June 17, Dales Way 1/4 of Day 1

 I did begin the Dales Way today.  The thing is, I did not do a FULL stage because Grassington, where I want to go from Ilkley, where I am, is about between 19-21.5 miles depending on who is measuring. SO, I walked to Bolton Bridge (which means nothing unless you are doing it) and back to Ilkley, about 12 miles.  One could not say that it was difficult except that for the first hour and a half or so, I had to put on and take off the rain gear about six times.  "Why bother taking it off," you may ask.  Because it is hot.  Doffing and donning is an annoying and time consuming business.  It really slows you down. But the walk was quite pretty.  Very pretty, I'd say.  We are in James Herriot country, after all!

Sign marking the offical starting point::

And it really is about that blurry!

First sheep of the trip:

And first cows:

 There were many sweet stone houses with gorgeous gardens, or, in this case, climbing roses:

Church and cemetery:

Oh, those dry stone walls!  They are fast disappearing because they are too difficult to maintain.  But they are the essence of the Dales, are they not...well, without the barbed wire!

Black sheep:

There were some wonky stiles for sure:

One knock-out gorgeous bridge:

Bird with orangey tuft:

There was a moment of panic today when I thought I had lost my battery pack and the money I keep aside for quick access.  Honestly, I worried more about the battery pack as I have already had occasion to use it.  A DEAD PHONE = DISASTER. I thought that with all that taking off and putting on the rain garments, both could have fallen out of the pack.  I was lucky! I simply had not looked in the right pocket, and I was luckier still, because in Ilkley, there is a small tech store that carries such items.  Organization of "stuff" is a challenge.  Hopefully, after a few days, I will be "all sorted!"

June 16 Leeds

6:30 a.m. out the door to head off to Round Hay Park, some 4 1/2 miles distant.  It was quite an ugly walk although the park itself is big and beautiful.  I did not spend much time exploring because I wanted to visit the Royal Armouries Museum again—and the park is VERY BIG— after which I would be heading off to Ilkley, where the Dales Way starts.

I did take a tour around the lake, though.

Real ducks:

Not real, and not a duck:

Rhododendrons across the lake:

Another perspective:

Tree stump repurposed

"Within a Frisbee Throw!"

The river front at Leeds:

Back at the Royal Armouries Museum where one could easily spend a full day.  They have really good videos about a variety of topics one might not expect.  I watched one about Westerns.  Turns out—sorry to disappoint—that all those gun fights in the movies were totally so not the way it was.  For example it was really hard to actually hit anyone even from not far away. Bottom line:  The West was not so wild after all.  

I also listened to a talk on longbows. I don't have the energy to describe, so click on the link!

Who does not  like a decorated weapon?

Get a load of this Japanese horse and rider!

Black horse, no rider! Click on photo to better see the stirrups:

A fact:

War elephant: 

He is worth two views!

And, if you are interested in this particular elephant and a bit of controversy, read the reddit thread and for war elephants in general, the Wikipedia entry (even though I am very down on Wikipedia these days), and there are a bunch of other sources out there.

The Asian exhibits were great; the only problem was that to protect the fabrics and other materials, the lighting is kept low, so a bit hard to read the descriptions, and not easy to photograph. You just have to go see for yourself!  

My original plan had been to stay in Leeds tonight and leave early tomorrow morning, but I had booked the Air B&B in Ilkley an extra day so that I could enter at, say, 7:00 a.m., and then take off to hike. But since Leeds is well, just not great, and the hotel was a little bit depressing,  I decided to take off in the afternoon, and have the extra night in Ilkley.  Good decision!  Ilkley is a lovely town with good groceries nearby and the AirB&B is super nice.  Very happy to be here.

June 15, York

 Back in 1190, there was a  pogrom in York.  I am not sure that is the best way to begin an account of the day, but since it is bound to crop up, why not just get it out of the way.  I don't know what York looked like back then, but it has some beautiful spaces today and tons of tourists.  The best way to see such a city is to get out early in the morning while most people are still abed.  You'd be surprised what a difference that makes.  

York is about 1/2 hour from Leeds by train, making a day trip very doable.  Alex Allain would not miss this for the world because he could practice the piano right in the York station, if this guy—whose picture will not move to the middle— would give him a turn, that is!

The first thing I did was walk a portion of the city wall, only a portion either because that is all there is in the direction I chose or I could not find the continuance.   Now, I am not 100% sure about this, but I think cattle grazed on the open side of the wall where the grass is.  If they didn't why on earth not!

Speaking of pianos, before being interrupted by the city wall, I must say that there are a lot of harpsichords or clavichords in York.  Here is one at the Fairfax House, a Georgian townhouse open for viewing:

And sheet music, too!

Among other objets d'arts at Fairfax House was a writing desk that was decorated with exquisite inlayed designs of died ivory (something is wrong with that word order!):

Each of the designs was slightly different one from another, which, at first glance, one might not notice.  Very clever!  (Sorry, no examples for you to compare.)

Fairfax House has the most enthusiastic volunteers one could hope to encounter!  They will tell you anything and everything.  Overall, though, the rooms are too cluttered with such doodads as stuffed mice and fake flowers...lots and lots and lots of stuffed mice!  (Whatever for?)

York has a Cathedral, The Minster, which, apparently, costs £30,000.00, yes, thirty thousand pounds, a day to run. 

The Minster even has its own YouTube page (or does one say channel?)!

It, York, that is, not the Cathedral, also displays several fab animal topiaries:

Most of them you are not allowed to sit on, but this fellow may be the exception:

When animals are not grazing in the keep or being converted from shrubs to lions and whatnot, they are put to use advertising woolen scarves:

Phone booth repurposed as a defibrillator depot:

Once an Abbey..... before Henry VIII  went on a rampage:

The York Castle Museum has the most unusual time line ever!  For example, here you see poor Margaret Clitherow being pressed to death:  Euuhgh  that is so gross! (Remember to click on the photos to enlarge.)

And Robert Aske being hanged: 

As opposed to conventional hanging, this kind of hanging made the poor wretch suffer for days.

And that Joseph Hansom was from York:

I learned that corsets could not be laundered because the stays , no matter what they were made of, would disintegrate: 

And the blurb insisted that Victorian women, contrary to popular knowledge, did not wear skirts to cover their ankles, rather the length was above the boot line.

 The best exhibit was a take off of  Tipu's Tiger who lives at the Victoria and Albert in London.  While the real Tiger has a music box inside, this one, if fed a £1 coin,  moves about and roars, after a fashion, and the woman rolls her eyes and kicks her feet.  Not as impressive as the original, but amusing.

Back in Leeds, I picked up some Chinese food, less than not great.  In fact, most everything I have bought including fruit and vegetables has been of a most inferior quality.  Ah, well.

June 13-14, 2026. Departure and Arrival

 People ask, "So...how was your trip?" Then they brace themselves, dreading that you might actually go ahead and tell them.  I am going to do just that.  First there was Raj, who was to drive me to JFK.  I had to tell him my my address on three different occasions during the booking process, and even though he had been given all the details about the flight, terminal, and so on, he didn't remember any of it.  This is not good for a person such as myself, who assumes EVERYTHING will go wrong.  Well, despite my fears and anxiety, Raj actually did show up on time. Traffic to JFK was hardly an issue, and Raj gave me an abbreviated version of his life story, which made me want to blurt out, several times, "You have got to be kidding!"  (I did not so interject, however.)  Just for staters, he is from Pakistan, so you can imagine there is some drama there.  

Since I was flying fancy style, check in was a breeze and I even got through security with my grapes and hiking poles, though I did have to remove my hiking boots as I was a "random" person to be checked.  Frankly, I think it was because they did not expect a person of a certain age to be wearing heavy-duty, leather, above the ankle, Zamberlan boots.  Accommodations on the plane were disappointing, but the crew were great and I slept the whole way on 250 mg. of Zolpidem, thus, the inability to move more than 5 centimeters in any direction was irrelevant.

Manchester, reputed to be the worst airport in England, has undergone some serious renovation, at least terminal 2 has, and that is what mattered in this case.  I retrieved my suitcase, went through passport control and customs all in about 15 minutes or less, would you believe?  Finding the pickup driver....not so easy, but was in the room of my hotel in Leeds within 90 minutes after the flight landed.  

First to do: shop.  Bought the usual staples but unfortunately, I am already sick of the lox and cream cheese thing.  I may have to branch out.  Then I went on a walking tour only not really.  I used the itinerary of a walking tour of the city, but did it without the guide and a group os people all of whom are routinely asked, "Where are you from?"  (Is that supposed to be a bonding question?)  Here, not in order, is some of what I saw: 

At the Leeds Art Museum:  Arp

At the Garden: Roses 

At the town hall, a plaque that did not make me weep:

And, no, I did not know.

Some assurance that this might be an OK city in which to get sick:

But, OTOH, fear that you can't ever get away:

Woah!! You can get a heart attack and use wi-fi ALL AT ONCE!

Back at the museum, a flash back to the Car Graveyard in the Hamden Plaza.  One can really contemplate that shredded tire or do they spell it tyre here?  Is that creative or what ?  Who knew that a hunk of handrail + two wrecked tires = art!

Here are some shmattahs lying on the ground, right?  NO, THEY ARE NOT!   It turns out that one is supposed to lie on one of them and, so positioned, contemplate the painted glass ceiling (sorry, no picture), and then view all the photos and memorabilia around the room. They are  all part of the composition of an artist paying tribute to her recently deceased father.  One would never know this unless they had the good fortune, as I did, of having the security guard give them a whirlwind tour.

Let sleeping dogs lie:

Or Not:

especially if that is a cat.

This is one of Jacob Kramer's (his family fled Ukraine in 1901) most famous early works, ‘Hear Our Voice, O Lord, our God’ (1919); it shows the tortured face of a Jewish woman during a pogrom.

A brief stop at the Royal Armouries Museum where I will return on Tuesday: