Hiking in the Dales

I'm so far behind on this blog now that I'm going to fast forward a bit just to catch up. Here's the pictures from our amazing day hike out of the town of Reeth in Swaledale.





If you go over to Fritz's blog, you can see a few more photos of the day. (www.fritzphoto.blogspot.com)

After a few days in Yorkshire, Mary drove us to Thirsk, the actualy town on which the fictional town of Darrowby is based, in James Herriots books. We spent several hours in the James Herriot Museum, which is in his actual clinic/house. I took tons of photos, but they'd only be of interest to rabid Herriot fans like myself, so I'll spare you those.

After Thirsk, we caught a bus into York, and spent a couple days there. York was great. We spent lots of time walking around checking out the sights. York was an important Roman town at one point. The emperor Constantine was actually crowned there. Also around year 1000, the Vikings moved in and it was a big Viking trading center. We took a walking tour around and it was fascinating. I have great pictures, but I can't get them to load properly, so you'll all just have to wait a bit for those.

After York, we took the train into London, and we've been here for a week. Big town. I'll post about London next time.

Shannon in York

Today Shannon is adventuring by herself in Central London while I take care of Manna House. So I'm sneaking on here to post this photo of this pretty girl I saw in York, while on a walking tour:

Yorkshire

Alright, I'm finally keeping my promise and posting about our time in Yorkshire. First of all, let me just say that the Yorkshire Dales were as cool as I wanted them to be, and I'd love to someday spend more time up there.

After Manchester, we were invited to stay at Old Maid's Farm in the village of Brompton-on-Swale by Grant and Mary Carnegie Brown, friends of Dave and Linda in Manchester. They had never met us before, but Linda had said that we wanted to visit the Dales, and they welcomed us warmly. Mary met us in Clitheroe, at the Open Arms International Banquet, where we were working, and drove us two hours back to their home.

We got there well after dark, but this is the view we had of the house the next morning. The place is beautiful, and old stone house that Grant and Mary have been fixing up. Our favorite part was the giant kitchen, and the Aga cooker that kept us all warm.

I'd heard of Agas before, in books, but I didn't really get the concept. It's a big oil burning stove that is just on all the time. It's actually fairly efficient, and keeps the kitchen warm all winter long, which in an old stone house, is a great thing. It is ready to cook or bake anytime. To make a pot of tea, you just open up the lid to the burner on the left, put the kettle on, and in no time the water is boiling. Same thing for the ovens. I think there were three different ovens, each having different heat, so you can bake in one, and keep something warm in another one. As you can see, it's also great for drying your clothes.

This is the view from the kitchen into the dining room and entryway.

We had a great time with Grant, Mary, and Cameron, Kate and Tom, their three kids. It's a lively household, and lots of fun.

(Here's the family, out in the wind- Tom's missing because he was playing at a friend's house)

The first day we were there, Grant drove us over to Easeby Abbey, a twelfth century abbey that had been torn down by Henry the 8th because of church power struggles.

This is the 11th century parish church on the Abbey grounds that Henry 8 apparently had no problem with.

Inside the church.

I loved the decoration on the walls.

The abbey proper. It was a windswept, rainy, stormy day, and the old ruined abbey was lonely and haunting and beautiful, in all the right proportions.

We walked into Richmond after the Abbey. It's a fairly large town right on the River Swale, where Swaledale gets its name. (A dale is apparently a valley- so swaledale is the Swale river valley) We poked around and then headed back to the farm for a big dinner with the family. (The kids had friends over that night- it got pretty lively!)

Next post: Hiking in the dales, James Herriot museum

pictures from Buxton

Here are some supplemental pictures to the last post, from our train trip up to Buxton.

My first English train journey. I was so excited! The countryside is really beautiful, alot like Oregon, but with really old buildings and stone walls.

The folly up above Buxton called Solomon's Temple.

It was windy up there, but so beautiful. We were having a great day.

Manchester

When I last wrote, we were still pretty exhausted from our travels. We're feeling much better now, and have been having a great week visiting with wonderful friends. Dave Muncie and Linda Rodman work with the UK branch of Open Arms International. Fritz met them last year on his trip to Kenya. I had not met them, but they gave me a warm welcome when they picked us up Tuesday night from the airport. We stayed with them Tuesday through Friday and had a great time.

On Wednesday, we rested up in the morning, did some walking, and then went errand running with Linda. She showed us around her neighborhood and we went to a couple of shops in a nearby village. They live right on the edge of Manchester, so it was just down the road and we were in the country. Here's their sweet, very English back garden.

After errands, Linda took us up to a canal where she walks. The canal system goes all over England, and was built originally for moving freight around the country. Unfortunately, it was built only 25 years before the steam railway was invented, so it quickly became obsolete. Now people own or rent "narrowboats", and take their vacations slowly motoring up and down the canals. Apparently, the boats only go about 3 miles an hour, so it's a perfect way to slow down and enjoy the countryside.We walked in the wind and mud for a long time, and saw a few hints of spring.Overall, though, the weather is stormy and rainy, but hasn't been bad enough to keep us inside. The following day, we took the train to a nice little touristy town called Buxton, and spent the day walking around. We had our first pub meal. (not very good--have any of you tried mushy peas?) Then we found a walking path up through horse and sheep fields to a folly. A folly, which I learned the other day, is essentially an artificial medieval structure that noblemen in the 1800's erected to make it look like there were ruins and castles on their land. The one we went to was called Solomon's temple, and was just a little turret with a stairs going up to a crenellated walk on top. It was beautiful, but breathtakingly windy, and we came down off the hill pretty quickly. We walked back into town and went back on the train, then joined Dave and Linda for a fantastic dinner (Linda is an amazing cook) and afterward we went to their church home group. Met a great bunch of people, and enjoyed a good discussion.

Yesterday, our last day in Manchester, Dave drove us around the countryside, took us to a beautiful country inn where the Queen apparently likes to stop for tea, and then we all went to Clitheroe for the Open Arms International fundraising banquet. Fritz took photographs for the event, and I ended up coordinating the all-volunteer catering crew. It was hard work, but I got to see people I haven't seen since our India trip in 2004, and I got to meet lots of Fritz's friends from last years Kenya trip. There was a very good speaker, a Kenyan pastor who talked about what has been going on in Kenya of late. The situation has been tragic, but it sounds like things are beginning to improve.

The only unfortunate part is that we had to leave rather quickly, as we were getting a ride to Yorkshire with our hostess up here, and we didn't get to say a proper goodbye to David and Linda, who showed us generous love and hospitality in a very busy time for them. I hope I get to see them again some day, and perhaps return the gift of hospitality.

Next post: Yorkshire

Traveling is sometimes yucky

Alright, we've arrived in Manchester, and I finally have time to sit down and post. I've uploaded a fresh batch of pictures- mind you I'm still learning how to use my new camera, as unfortunately mastery of photographic prowess is not something you can achieve by osmosis.

To begin with, let me just say that I love to travel, except for the traveling part. What I mean is, I love being new places and meeting new people, trying exotic foods and beverages and having experiences I never would at home. But I hate flying. I don't hate it with a passion, because when I'm flying I don't even have enough energy or soul to muster up any passion. Waiting is not my forte, and basically air travel is all waiting, plus bad food, cramped seating, bad smelling air, dehydration, and constipation. I do it though, for all those reasons I mentioned above.

Secondly, I'd like to introduce you to the third member of our traveling party, Mirabelle. Here she is resting up after bravely facing the TSA security screening at PDX. I just want to mention here that Mirabelle was provided by my wonderful crew at New Seasons, Jarod, DeeAnna, and Nikki, who thought we needed more companionship.

So our journey began at two o'clock in the afternoon on Monday. We were (for good reason) pretty excited.

We had a quick hop up to Seattle and settled in for our unfortunately long 4 1/2 hour layover. Only we quickly found out that bad weather in London had delayed our flight, and we ended up with an 8 hour layover.

Here's Fritz in the most boring room in the world:

And here, he is sharpie-ing in the annoying yellow stripes on his new shoes. Yes, we were bored.

Mirabelle decided to throw a fit. (Note to the New Seasons Crew: Maybe do a background check or at least a psychological profile before choosing peoples traveling companions)

After the epic layover in Seattle, we had a 8 1/2 hour flight to London. We left at 11:00 pm and flew through the night. I got an hour and a half of sleep. Blech. When we arrived in London we had, of course, missed our connecting flight to Manchester. Had to finagle a new flight, and received a lecture about booking all our flights together instead of separately. Blah, blah, but they didn't charge us to change, thankfully.

So once we arrived in Manchester, things improved greatly. We were received by very kind hosts, and have been resting up and exploring the neighborhood. They've just come home and need to use the computer, so I'll sign off for now and tell you more about Dave and Linda and our wanderings in Manchester soon.

Am I a nerd? Why, yes!

We don't leave for a week and yet my little turquoise suitcase sits in the kitchen, fully packed. There's a few last little things to throw (actually cram) in there, but basically I'm ready to go. Does this seem a bit obsessive? Well, maybe, but I wanted to make sure everything fit! Now I know. It does, but just barely.

It's so hard to pack light for a trip of three months. I just bought a new pair of shoes today to take the place of two pairs I was planning to bring. They are very cute, and quite comfortable. It's a win-win situation: I get to take one less pair of shoes, and I had an excuse to buy a new pair! I sound like such a high-maintenance kind of girl, but I do love shoes.

So we're down to one week before liftoff, and apart from the packing, I'm not entirely sure I'm ready for this. I am excited, thrilled, but nervous too. I don't want to sound like a pop psychologist, but it is hard to step out into something over which I have very little control. I do love travel, and I've done quite a bit, but 3 months is a long time to be away for a homebody like me. I'm sure I'll be alright, but that might be after a homesick crying session or two. We'll just see how this goes. Thanks to all of you for loving us and praying for us while we're doing this crazy trip. And thank you too for praying about our finances. Some things have come through and we've got enough to begin with.

The countdown continues...