June 8 - Around York

Today, I had 3 objectives, Laura had two:

-Laundry

-Visit York Minstwer

-Visit The National Railroad Museum (not on Laura's list)

We got to the laundromat and it was open.  Dropped off the laundry.  There's no need for  me to include pictures of dirty laundry in the blog, so that one is taken care of.

York is famous for a number of things, and one is the wall around the city.  It's very extensive, well built of stone and you can walk on sections of it.  Here's a shot of a short section - it's 15 feet down without a railing on the right side.

Enough about the wall; onto York Minster, the largest Medieval cathedral in Northern Europe.  The site was fist inhabited 2000 years ago; the present cathedral was begun 800 years ago. 

A couple of shots from the outside. The extra height attained by this structure was due to it having wooden framed roofs, which are much lighter than stone.  

Gargoyles near the entrance.

A view down the Nave from the West end.  That's the organ in the back of the photo, but there is still the Quire and the East End behind.

Two of the many huge stained glass windows. 

This is called the King's Screen, just under the organ.  The statues are of the 15 kings that ruled during the construction of the Norman and medieval cathedrals.

One of the many crypts - this one is for Walter de Gray; Archbishop 1215 - 1255.

Many of the crypts were simple black slabs on the floor - you would walk over them if you weren't careful. 






















I paid extra for the privilege of climbing the 275 steps of the central tower to the highest point in York.


A shot of the flying buttresses halfway up.




At the top I had a nice chat with the (volunteer?) staff member up there.  He comes up in the morning and chaperones each of the groups as they spend time up there.

Interesting facts:
-There are 20 masons working on replacing weathered stones at any given time.  The stone is a magnesium limestone, so it will weather.
-When they replace a stone, they make it to the original dimensions of that stone, instead of making it flush with the adjacent, weathered stones.  If they made the new one flush, then eventually the cathedral would shrink.

A view of the town.


















The west towers.  Look very carefully at the right side, just below the upper spires.  You may pick out  .....




this fellow.  Nesting Peregrine Falcons.
















A final view of some of the detail in the spires.


It would be easy to spend all day and take a zillion pictures, but I'll leave it there.  You'll just have to go and see it for yourself.

 After York Minster we had a coffee and snack and went back to the hotel so Laura could rest a bit.  This meant I could go out and get into trouble on my own.  My choice, of many choices, was to see the National Railway Museum.  A bit of a contrast to the morning's excursion.


This was Queen Victoria's saloon car that she used to travel in.





One of the many engines on display. (I forgot to take good netes about it)

 A replica of one of the very first steam engines.







I could go on & on, but I won't, partially because the battery in my camera died.  Suffice it to say that the place is huge, including an extensive display of the Flying Scotsman.  Also, there are lots of displays of more modern equipment, including one of the original Japanese Bullet Train Locomotives.

I'll leave it there for now.  I have lots of more photos, but space doesn't permit.  After the museum there was my adventure where I was trying to exchange my Northern Irish pounds (not generally accepted by retailers south of Scotland), but I won't regale you with it.

Time to prepare for tomorrow's 105 km to Gimby.  Not as much vertical (yay!).


Oh yes, our laundry arrives back a the hotel, nice & clean and it was all there.

June 7 - Whitby to York

A shorter ride today - only 82 km.  We stayed in the Angel Hotel in Whitby.  Great dinner last night - best fish & chips I've had so far.  Nice place, but slightly unorganized to handle a crowd like us - especially at breakfast, where you have 30 people wanting various variations on a huge breakfast in a hurry, so they can blast off on the road. 

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.  

June 6 - Newcastle to Whitby

I see nobody noticed I got the date wrong on yesterday's post.  Will fix.

Today was our toughest yet; although not the longest.  119 km. but with over 1400 meters of climbing (climbing Mt. Washington to the lodge is 1100 meters vertical).

We started from the hotel in Newcastle and worked our way out of town.  Cloudy and chilly, but not raining.  At about 37 km we left the road and went onto a portion of the National Cycling Network, a set of connecting trails for cyclists.  A lot of the trails are not that great for touring bikes, and can be muddy, so Gergo (tour leader) had been avoiding them until now.  This one was quite dry and was an old rail bed.  It was easy to ride on, and was mostly below the adjacent grade (no views).  With the trees growing over it often seemed like travelling in a tunnel.  We rode about 10 km of the trail and went under about 5 of these old brick overpasses.  Most of them seemed disused now.


A bonus at the end.  An old train station (Thorpe Thewles) had been converted into a tea room.  Latte & a warm scone with clotted cream and jam.  Wonderful!











Maybe a bad spot to pull over for a pee, eh?  (I survived)









As usual, we stopped for lunch about midway through the ride.  After lunch the serious hill climbing started.  Not super high (a bit over 250 meters) but steep and lots of them.  It also got foggy, drizzly and cold.  Didn't they tell them it's June!



At the top of one of the hills I tried for a photo of the farm fields through the fog.  I used one of the fancy settings on the camera to make the landscape stand out more, which also makes the fields greener than they actually look.  But you can see the pretty landscape.







Down the a hill and into one of the villages (Aislaby, I think) we passed this nice old house with the sign "Duke of Wellington, Accommodation."  











Laura and I stopped for a snack at the top of the last major hill.  It was beside a sheep farm, where the locals got interested in us when we started munching on M&Ms.

Too cute!!




















After that it was mostly downhill to Whitby.  Into our hotel, showers and a trip to the Black Horse, the local bar recommended by one of the staff of our bike tour company.  

Whitby is a fishing town on the east coast, and also a popular tourist destination.  Great Fish & Chips for dinner (with another beer, of course).

The most prominent feature on the hill overlooking Whitby is the Whitby Abbey, built in the 7th century.

Here are two long distance photos of it.  Unfortunately, to late arriving and no time to visit.

Left side of hill.

And to the right of the above.















As I mentioned Whitby is a fishing town.  Here is a view across the harbour from our hotel.

The inner boat harbour.  Very busy with a lot of boats, yachts and I saw a couple of 4 person rowing teams practicing as well.

And here is the low bridge at the entrance to the harbour.  It is not connected in the centre; it opens by both halves rotating on huge bearings on each side.  I don't think I've seen this style before.









I'll finish today with the Complaint department.  In the last two hotels we've stayed in, both bathrooms are equipped with toilets with RECTANGULAR seats.  Who invented those???
Do you know anybody whose behind would fit comfortably on those, especially somebody whose butt has just pedaled over 300 km in the last 3 days?

June 5 - Seahouses to Newcastle upon Tyne

A shorter day today - 91 km with no large hills.  Cloudy morning turning into a beautiful day in the afternoon.

Castle & modern history time.  This is Alnwick Castle.  I don't know any of its ancient history but its modern history includes being used for some of the exterior shots in the Harry Potter series.  







A closer view.  We didn't go in, but rode around it getting pictures.

This was taken from a bridge over a stream adjacent the castle.  I don't know what it's about, but the title "Lion with a Poker Up His Butt" comes to mind.

(Greg - don't be so disrespectful!)

Further along, here's a typical railway crossing - barriers and a small gate house.

Further along, another lovely place for us to have lunch.  From a plaque in the adjacent park I learned that this was the site of the
Bedlington Iron & Engine works 1736 - 1867.  The locomotive shop was on the other side of the river.

The roads today were all secondary roads - narrow, but not a lot of traffic and generally good pavement.

Today's educational segment is Roundabout Etiquette.  Here is a typical sign.  
Is anybody familiar with any of the names, other than Newcastle?

Problem - most of the roundabouts have two traffic lanes, inner and outer.

Rule 1 - Traffic entering the roundabout must yield to traffic already in it.  I can handle that.

Rule 2 - If you are going from one entrance to the adjacent exit you must stay in the outer lane.  (You will be tested later).

Rule 3 - If you are going around 2 roads (eg. in the bottom & out the top), you may stay in either lane as you go around.  

Rule 4 - If you are going around 3 roads (eg. in the bottom & out the right side) you must go into the inner lane as you enter the roundabout and then cross over the outer lane when you are exiting.  You have the right of way in your lane and as you are exiting.  

My problem - I'm pedaling my fragile bike & unprotected body through at 15 kmh and the vehicles around are flying by at 50 - 60 kmh, I need to have a lot of faith that they will obey the rules and give me the right of way, as opposed to making me road kill (which we see a fair amount of, incidentally).



Then there is this monstrosity.  Rule 3 actually applies for going around 3 or more roads.

Thanks to Tim & Judy Soles from New Zealand for patiently trying to explain this to me (and probably getting a few giggles from my concerned looks).

My solution:
Where Rules 2 & 3 apply I will stay in the outer lane of the roundabout.  If Rule 4 applies I will change it to Rules 2 or 3 by going into and out of the roundabout and doing U-turns on the adjacent roads as often as necessary (possibly while becoming a pedestrian for the U-turn.)


I dunno.  Drivers at home do not respect the concept of right away enough for me to feel comfortable!  

No pictures of the countryside today, although there are lots of pretty spots.  


As we entered into Newcastle, we went through half a dozen roundabouts (safely!) and pedaled towards our hotel we went downhill towards the river and turned right (still safely) and all of a sudden saw 4 bridges spaced closely together.   Two for vehicles only, one for rail only and one double decker with rail on top & vehicles on the bottom. 

On the other side of the river is this, the Sage Gateshead.  It's a music venue & cultural centre.

Our hotel overlooks the river.  The trains crossing the bridge may be a noisy - hopefully they don't run often at night.

Here's a better view of the bridges looking east.  We will be crossing the red & white one tomorrow, as we leave for Whitby.

Before dinner we visited the Centurion Pub, a converted passenger lounge in the train station behind the hotel.

There is lots more to see here, but unfortunately no time.  Another, longer stay is required.

Off to bed for some sleep, where I will probably be having roundabout nightmares!