Idiot's Guide to Mountaineering

Today's plan was to take the train from Settle to Carlisle, which is one of the most beautiful train rides in the world as per Rick Steves' advice. However, when we got to town in the morning, we were informed that the train was shut down (just today!) for maintenance. Talk about timing.
Our new options were shopping at the street market in Skipton we skipped the other day or staying in town, so a large group of us -- me, Howie, Francesca, Haley, Nicole, Anna, Rebekah, Nikki, Mike, and Sara -- decided to hike some of the trails we'd heard of around Settle.
We had no idea.
Derrick brought us back round to the cottages to change into more suitable hiking gear, but we were just getting off the coach when Howie, Francesca and I realized we didn't have our cottage keys. We walked over to Rose's house, discovered none of us actually knew where it was, and eventually got spares from the woman working in the laundry.
When we got back to Settle, we had brunch at the Naked Man Café, then asked for trail information at the visitors' center and got directions from the gentleman working there. After a quick stop at the co-op for water, we set off.
The first trail was a dirt and gravel road at the edge of the town that led up into farmhouses and pastures, then farther up to a group of rocks looking out over Settle.

We stopped for a while to admire the view, feeling pretty proud of ourselves, and then headed back up the trail. What followed was probably the coolest experience we've ever had, as we trekked across the Yorkshire dales with our packs and cameras.

Haley: "____ nettles! ____ them, ____ them!!"

Mike: "No, we're going the right way this time."

Me: "...I think my brother hid in here from the rain five years ago..."

All: "BAAA!!! BAAAAAAA!!!!!" (Oh yes. There's a video.)

Highland cows are officially the cutest animals in the universe.
"They're stoner steer!"
"No, hippie heifers!"
"Bohemian bovines!"
Also...
"Well, we've officially earned our Bovine Survival Badges."

Francesca took this photo of the whole group minus Nikki and Mike taking a break on one of the steeper slopes we encountered. This was about two hours or halfway through our hike, and also about the time we realized we weren't sure where Settle was anymore.

All: "Mike, you had better be sure about this!!"

A view from the top -- the highest hill we climbed.

We randomly found a solitary, clean vertebra in the middle of the grass, which Anna expertly collected in a plastic baggie I had in my pack.
Haley: "Anna, you are so pro at this!"

We found another cave that could possibly have been the one from Mark's adventure in '04, after which Francesca fell on some gravel and sliced her knee open pretty badly. Luckily we're all rock stars and had the anti-bacterial wipes and extra-large Band-Aids required.
We also thought about going to Victoria Cave... and then reconsidered.

After realizing we really were pretty lost, we met some other (better-equipped) hikers on the trail who pointed us in the right direction, and we headed for home.

We arrived back in Settle tired and happy, and returned to the Naked Man for water and sweets. The coach met us at the car park, and we headed back to the cottages around 5:30 to shower and recuperate.
That night the Cardillos cooked dinner for the entire group -- steak, salmon, roasted carrots and green beans, and salad with feta and mandarin oranges. It was so wonderful to eat vegetables after all the English meat-and-potatoes meals here (of course, Mike's reaction to that was "Vegetables? I eat things that eat vegetables"). It was also Eva's birthday, so we celebrated with chocolate cake and a harmonized "Happy Birthday."
Us kids spent the rest of the night watching Lord of the Rings, looking through Fran's and my pictures of the hike, playing cards and ping-pong, and venturing out to the freezing playground to stargaze. I felt a genuine sadness that it was our last night at the cottages, and we all talked about our great luck at getting along so well. I hope this group does get together sometimes when we grudgingly return to the States.
Tomorrow, it is farewell to the cottages in England and hello to Scotland!

A few of my favorite things

Yesterday went to York to see both the cathedral and the city itself.  We arrived at about 11,  and were given the option of paying to get into York Minster or getting in for evensong for free and having a limited time to tour.  My group (Mr. F, Howard, Francesca, Haley, Rebekah, Mike, Jocelyn, and Sara) all decided it was worth the money to explore the cathedral, and I'm so glad we did.

York Minster was very different from Durham; it is a couple of hundred years younger, but it was really the feel of the place rather than the style that made me like it better.  It seemed so much grander, more deeply spiritual, more pensive than Durham to me. The stained glass windows were gorgeous, especially since the sun would come out at times during our visit.  I think it's so strange the way stained glass makes sunlight brighter than it is outside, like it is somehow transformed and intensified on its way into God's house.  The architecture in general was so expansive and uplifting, whereas Durham felt heavy.

      

Our first endeavor once inside was to climb the 275 steps up the cathedral's tallest tower, on probably the narrowest and darkest (and creepiest!) staircase I've ever been on.

 

The stairs were actually divided into two flights, and in between you actually walk along the edge of the roof of the cathedral, which was a really neat feeling.  Here is a view of the tower and the flying buttresses from the roof.

 

The stairs were surprisingly not too hard on the legs, but the fresh air at the top of the tower felt wonderful, and the view wasn't bad either. 

After walking down the same staircase, we explored the rest of the minster.  My favorite part was called the Chapter Room, which is a round room that was used for meetings and prayers.  Stained glass covers the walls and all around the edges are carved stone seats. When you walk in it absolutely knocks your socks off (as Mr. C would say) -- you can literally feel your spirit soar right up into the beautifully painted ceiling. 

Here is the best I could do to capture some of the stained glass.  The carved stone was even more interesting, as every face and every animal carved along the top edge was different.  Howie and I agreed it was probably the most beautiful room we'd ever been in.

After leaving the cathedral with only the consolation that we would be back later for evensong, we took a walk around the city of York, which is about the same size as Fort Wayne (I think I remember Mr. C saying the population was about 300,000).  The inner part of the city, which is surrounded by the old city walls, is divided into the more modern shopping district and the Shambles, which is the oldest part of the city with older, narrower streets and old-fashioned shops.  We had lunch at The Punch Bowl, and I had my first (wonderful) experience with bangers and mash, which is Cumberland sausage and mashed potatoes. 

After lunch we strolled around the shops, and Mr. F, Francesca, Sara, Mike and I lost Howie and Haley in a record store as we wandered to the old Shambles.  There was an open-air market and some really neat little fudge and sweet shops, and we stopped in for some toffee ice cream.

     

In the photo on the left, you can barely tell there's a street running across because the roads are so narrow.

We still had a little more time to kill before evensong, so we poked into Crabtree & Evelyn and some smaller novelty shops before heading back up to the minster.

Evensong at York Minster was just as beautiful as it was at Durham, though this time we had the girls' and mens' choirs.  I'm really glad I was able to go to these services, especially in such beautiful churches, because it's such an old tradition that you don't see very often anymore.

After evensong, we got back on the coach and went to the Craven Heifer for dinner, where I was still too full for a meal but tried a bite of Francesca's sticky toffee pudding.  This "pudding" is actually a cake that you douse in thick toffee sauce and serve with vanilla ice cream.  I don't really need to tell you how delightful it was.

We got back to the cottages around 10 p.m., and than a group of us gathered in the boys' cottage for tea and "The Full Monty" before bed.

Today our plan was to go to Ripon, Fountains Abbey, and Skipton for the street market.  We left the cottages at 9 after having a lovely breakfast of bacon, eggs, toast, and strawberries compliments of Francesca's parents.

Ripon is a smaller town, and this is actually the first time Mr. C has taken a tour group there.  It has a small but really pretty cathedral and a street market in the square, so we were able to poke around the church a bit and wander around town.  The cathedral's crypt was especially neat, but I didn't get a chance to take any pictures of it.  Here are some other images, anyway:

     

Howie, Francesca, Rebekah, Haley, Jocelyn and I ate at the Hornblower Tavern (nothing like a pitcher of Woo Woo at 12:30 to start the day off right!) and glanced around the market for a bit before getting back on the coach, eager to see Fountains Abbey after hearing a lot about it.  The ride was a little long, so we got everyone in the back of the bus to sing about the entire score of "The Sound of Music" full blast.  It felt so wonderful to sing after a week of what felt like silence relatively speaking, and now we know our entire crew can sing (not to mention harmonize)!

When we got to Fountains, we had to walk along a winding footpath before we finally saw the abbey through a break in the trees.  The ruins reminded me a lot of Bolton, but they were larger by far and more spread out.  It's crazy to think all these enormous structures used to make up one huge building... jeez, thanks a bloody lot, Henry VIII!  I walked around the abbey with Howie, Haley, and Rebekah and got some pretty neat shots of the ruins.

     
     

After exploring the old towers and destroyed rooms, we hiked around the loop of the water gardens (not as impressive, especially once the day turned gray) and met up with Ginny, Frank, and Kendra.  The paths went through the woods, and when we started on the way back there were some really cool sites to see by clambering up the face of the hill.  One was the Serpentine Cave, which was really more of a tunnel that was long enough to be pitch black in the middle.  After York Minster tower and the Ripon cathedral's crypt, my claustrophobia was starting to get the best of me, but I bit the bullet and it really was neat.  On the way out we had some fun with silhouettes:

     

At that point, it was time to head back, but we couldn't remember whether the meet-up time was 4 or 4:30.  We erred on the side of caution and booked it back to the visitor's center, only to have 20 extra minutes to catch our breath.  We then found out the Skipton market wasn't open today, so we stopped by the grocery for dinner and got back to the cottages early.  Us young'uns ate our pizza (we were all yearning for a taste of the States) and dozed while watching Three Amigos, then chatted, watched YouTube videos, and played cards 'til we we were too exhausted to talk anymore.  Oh, the joys of youth.

I am officially having the time of my life  -- just in case there was any doubt.  I love this place, I love these people, and life is good.  Amen.

I hope everyone back home is doing well, and I send my love!

The hills were most certainly alive.

[A quick note: You can view the pictures bigger/in a new screen by clicking on them. Hooray!]

Breakfast yesterday: Ginger cake and hazelnut yogurt. Be jealous.

Actually, you should be jealous of everything yesterday. It was amazing in every way.

We spent the morning all dressed up in the neighboring town of Giggleswick, visiting Giggleswick private school ($35,000 a year... whoa).  It was kind of neat seeing all the schoolchildren in their uniforms -- very stereotypically British prep school, with the wool skirts and black stockings.  And of course, who can resist the schoolboys in their crisp white button-downs?

Anyhow, we did a quick tour of the grounds and then took a short hike up to the Giggleswick Chapel.  The chapel is a gorgeous display of tile, mosaic and stained glass.  The back wall of the church features statues of the boy king Edward VI (the school was built in 1512 and he gave it a royal charter in 1553) and Queen Victoria (the chapel was dedicated to her in 1897 for her 60th anniversary jubilee).  Above the statues is a stained-glass window depicting the creation story, with animals from every continent.

The second picture below is of the pipe organ, and you can see in the upper right corner an example of the mosaic on the ceiling.

     

After sneaking a peek at the smaller church on campus, we went back to the cottages for a quick change and then set off for a ride through the mountains to lake country, mostly characterized by narrow, winding roads through thick forests punctuated by absolutely beautiful views.  A couple of interesting asides: First, we passed by the school in Cowan where the Brontë girls went to school -- and where the two eldest, Mary and Elizabeth, died.  Jane Eyre's Lowood is based on Charlotte's experiences there.  Second, we caught a glimpse of the Cowan bridge, also known as the Devil's Bridge, where women used to be thrown over and onto the rocks below to determine if they were witches.  Whoever survived was a witch and was burned at the stake.

Our first destination was Hawkshead, one of the homes of Beatrix Potter.  We got there at 1:00 and had a couple of hours to explore the quaint little town, the best part of which was probably the view from the church on the hill.

Okay, scratch that.  The best part was the Buttercup Café, where we each had a cup of tea (Earl Grey for me) and a scone with jam and clotted cream.  I told you to be jealous!

We left Hawkshead at 3:00, and kept going right up through the Cumbrian mountains into lake country.  We made a brief stop at Dove Cottage, the home of William Wordsworth, near the village of Grasmere.  We also stopped at his gravesite, which was a churchyard in a serene little spot with an incredible view of the mountains.

After a quick stop at a sweet shop to discover that Turkish Delight is like a cubic inch of dreams and sunshine, we hopped back on the coach for Castlerigg, a stone circle 500 years older than Stonehenge.  On the way, I caught some great pictures (through the windshield, no less!) of Lake Thirlmere. Here's the best one:

When we got to Castlerigg, the weather could not have been more perfect.  Words fail me completely, so I'll let the photos do the talking:

After a good night's sleep...

Today we went to Durham, about 2 1/2 hours away, to see Durham Cathedral and do a little moseying around the college town.  The bus ride was spent organizing and editing photos and, more pleasantly, listening to a few of Mr. F's stories.  Priceless!

When we got to the cathedral, which didn't allow photos, the tower was unfortunately closed.  The rest of the cathedral, however, was truly spectacular.  Durham's relics are the bodies of The Venerable Bede and St. Cuthbert.  St. Cuthbert's tomb was very lavishly decorated, while the room with Bede's tomb was simpler and, I thought, more pensive and reverent.  

After exploring the cathedral for an hour or so, Mr. F and Jocelyn and I took a loop around pretty much the entire town.  There were plenty of the trendy shops and young people typical of a college town, but it was interesting to see the mix of old and new.  We stopped to have lunch at the Ristorante de Medici, a tiny place upstairs where the owner and waitress spoke heavily accented English -- so we knew it had to be good.  And it was; my tortellini de Medici was out of this world, as was Mr. F's linguini carbonara.  The house wine was also delicious.

After lunch, we met up with some of the others and headed back up to the cathedral for 5:15 evensong.  We got there early and had the treat of listening to the boys' and mens' choir practicing, and the prayer service itself was great both for the music and for the experience.  I'm looking forward to comparing it to tomorrow's evensong at Yorkminster.

And now, after a fun evening goofing off at the cottages (ping-pong, charades, and general raucous behavior) it is most definitely time for bed.  More awaits on the morrow!