6 Aug 2013 – Yorkshire Dales

Mon 5Aug 2013 – Day 10 Reeth – Richmond 12.5m/20km  0700-1330hrs

Started early in the rains, heard that there is an interesting castle in Richmond and hoping to get early in to see the town. Wet path by the lone tree and at the church in Grinton by the river, but pretty even in the rains. Wet wet wet along the riverside but again dressed for this weather.

Slight uphill towards the village of Marrick and continuing on to Marske. Still wet, thus leaving the camera in the waterproof pouch and decided to push on to Richmond getting in with an afternoon to see this interesting town with a castle. Even managed to buy a rain-cover GBP7 S$14 for the backpack (now into Gator colour, blue raincoat with an orange backpack cover!). Got the hair cropped GPB16 S$32, so perhaps will not colour hair after this hike 🙂

Richmond is a market town and civil parish on the River Swale and is the administrative centre of the district of Richmondshire. This is the first town on the trail and has a pop of app 10,000. A fine Georgian town which has changed little through the centuries. The 11th century castle (entry GBP4.30 S$8.50) built originally in Norman times and the Church of St Trinity are the dominant features of the town.

View from the top of the castle into the Market Square. The cobbled streets around the square are a reminder of student days in Dublin’s Trinity College!

Friary Gardens and Tower

Not usually a pizza fan but La Piazza*** was recommended by the owners of Butt House in Keld and the thin crust pizza was good (1 small pizza+a glass of wine GBP12 S$24). The room at Willance House (reputedly the oldest remaining house in Richmond) is absolutely charming and now sitting at the bay window enjoying the rains and listening to the church bells chiming for 1800hrs as this blog is recorded. Today’s pix have all been taken in grey and rainy sky, thus not that good!

Night: Mon 5Aug at Willance House Frenchgate Richmond. Room with a view and bathroom attached+breakfast+packed lunch GBP60 S$117

Some people create their own storms, then get upset when it rains – unknown

31 Jul 2013 – Lake District-Cumbria/2

Tuesday 30Jul 2013 – Day 4 Grasmere – Patterdale 9m/14.5k 0830-1400hrs

Treat to have the extra time for this shorter mileage day. Got up at 0600hrs as usual to hear the rain, dozed for another hour or so and the rains stopped by the time the feet hit the trail.

Leaving Grasmere with the view of Helm Crag in the background and slowly ascending a rocky path with the new path under construction parallel to this path across the stream.

Long climb uphill but was worth all the effort with weather and views like today. Whoever built the stone way further up is an angel. Unlike the rugged ones just on, these are quite a luxury. Turning back to say goodbye to the delightful village of Grasmere.

Took me 2hrs (others will do in 1hr!) to get up to GrisedaleTarn and it was nice to see a lone camper by the tarn. Must have been peaceful in spite of the rains during the night.

Heading downwards towards Grisedale Valley to be pleasantly surprised by this Ruthwaite Lodge.

These stone fences and houses never fail to impress me. And more so now as some of the fences go all the up to where it would take me 2hrs to get to the end of the fence! How on earth did they manage to carry those stone all the way up to these mountains.

Into Patterdale village passing by St Patrick’s Church where there will be an organ recital tonight. Will try to stay up to attend.

The centre of the village. Staying in a real working farm app a quarter-mile from the main drag, hopefully not too much baa from the sheep tonight. Pass by this sign post to the farm. Am told that the Red squirrels are a native here!

Night: Tue 30Jul at Noran Bank Farm Patterdale, for B&B +a packed lunch GBP35 S$68

Do not know if there will be time, energy or fast internet access to blog with so many words again! Have been told that tomorrow will be the roughest day of the whole hike… !!!

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze – William Wordsworth

27 Jul 2013 – Stonehouse Farm

St Bees: between the 6th-9th century, Bega, an Irish princess fled here to avoid an arranged marriage with a Norwegian prince. And so the legend goes, she landed here and lived as a hermit and became famous for her good deeds.. She approached the local land owner Lord Egremont for land to build a convent.

Egremont was not generous and promised Bega all the land covered by snow the next day, considering as it was to be mid summer’s day. Miraculously snow did fell that day and Bega was able to get the land and built the convent.

26 Jul 2013 – To St Bees

Thu: Train from Milton Keynes – Manchester 1.5hrs – St Bees (change in Carlisle, with 10mins delay and made the St Bees just in time!) 3hrs, GBP36 S$68.

Thank you KV & Christine for putting me up and for all their kind hospitality.  Drive from Godmanchester – MiltonK Station 1hr. MiltonK is a new station and the only station I have seen where one has their bicycle undercover. According to the police, it looks tidy and we were thinking more on the security side 🙂

ManchesterP Station is a brand new station and like many modern designs, they lack something!  Had some time to spare and took a short walk around the area which has more character. The fire station and the church across the road are more impressive for these ageing eyes 🙂 🙂

St Bees is a total contrast from the other 2 mentioned stations, charming and welcoming village.  A walk to the starting point for the hike was quite delightful after a whole day on trains and stations.

Fri: how lovely to meet up with cousin YEO YatSoon (9th auntie’s only child and son) & family who are starting their summer holiday in this area. The last time we meet was in 2000 and now he&Helen are proud parents of 2 lovely girls. Spent the afternoon catching up and getting to know Merle&Mei-mei who was having an ear infection. Poor baby and she was in such good spirits. Appreciate them for taking time to meet and tkx to YatSoon for bringing a box of old B/W pix from his mother’s times from SIN for us to look thru’.

If you would be known, and not know, vegetate in a village; if you would know, and not be known, live in a city – Charles Caleb Colton

23 Jul 2013 – Apple Market

Tue: Happy 2nd Birthday James my 5th grandchild/USA (Linn & Jeff’s #5). For a moment I thought the pix is of his sister! Just goes to show that either time has gone by too quickly or that the eye sight is going downhill with the rest…

Mon: welcome to the royal baby who arrived on one of the hottest days 22 Jul 4-24pm followed by a night of thunders and storms; much-needed rains after over a week of hot dry spells. Will the baby be named James?? Also the day where the bombing and shootings happened 2yrs ago in Norway.

A lovely 15mins walk from Paul’s to the station, crossing railway lines, blissful residential areas and meadows. Got to the station in time for the 0723 train to realise that my return ticket was for off-peak hours. 1min walk to Ashtead Cafe for a 2 eggs and bacon breakfast started another perfect day.

Thanks to Paul’s clear instruction from Waterloo to Covent Garden Market (started 7th century). In the 13th century, the monks’ ‘convent garden’ became a major source of fruit and vegetables in London and, for the next 700 years, Covent Garden became inexorably linked with fresh fruit and veg.

Was just stopping by in between trains to check out stuff for the MacBook Air! Silly me, was looking for the Apple Store at Covent Gardens to discover that the Apple Market was not it. But found the Apple Store across from the market at The Piazza…

Around 1200 the first mention of an abbey garden appears in a document mentioning a walled garden owned by the Benedictine monks of the Abbey of St Peter Westminster. A later document, dated between 1250 and 1283, refers to ‘the garden of the Abbot and Convent of Westminster’  By the 13th century this had become a 40-acre (16 ha) quadrangle of mixed orchard, meadow, pasture and arable land, lying between modern-day St. Martin’s Lane and Drury Lane, and Floral Street and Maiden Lane.

The use of the name ‘Covent’—an Anglo-French term for a religious community, equivalent to ‘monastery’ or ‘convent’—appears in a document in 1515, when the Abbey, which had been letting out parcels of land along the north side of the Strand for inns and market gardens, granted a lease of the walled garden, referring to it as ‘a garden called Covent Garden’. This is how it was recorded from then on. Info from Wikipedia.

Train from Covent Garden to King’s Cross. Decided to take a walk to be pleasantly surprised to an impressive St Pancras, originally a medieval parish, now a four in one, church, hospital, hotel and station. London is full of wonderful history and hopefully will be able to check it out more in cooler days some other time…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Pancras,_London

I’m not smart, but I like to observe. Millions saw the apple fall, but Newton was the one who asked why – William Hazlitt