We were warned that the hills on this ride would be in the first 10 km, so don't eat too much at breakfast or it will return halfway up the hill. We left under a cloudy sky and chilly.
Two pictures on the way out of town. First the cemetery. Apparently, it contained a number of war graves.
Next is a little lake (reservoir?) on the local river. It's large enough to support a boat rental business. In the lower part of the picture you can see wooden rowboats with nice iron grill seats in the stern - for the lady with her umbrella over her head as her beau rows skillfully around the pond.
My last attempt at a nice shot of the countryside. A bit better - I hope you are getting the impression of how neat and tidy
the countryside is.
A sad photo - the Saltergate Inn, now abandoned alongside the road. It was partway up our first hill climb - a stop in the olden days, but passed by now in the auto age.
We slog up the hill, passing a sign saying 20% slope. I measured one short section at 16%; maybe not 20% but at 300 meters total uphill it was still a grunt.
Another sad picture - the Fox and Rabbit Inn. A beautiful little cafe / accommodation 27 km into the ride. Why is this a sad picture? Because the cafe isn't open yet, so we can't get a Latte.
Joy! 6 km down the road at Thorton le Dale the Cafe and Bakery is open! We eagerly pull up and just about drive the staff crazy. Wonderful Latte & Lemon Sponge cake.
A shot of the main street as we pedal out of town. They have channeled the local creek alongside the street. It raises many questions for Greg the Engineer:
-Who pays for the maintenance of the accesses to the hooses - the owner or the Council?
-What happens during a very hard rainstorm (like many places in England had a few weeks ago)?
-Mosquitos? In some spots there were a lot of weeds growing in the water.
-Someone suggested you could fish from your front door - there haven't been many streams over here that I would eat a fish out of - what with farm everywhere upstream.
A little further along we crossed a bridge and saw this home. From the looks of it I would have to guess it was a mill of some kind in th
e past, powered by a water wheel.
See what I mean about the colour of the water - would you like a fish out of there?
No more pictures on the way today. The weather cleared up and became rather warm. We went from cold with jackets and long pants to short pants and cycling jerseys.
The rest of the ride was generally flat or downhill into York. As usual when we get to town I was too busy riding, navigating and dodging to snap photos. We are staying at a Best Western, but it hardly looks like that. It looks much more like a comfy boutique hotel. Right now I'm sitting in the Lounge (not the bar!) because the Internet in our room is atrocious. Soft lighting, nice comfy chairs, newspapers from around England spread out on a table for browsing, etc. Very civilized (PS - I do have a beer, locally brewed Little Eagle lager)
As soon as we were ready Laura and I lugged out our dirty laundry and walked 2.5 km to a laundromat only to find it closed! For some reason he is only open 9 - 12 on Thursdays (9 - 5 any other day). We find a Dry Cleaner about a km away, but we are too late to get it done this day.
I send Laura walking back to the hotel and walk 3/4 of a km to another laundry. On Thursdays this one closes at 2:30. What is it with Thursdays? We asked the hotel manager and he didn't know.
We console ourselves with a beer and then join 2 others, Ross and Greg (there are 4 Gregs on our bike trip!). We head downtown to the Black Swan, the oldest pub in York. It dates from 1417, when it was the home for the Lord Mayor of York. Great meal and huge servings. Their two most popular dishes are Steak and Ale pie, which Greg had and Yorkshire pie, which Greg had.
Something I hadn't seen before was a 'hand-pump beer tap.' Instead of having a pressurized keg the bar-person pulls non the lever and pumps out the beer. Most taps are still pressurized - it just so happens that this set of taps was all pumps. I guess this proves that I'm just some unsophisticate from the colonies.
Tomorrow is a rest day. We'll get up, have breakfast and bus down to the laundromat, where we hope to have more success than today. Then sightseeing.
