the scenic route.

Back in Harrogate, we headed into town and visited a board game shop that we had spotted previously. We were checking an idea for a Christmas gift and also the possibility of board game to play on a rainy afternoon in Harrogate. The shop was busy, making it hard to see the games let alone focus on what might be a suitable game for the circumstances. We left empty handed, chose not to join the long queue at Betty’s and returned to the hotel for a cup of tea.

Not to be thwarted in my Board Game quest  I checked the top 100 on the Board Game Geek website for the game that had caught my eye; 7 Wonders Duel. It was near to the top of the list. I left my cup of tea brewing and headed out into the wind and rain, purchased the game and was back at the hotel within 15 minutes.

My cup of tea was warm and waiting for me when I got back. We thoroughly enjoyed playing the new game although, as usual for a first play, we got some of the rules wrong.

We dined in the hotel, I chose sea bass followed by lemon tart for dessert. Mr C chose steak which, when it arrived, was unfortunately cold putting a bit of a damper on the evening. The bill was discounted to compensate for the problem. We had a nightcap in the bar and one last chat with the bar tender that had looked after us during our stay.

The Cathedral Church of St Peter and St Wilfrid, commonly known as Ripon Cathedral, and until 1836 known as Ripon Minster, is a cathedral in the North Yorkshire city of Ripon. Founded as a monastery by Scottish monks in the 660s, it was refounded as a Benedictine monastery by St Wilfrid in 672. The church became collegiate in the tenth century, and acted as a mother church within the large Diocese of York for the remainder of the Middle Ages.^[2] The present church is the fourth, and was built between the 13th and 16th centuries. In 1836 the church became the cathedral for the Diocese of Ripon.^[3] In 2014 the Diocese was incorporated into the new Diocese of Leeds, and the church became one of three co-equal cathedrals of the Bishop of Leeds.

The cathedral is notable architecturally for its gothic west front in the Early English style, considered one of the best of its type, as well as the Geometric east window.^[3] The seventh-century crypt of Wilfrid’s church is a significant example of early Christian architecture in England.^[3] The cathedral has Grade I listed building status.

After breakfast our first port of call was Ripley where we enjoyed a stroll round the village. Although Mr C wasn’t particularly taken with it, I enjoyed the church which had some interesting historical features including the base of  a medieval cross known as ‘the weeping cross’ and which is thought to be a unique survival of a structure of this type.

The next village on our list was Pateley Bridge where we went for a brief walk along a pathway by the river Nidd to find the Pillars Past sculpture before exploring the town.

Before we left the area I suggested that we made a detour to view Coldstones Cut, a massive sculpture with viewing platforms looking over the nearby quarry and surrounding countryside.  The effort of climbing the short steep walk to get to the monument rewarded us both with a WOW moment!

We had walked up an appetite so we headed to Ripon for lunch which we enjoyed sitting on a bench in the gardens by the war memorial. After lunch we toured Ripon Cathedral which I had not been to before. Over 10,000 origami angels were suspended from the ceiling. I learned that it was a project called ‘A Wing and A Prayer’ which had been designed in the early days of lockdown to recognise the work done by keyworkers and those on the front line. I found the installation breathtaking.

Whilst there I was able to get the first stamp in my 2020 Year of Cathedrals Pilgrim Passport. At the beginning of 2020 it had planned to visit many Cathedrals this year. Maybe next year…

We weren’t ready to go back to the hotel so we detoured via Knaresborough. We walked through the town spotting the window murals known as the ‘Knaresborough windows’ ending up by the castle and war memorial which due to their elevated position treated us to spectacular views of the Victorian aqueduct and the gorge below. We returned to the car via the Bebra Gardens where I spotted a beautiful memorial bench.

Back at the hotel we had our last evening chill out before dinner in the restaurant. When we arrived at the restaurant we were told that our table wasn’t quite ready. I said that’s OK and suggested that a seat could be found for us and we would order a pre-dinner drink. There were no seats were available so with our agreement we were taken to an outside table to wait with our pre-dinner drink. Our drinks didn’t arrive a promptly as we expected and, after some time, we were seated in a back room away from the bar area and restaurant, not quite what we expected as hotel residents who had booked.

As time passed, we found ourselves alone in that area with two tables of loud non-residents. In normal circumstances we would have moved to a more ambient area but due to Covid-19 rules we stayed put rather than introducing more cleaning areas for the hotel staff. A lovely waitress that had been looking after us during our stay was a bit put out that we had been sidelined into a back room and made a point of coming to say goodbye to us before she clocked off for the evening. How special was that!

]]> http://www.cheriesplace.me.uk/blog/index.php/2020/10/08/harrogate-day-three/feed/ 4 http://www.cheriesplace.me.uk/blog/index.php/2016/09/29/newcastle-alnwick-day-seven/ http://www.cheriesplace.me.uk/blog/index.php/2016/09/29/newcastle-alnwick-day-seven/#comments Thu, 29 Sep 2016 19:59:13 +0000 CherryPie http://www.cheriesplace.me.uk/blog/?p=17655

We were all packed and ready to go before we went down for our last breakfast in the Courtyard Garden. During breakfast we realised that there had been a bit of a mix up over the number of nights that we were staying, our hosts were expecting us to stay another night. Before we set off on our travels I had thought we had booked the extra night but on reading the confirmation letter to see we had only booked four nights, so I cancelled my extra days leave.  I mentioned on several occasions to Mr C that perhaps we could book the extra night… But he said he needed to get back to work, he he had booked one less day than needed at the beginning of our holiday so that had to be sorted in favour of less days off at the end of our break.

Our hosts were sad to see us go and when I got home checked the booking acknowledgement letter I could see how the confusion had arisen and I regretted not noticing it before we went away.

After breakfast we loaded up the car with our luggage, paid our bill and chatted with our hosts before paying one last visit to Barter Books to see if we could locate the book on rock carvings that I had first seen when we arrived in Alnwick. After having a quick search for the book ourselves we took the details to the desk and a helpful young lady went into the back room to check the catalogue. The book was still listed and we were directed to the appropriate section where we found that the owner of the shop had followed us. He told me the author of the book and asked a lady to assist us. She found a version of the book within two minutes and went to check elsewhere if the other version of the book was still available. It was only the binding that was different but she thought the other book may have a better binding.  She couldn’t find the other copy but I didn’t mind, it was the content of the book that I was interested in. I thanked her for her help and went to purchase the elusive book.

After this brief diversion we headed to Ripon so that Mr C could explore the Royal Green Jackets museum. The museum was excellent although there was one off putting moment when we heard a building alarm going off and we didn’t know if we should evacuate the premises and the museum staff were unsure because the fire alarm panel wasn’t showing a problem. It turned out to be the lift alarm where two people were stuck in the lift. Eventually the museum staff were able to rescue the two people. We had been told on arrival that the lift was slow but that was taking it a bit far…

When we left the museum Mr C realised he had parked in the wrong zone so we decided not to leave our chances to fate and travelled on to Brough and a lovely tea shop situated next to the ruined castle there before continuing on our homeward journey.

Whilst in the tea shop the mizzle had now turned to torrential rain, so a quick change of plan was in order and I headed back to York in order to visit the Castle Museum.  I can’t say the journey back was very pleasant because it was too rainy to see the scenery.  I dropped the car back off at the hotel and rather than walk all the way into town decided to have lunch in the Castle Museum.  Unfortunately the cafe was closed due to the refurbishment that is taking place in the museum.  Next stop was the National Trust cafe whose kitchens were closed due to an art exhibition that was taking place there.  Do you detect a theme here?  Eventually a suitable place for lunch was found, although I declined on the food front (I was still full of cake) and just had a cup of tea.

By this time it had mostly stopped raining and because the castle museum was on the opposite side of town by now we were onto plan C of things to do.  This turned out to be walking around two segments of the town walls and visiting Clifford’s Tower.  Those of you who know York well will know that by this time I was back by the Castle Museum, but a visit there was saved for another day…  It was the day of the carnival and it was nice just to soak up the atmosphere in town before going back to the hotel for dinner.