Sept. 5+6 Edinburgh

At Edinburgh Airport—a zoo if ever there was one—flight delayed, tired, will be a lot more tired before the day is over, but time for a review of life off the trail, post Richmond.  

Arrived in Edinburgh by train at the conveniently located station about ten minutes a pied from hotel, after you figure out which of about ten exits to take, on a rare sunny and cool day. ¡Qué suerte!

Off to Palace of the Holyrood, an obligatory stop at the foot of the Royal Mile. (The other must see is the castle at the top of said street.  Of that, more below.) As you can see, it looks like many other Important British and Scottish Structures:

The palace was so memorable that I am not quite sure what I saw other than lots of portraits and dark wood.  Then went to museum where the display of shoes rivalled that in a Neiman Marcus for creativity.  One pair in particular was made of shiny copper coils, and, like most of the others, had a platform that would lift the wearer several inches off the ground and require feats of balance  to stay on one’s feet. So much fun! 





Surrounding the shoes were fashions from different eras.  It is terrifically interesting to see how people decorate, display, hide, and otherwise treat the body fashion-wise, is it not?  There was display of masks, which was impressive, and a whole variety of other things, but the shoes, clothes and masks grabbed my attention most.

At yet another museum, saw a Rembrandt exhibit.  That was pretty wonderful.  I am not sure I quite get the greatness of, say, the Mona Lisa, but I do get the greatness of Rembrandt.  (That may not be a valid comparison, but anyway....) 

This rhino, whose horn was not made from endangered materials,  did not escape from a museum, but there was no good place to put him, so here he is:

Back to the Royal Mile and all its shoppees selling cashmere and non-cashmere memorabilia, so many shops selling the same things, but I popped into one that was a bit different and espied boxes of the fabulous melt-in-your-mouth tea cakes that James back at the Ashton in Lancaster had in a jar for guests to take, and so I did tell the lady that I would be back the next day to purchase some.  And indeed I did do that. 

Piggy with eyelashes y todo!  The nether part of piggy has become sandwich meat:

His and hers wedding attire:

After more wandering about and a stop and Marks and Spencer to pick up some dinner returned to hotel to settle in.  Discovered that there are circular walks one can take in the city that have directions and gpx support, so chose two to do the next day.  Best idea yet, especially since rain was forecast but not until mid-afternoon.

7:00 a.m. set out to walk along the Water of Leith.  How beautiful the sky was and the city, still asleep. Passed through lovely upscale neighbourhoods, and the park wherein is the Museum of Modern Art, which is huge.  Was sad, though, that I was too early to gain access to museum, so missed the Nolde exhibit.  At least there were some sculptures outside.  

Not The Thinker.  Maybe The Doer?

This guy reminded me of that fantastic sculpture of partially buried cars in the Hamden Plaza parking lot:

The walking instructions instructed one to "Turn left at the Henry Moore," so I did:

Had a ticket to visit the Castle:



so after the Water of Leith walk, headed on over.  Oy!  What does one see at the Castle aside from the Order of the Thistle (which I swear I saw yesterday at the Palace of the Holyrood) and the Order of the Garter?  Why swarms of people!  That is what one sees.  After taking in the view:

and the genuine impressiveness of the structure, but bypassing the whiskey tasting, I left with no regrets for having spent maybe thirty minutes there.

Back at hotel, grabbed a snack from my supply of bread, cheese and fruit before taking off on the second walk that went through the delightful town (suburb?) of Stockbridge and the Botanic Gardens.  Did not spend enough time in the gardens, but this was as gorgeous a walk as that of the morning.  More museuming, another stop at M&S for dinner supplies, and return to shop to pick up the teacakes.  Alas, that was all there was time for.  The time has come to pack up and go home, as it inevitably does.

September 04 Richmond

Bittersweet last day of the walk.  Nervous about how well I had configured the route.  There are so many paths that intersect, and sometimes it is hard to tell wether one path connects with another farther on or does not.  But since I arrived in Richmond, I clearly did not do too badly!

The day started out grey and wet with a long climb through desolate moors.  Fortunately, did not have to consult devices very often on this section, and, after yesterday's icy cold experience,  made sure to put on sufficient garments, as in everything (wind shirt, rain jacket, rain pants, gaiters, wool gloves and waterproof mittens), and thus attired I found the walk was quite bracing and enjoyable out there in the middle of nowhere.

This looked so like the end of the world, I cannot tell you!

Oh, look!  Fall is falling!

Even I have trouble squeezing through some of these passages:

Now I have to tell you something about cows.  They do not say Moo!  The sound they make comes from the way bottom of their seventh stomach and it is very loud, bellowy, and a little bit scary!  This nice bossy, however, did not vocalise (at me):

Met up with a couple of men from the U.S., who were doing the Coast to Coast, so walked with them for a while.  Why is it than men—not all, but not so few—just assume that they are worldly and knowledgable and that you need everything explained to you?  Anyway, after doing a section of the  C2C with them, sacrificing some of my hard earned way-points to do so, I decided I had had enough of their vapid pontificating, so bid them adieu and left to go down to the Swale and follow the river into Richmond, which seemed like the fitting way to enter the city.  It was a beautiful finale:

Nine hundred and forty miles.  Es mucho.  Wonder if there will be an encore.....

Sept 2+3 Hawes+ Redmire

Back to Hawes to complete the Herriot Way, and was looking forward to spending a second night a Wensleydale House.  VNP.  (Very nice place).

Poor lambie looks awfully skinny after haircut:

River:

Land:

Big gate and wee gate:

Uh-Oh:

To be confused or not to be confused with the original Chelm?

Birds on a wire:

Falls near Hawes.  Just a trickle because of the scarcity of rain.  One could walk up, but it was slippery and I was hungry, and I had walked many miles already, so after a short start up the path, I turned back and bought an ice cream.

Bench:

Loved this bridge:

A trio:

Gated bridge!  

View:

Sink hole!  There are a lot of these, most not so lush looking:

Can't remember all the fun and raucus things that happened on these couple of days because internet has been weak or not working, so could not jot down thoughts while they were fresh and exciting. But as you can see, the walking has been pleasant except for the day I did not take photos due to rain and cold and wind!  But there was drama at Redmire, other than my being wetter than I ever have been before.  Discovered that last day of walk was not properly way-pointed, so had to fight with the instruction book and its awful schematic maps to create a route.  This took hours.  The relief was that one did not need internet to do this because there wasn't any except in the bar and even there it was really S  L  O  W!

September 01 Aysgarth

So much for the gorgeous Herriot Way!  Ten miles of today's 15 or so were on dead straight, flat, wide, rocky track through moors.  Excruciatingly dull and a killer on the feet. When, finally, the landscape developed a bit of texture it was truly exciting!  Then, stopped on the way to tour Bolton Castle, after which, the scenery and walking surfaces improved a lot.  But, for the most part, it was a long slog of a day.  Arrived at B and B at 3:00 to find sign on door saying something to the effect of "See you at 4:00."  (What is annoying about this is that I had e-mailed about arrival time but did not receive a reply, nor was arrival time mentioned on the web site.) The place—basic but OK—looked like a funeral parlour because it has windows that you cannot see through from the outside during the day.  Creepy!  It was not raining, so things could be worse.  A cute little tea shop near by served soup, so I had a bowl and a roll.  Returned at 3:50 at which time Jason let me in.

 Reward for out-the-door-early:

Roof ornament, honest!

See, you CAN see the wee gate:

Grouse.  I swear, these birds talk.  This one kept saying "Hello,"so I said "Hello" back, and then he said "Hello," so I said "Hello," back again and so it went!  They do chatter a streak!

Hunting lodge.  Peeked in windows.  There were long tables and chairs, very nice wood, and a beautiful brick fireplace.  That's it! (I hope birdie above does not become dinner.)

Bunny heaven.  Note the fine real estate....lush green patios.  Very high end:

Bolton Castle.  Ta-da!

Innards not so intact:

Of course a castle has to have a portcullis.  This one had abut four and all were different:

Placards in various rooms offered more or less interesting information.  For example, in the brewery,  one informed that people did not drink water back in the day; everyone drank beer.  In fact, the word "toddler" was thought to be derived from "tod" a drinking vessel with handles, (you can guess what is coming!) from which a small child would have drunk "small beer" as soon as said child was weened.

But he would not have used this toilet.  It was reserved for the important people:

I was so excited to see a genuine oubliette!  This is the very grate through which the unfortunate prisoner was lowered by a rope into a dark, damp and cold stone chamber.....and then..... forgotten:

Guess who slept here?  Why Mary Queen of Scots, of course!  She seems to have slept in a lot of places, which is very good for tourism:

Mary was a "guest" of Harry, 9th Lord of Scrope and Sir Francis Knollys at Bolton for six months.  During her captivity, she and her retinue took over the Solar and the whole adjoining suite of rooms including the Great Chamber, the Nursery, and two large bed chambers in the tower directly above.

The stunner of the day was Aysgarth Falls:

August 30+31 Keld+Reeth

Today, the first day of the Herriot Walk, was the first day I was filled with such joy walking that I wished the walk would never end.  Granted it was freezing cold and windy for the first couple of hours until I smartened up and put on a second windshirt over my fleece substitute and first windshirt, the hoods up on all of them.

The scenery was a combination of dales:

and moors:

A bridge:

And a good-looking sheep:

This structure marks THE place, the summit of Great Shunner Hill, the literal high point of the walk, where one can sit, snack, and enjoy the view when it is not freezing cold and windy, or even when it is, if one is so inclined:

A major portion of today's walk was along the Pennine Way, and that means, aside from good signage, lots of boggy ground:.  Fortunately, most of it could be avoided because miles of paving stones have been set down.  Still and all, fancy footwork required to get around in some places:

A mighty fine cairn:

About three miles before Keld is Thwaite where it is customary to stop and have a little something.  They do a fine latte there and there were leftovers for our little feathered friends:

Is this not picture-book pretty?

Chatted a while with a my-age-ish couple who were up in these parts visiting friends.  The weather had warmed considerably, so they were sitting, admiring the view, and having tea by the side of the path.  A most pleasant encounter.  And it was a short day...13.5 miles, so dawdling was allowed.  In fact no day for these final days of walking should exceed 14 miles.  That is most civilised.

On to Reeth on a gorgeous, cold morning.  Today's walk may be even more gorgeous than yesterday's with lots of variety, both in terms of upping and downing and changes in the landscape.  Whoever designed this route did a wonderful, wonderful job, and the person who wrote the little instruction book, did as well.  

Pack bridge—not crossed:

Sheep with long tail:

Sheep with long tail and itch behind ear:

Valley and river, and path:

Two wee cairns inviting one to turn here, as indeed one was to do:

Hills scarred from mining but growing things appearing,:

Landscape that looks like a moonscape:

A nice, plump chicken:

Where is the itty-bitty pinch stile?  

B and B here in Reeth is lovely even though I am definitely in the "Where shall we toss the old lady room."  Can't complain about the wi-fi.  This place has lots of rules.  No admittance until 3:30, but the guy, more like a geezer, showed up at 2:30 (I had been waiting since about 2:00), and greeted me not with "Hello," or some nicety like that but rather "We do not admit guests until 3:30." He did, however, relent and let me in.  Would not leave me anything for breakfast (which is really OK) because, "Dining room does not open until 7:30," (very important to keep the corn flakes under lock and key),  but did, at least, provide milk for coffee.  Nice place, bad vibe.  What can I say! The town, itself, is adorable and boasts an excellent cream parlour!

Today also a day of losses.  Lost instructions.  Fortunately, that happened fairly near the end, and ven without them, I was able to figure out a super tricky bit.  Left poles down in town before getting to B and B but that is also OK because they can no longer be collapsed (very annoying), so will use the back up pair.  At least they were not biding time in the suitcase for naught!  Then thought I lost the power cord for the phone, which sent me into a tizzy, but baruch hashem, it had just fallen on the floor.