York, Knaresborough & Harrogate

Friday 6th July 2018

Finally we were off on an adventure out of London! We had convinced Sam & Eden to come with us since they had recently been to New York and we said we would take them to old York. It was another stinking hot day in London and the underground was unbearable with no air-conditioning but we made our way to Kings Cross Station where we met Sam & Eden. Being a Friday night the station was very busy and we stood with the rest of the travellers staring up at the screen waiting for our platform to be allocation. We briefed our companions new to this experience of the mad rush towards the train as soon as the platform is allocated despite us having allocates seats already there is also always the issue of luggage since we decided to take our large bag despite it being half full. Sure enough platform 5 popped up next to our train and the wave of people began busting towards it. I had already given them the carriage and seat numbers incase we got separated and sure enough Sam got left behind clearly not accustom to the use of his elbows and loss of manners in such circumstances. The carriage was packed and we had to shoo multiple couples out of our assigned seats as it seemed that they had purchased tickets but weren't able to reserve a seat. Sure enough Grand Central railway had overbooked the train and these people ended up standing the in the isle the entire 2 hour journey to York. Not to mention there was an issue with the aircon ie there was none and they couldn't get a replacement train. Well one thing for sure was that we never had any issues with our tickets since we had purchased tickets with the 16-25 railcard discount of which Sam & Eden didn't end up having, but no one was bothering to check tickets at all. During the journey Lew and I booked Airbnb's and trains to airports for our upcoming trips (France, Luxembourg, Greece, Munich, Morocco, Croatia!) so its always nice to have time like this to get those little jobs done. We arrived into York just before 10pm, the temperature was still mild and we were able to walk 10 minutes to our Airbnb. We were amazed to come out of the train station and see a proper city wall which made us excited to explore the city over the next couple of days. The airbnb wasn't too hard to find and had self check in instructions. The place was rather small and clearly set up for Airbnb purposes as it was full of crappy items. It was cute with a small kitchen and was big enough for all 4 of us. Since Sam & Eden were still getting themselves set up properly in London we booked something with a couch for them to sleep in and a bedroom for us so we could pay more towards the accomodation. After unpacking and showering we snack on my watermelon and courgette loaf before going over some ideas of things to do the next day before calling it a night.

Sun setting behind the dirty train windows

Overbooked train with people having to stand in the isle the entire way, plus no air-con

Saturday 7th July

Lew was adamant that we were heading out for a run at 7am and sure enough the alarm did wake us up. He had planned a run last night for Sam, Lew and I but Sam was still fast asleep and we decided not to wake him. The weather was already warm and the sky told us it promised to be another beautiful hot day. We ran along the top of the town wall, down the river banks of the Ouse, across bridges, through some grassy fields, and in a park scoping out our potential adventures for the day. We promised to bring back some goodies for breakfast and decided to do a classic cooked breakfast. Red faced and sweaty we visited a pork butchers called Appletons' Butcher and brought some fresh smoked bacon and free range eggs, then we shot across the road to the famous Bettys' Cafe which was selling loaves of bread and English muffins. To finish off we visited Marks & Spencers' down the road to gather other essential items such as mushrooms, tomatoes, spinach, orange juice and chocolate milk. Lew was still convinced we could run the final 1km home with all of this in our hands and a brown paper bag and we did so for a couple of minutes before he dropped the chocolate milk. I refused to run incase we lost our precious eggs and we walked the last 10 minutes with the sun in our faces that was really starting to get some heat in it. Cooking it all up we had a bit of a feast to start the day before heading out back into the sunshine. The wall surrounding the city is known as the 'Bar walls of York' and our Airbnb looks out onto a section of the wall. This seemed like the obvious choice to begin the day with as we were able to walk along the wall which is actually 3.4km long surrounding the township and is the most well preserved wall in England. City walls around York were first built by the Romans in approx. 71AD however during the Viking era in 867 AD the walls had fallen into disrepair. The Normans came next in the 10th century but the walls we can now see were build in 1226 by King Henry III who imposed tax on anyone bringing in goods to the city to pay a tax to allow the walls to be up-kept. The current wall conceals the earlier defences that the Romans, Vikings and Normans built. In the 1800's the walls almost became a thing of the past as the city council applied to parliament to improve the city thus demolishing the city walls. The townspeople protested and thankfully save the walls allowing future generations to enjoy a small chunk of the past and imagine what it might have been like to live within such a small town boundary. The entire walk takes around 2 hours and would allow you to see the medieval fortified gateways called a 'bar' on all four sides of the wall but we used them to allow us to walk into town giving us a view over the city itself. The first stop of the day was to the Museum Gardens which we had run through and had the most impressive ruins in the center of it. We discovered that this was the remains of St Mary's Abbey which was first build in 1088 and was once one of the wealthiest and most powerful Benedictine monasteries in England. The Abbey used to occupy the entire site of the museum gardens and sat opposite the York Minister. King Henry VIII (8th) banned all monasteries in England in 1530 and St Mary's Abbey was converted into a palace for when the King visited York. However, the building gradually fell into ruins and now all that is left is the North and West walls but you can see enough of the remains to imagine the grandiosity of the Abbey. We wandered through the edible wood before reaching the stunning York Minister. The Minister is also called St Peters and it was built over 250 years, between 1220 and 1472. It does cost to get in and there was also a ridiculous line to enter plus it was stinking hot and none of us are overly religious so we admired it from the outside. The streets were full of other tourists in the small streets with mismatched buildings listing over above us. I really dont know how these are even meet a building code since they clearly are not even and I would hate to see what a mess an earthquake would make of such towns. Thankfully the UK doesn't have such issues. We found the Shambles Market which is a market selling produce and hand made items and is open 7 days a week. There were many stalls selling ripe fresh berries and it didn't take much for us to be tempted into buying some raspberries, strawberries and brambles (or black berries as we call them at home). These fruit stalls lead onto the famous Shambles street which us a narrow cobblestone street with beautifully preserved Elizabethan buildings lining the sides and hanging precariously over the street. The Shambles was historically a street that sold meat products but today it is filled with an array of chocolatiers, fudge shops, jewellery stores, bakeries and pubs. Feeling a little over the mass of other tourists around this famous street we decided to take a break and go back to the Museum gardens with some snacks. It was a hot day of at least 29 degrees and we all grabbed some sort of cold drink each plus some sweet potato chips and found ourselves a cool stop in the grass to enjoy our fresh market berries as well. Feeling a bit more energetic we were heading out of the park when we discovered some birds of prey that you could pay money to hold. They were rescue birds and there were many different types such a a beautiful Owl called Ollie and multiple Hawks. We didnt have much interest in holding them but were impressed at the way the owl could basically turn his head a full circle like it was on some sort of swivel. Turns out that they can turn 270 degrees in each direction whereas if humans did the same thing they would tear the lining of the arteries in our neck causing strokes as well as breaking our necks of course. Scientists believe that this is because the holes in the vertebrae of the animal are much larger which allows the vessels to move more freely and cushion the movement with the air surrounding the vessel. Facinating stuff! However the bird that of course stole the show was a hawk called Roland who needed feeding. He got let out of the cage and off leash and was able to fly around being coaxed back to the trainers hands with the enticement of food. They were being fed day old chickens since the male chickens are unable to lay eggs they are disposed of humanly by being frozen fast basically. So these small fluffy items is what the hawk was swooping down on for his dinner. Once he lands he shelters his food using his wings since he thinks that we are all wanting to steal this off him...as if! After watching him swoop down multiple times and fail catching something out of the air (he is only 1 years old so hes still perfecting that trick) we continued on to a small arts and crafts market down the river side which we had seen them setting up for on our run earlier in the day. First we did pick up some icecream of which they had some dairy free options - dark chocolate and mango! There were numerous stalls of cute handmade items and Eden was pretty keen on the strawberry jam and scone smelling soy candle. ***Speak about Cliffords Tower **We wandered around admiring some of the house boats parked up on the river side before discussing the options for the afternoon. Most shops and stores were closing at 3pm today as England was playing Sweden in the World Cup ?quater finals and naturally the boys were interested in the match too. There were no outdoor screens and unfortunately majority of the pubs you had to buy tickets to get into so we were a bit out of luck. Those that wernt ticketed were jam packed and with it being such a nice day us girls decided we really wernt interested. Our Airbnb had a TV so Lew went to grab some snacks so they could settle in there to watch it. The TV had no remote so thankfully we had Lews laptop on hand to stream it with. Us girls donned our bikinis and walked to a nearby park called Rowntree Park where we relaxed in the sunshine and free country air for a couple of hours. The boys met us post game at the park letting us know that England won 2-1 (we already knew based off the shouting coming from the surrounding pubs and houses). We lazed around, drunk wine and ate bread for a few more hours as the sun still had a lot of heat in it. Walking home at about 7.30pm we dropped into a Thai place down Bishopthorpes Road which had good reviews and booked a table for 4. We all quickly changed and showered before walking 5 minutes back down the street for dinner. The Thai was a.m.a.z.i.n.g and it was honestly the best we have had in a long time. Feeling rather stuffed we spit the bill wiht it surprisingly only coming out to £25 per couple and walked slowly home via a supermarket for Lew to get an icecream. We made plans for tomorrow tossing up all sorts of ideas to get us to close by water holes and even out to the coastal towns for a swim in the sea. We decided that the easiest plan was to head to the small towns of Knaresborough and Harrogate by train which only cost ?£30 return for us all. We could have hung around York for another day but we felt we had seen most of the sights and majority of things would be closed anyways. With a plan in place we headed our seperate ways to bed ready for another day of adventures.

Barges/house boats parked up on the banks

Watching some of Wimbledon before the Football World cup game starts

Sunbathing in the gardens close to our Airbnb

The pubs were too busy and the TV in the Airbnb had no remote so streaming the football on the laptop was the only option

York growing competition and flower show was on this weekend

Roland protects his food with his wings thinking we will steal it off him...unlikely!

The biggest fan of slushies, coke and milkshakes I have EVER met!

Sunday 8th July

Thankfully Lew was too exhausted to run this morning so we had a bit more of a sleep in since we had to check out of the Airbnb by 10am but the first train to Harrogate was at 1047am. There was place called "Left luggage" which is where we decided we would store our bags whilst we explored more of Yorkshire. We really did need a car to get the most of the area but we knew that for next time. We caught the small two carriage train through a lot of small rural towns before getting off at Knaresborough to look around. This is a place that I had read about in quite a few blogs and it certainly seemed like the typical quintessential English town. We walked up to the Castle which we were surprised to find in ruins. The castle remains we see now date from the early 14th century and it had at one point been the summer home of Queen Philippa (wife of King Edward III). Basically the more appealing reason to walk up here is the view of the River Nidd and the Knaresborough viaduct in which the train passes over on a elegant stone bridge with high arches. We took numerous photos of the same backdrop as it became cuter and cuter as you walked further down and the small cafes and rowing boats came into view. Lots of people were out on the water paddling around but it didn't seem like a swimming destination. We walked a short way to 'the house in the rocks' which was on our list of things to do but disappointingly found that it had been deemed unsafe and closed a few years ago. There was a small basically hole in the wall/cave called 'Chapel of our lady the Crag' which we poked our head into but there wasn't much to see. Sam was starving at this point so we made our way back towards the cafes to get us a spot of lunch. A places called 'The Black Mulberry' caught our eyes and we found an outside table and ordered a panini for Eden, fish n chips for me and burgers for the boys. Post lunch we had made the decision to go out on the boat for a short while before making our way to Harrogate to see that briefly before having to train home. We hired a boat for £6 ($11.60 nzd) per person for an hour and fitted all 4 of us into the small row boat. The boys were up first with an oar each stroking in time up the river. We had many other boats to dodge but Eden was doing a good job of being the cox and steering. the boys were having a grand old time and us girls took some footage and some photos of the bridge and surrounding riverside. At the top of the river there were many families hanging out in the water and enjoying the hot weather. This was when it was us girls turn to row. I had seriously been missing rowing and often stared at single boats gliding gracefully and effortlessly down flat rivers wishing I could use one myself. This was a good substitute and I was able to teach everyone how to sweep oar properly (although for you rowers out there its basically just bodys over since you have no slide) including feathering the oar just above the water top. The only issue was that the boys were horrific at steering so we spent a lot of time back paddling away from the walls of the bridge and other boats. To no fault of our own we had a very near miss with a bunch of Asian tourists but it was all very low speed and no damage done. It took us just under an hour since we wernt exactly going at a lesuirly pace like everyone else. Sam got some drone footage of us rowing and also of the bridge when we were waiting to catch the 1412 train to Harrogate. Its only a 10 minute journey and we knew we wouldn't be able to see all of the town in one go anyways. Hopping on the train it was such a short ride no one even had time to come around and check tickets. Getting off at Harrogate we realised the town was much bigger than Knaresborough but it was like a ghost town as mostly everything was shut with it being a Sunday. We wandered a few lanes and briefly set foot in the original Betty Cafe but it was much too hot to sit down and have tea and scones - perhaps we can come back during the winter! We settled for grabbing some snacks for our train back to London at Marks and Spencers before relaxing on the grass in the park for a short while. We caught the 1541 train back to York which got us back in at 1420 with plenty of time to pick up our bags before our train to London Kings X at 1710. We sort refuge in the Starbucks which was the only place with air-conditioning whilst we waited. Our Virgin Trains train turned up slightly late and to our disappointment just as our trip up here the carriage we were in had broken aircon. It was much much more uncomfortable than our journey up to York despite there not being anyone standing in the corridors. Lew's watch said it was about 33 degrees in the carriage with the heat of the sun also coming into the windows. Kinda just felt like a hot yoga session for me and I was able to eat and write this blog reasonably comfortable. It worked in our favour though as no one checked our tickets again so we never had to deal with Sam & Edens ticket issue of not having a railcard. They did hand out cold water a couple of times and turned the cabin lights off as per Lews request to ease the heat at least. I wonder if we can get refunded tickets? We were very pleased to finally arrive in Kings cross and emerging from the train it felt rather pleasant and cool. However this wasnt for long as we entered the underground and made our way home on the un-airconditioned stinking hot Victoria line trains. Another weekend done and dusted and we were certainly lucky with the ongoing beautiful weather we are getting in the UK - even though we all still complain about it. *After complaining to Virgin trains about the trip home we managed to get 4 free tickets to use on any journey! Thank you Virgin!

The UK never ceases to amaze me with their beautiful flower baskets

Chapel of Our Lady of the Crag - literally a hole in the wall

This old girl loved a pat, she even had freckles on her nose

Yes the 2014 Tour de France did come through Harrogate!

York station, bombed by German Zepplins in WW1 in May 1916

A man had three pet Ravens you could pay to hold, whats with people and birds up here?

ShannenJuly 6, 2018Knaresborough, Football world cup, Harrogate, Bettys tearooms, The Shambles, The Shambles Market, London Kings Cross