On the road again. A day of travel. A day of getting to a destination. A day of enforced confinement in the van. However…as we zipped along, in our least favourite mode of travel, we did again have the beautiful, stunning, glorious scenery all around us. A shame it was speeding by again, but splendid it was, nonetheless. We’ve been zigzagging a bit, going up and down and up and down, we zigged up to Wales, then zagged across to Liverpool, then zigged down to Stoke, now we were zagging again, up to Yorkshire. On our last visit here, a few moths ago, we travelled through the Yorkshire moors, but we didn’t get to the Dales, so that’s where we were heading.
Our route back up the Isle took us through the Peak District again and through the National Park, so we travelled on the other side of the District, to that which we’d explored a couple of days ago. We saw more gorgeous rolling hills, tiny villages and teeny cottages, clusters of stone houses set in valleys and along hillsides and the white confetti scattered across the hills, which was of course, the sheep. The scenery here still dazzles me. I know we have stunning scenery and views at home, so I wondered again, what the difference might be here. I still think it’s just the scale that takes my breath away. The vastness of it. As we motor up hills and down the other side, the views that spread before us are so vast and so sweeping and uninterrupted, that they are just gasp-inducing. It’s just a shame that the motorised transport makes it so hard to photograph and the lens can never truly capture what the eye sees anyway, so take my word for it, it was stunning.
After winding and whizzing our way through the Peaks of Derbyshire, we entered Yorkshire, shot through Leeds and then reached our destination of Harrogate in North Yorkshire, on the edge of the Dales. It looks like a lovely town, what we saw of it in the fading light. We just know it’s a spa town and was frequented by the gentry in Victorian times, to promenade along the streets and bathe in the spring waters. Oh, and I know Taylor’s of Harrogate tea, but that’s about all. It looks like it will be a nice place to explore. As we drove in, I still can’t get used to seeing kids in their school uniforms, walking home from school in the dark. It’s dusk at 3:30 and dark at 4:00, so we often see groups of students leaving school or parents walking hand in hand with little tackers, school backpacks over their shoulders, heading home in the “evening” light. Not much outside play time happening now I guess.
We are now staying in a lovely little apartment in the centre of Harrogate, perfectly situated for some roaming tomorrow. We have the luxury of a kitchen again… and a table… and a washing machine! Oh, the little things we travellers now cherish! It even has a little Christmas tree sitting in the corner of the lounge room.
Given the somewhat eventless day and lean nature of today’s post, I’ll sign off again with some more of those good ol’ pub signs.
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