Holidays

Chris and I spent some time in Swaledale this weekend with his family, in a lovely tiny village called Muker. His parents own a house up there and although we didn't stay in the house, we did stay in a B&B at the back of the village. It was wonderful, firstly to have so much space to ourselves but also to be so close to everyone, you can walk 2 mins an be at the bottom of the village at Chris' parents front door!


The view across the village.

We spent Friday travelling, and only got caught a couple of times in traffic - including seeing a car on it's windshield on the A14, the journey was good though, with Chris pointing out various things along the way and telling us how far we had to go. Saturday was a day out to Hawes, which is in Wensleydale, sitting in the back of a landrover, being bumped around a bit was good until I started to feel sick. I thought that the Wensleydale cheese factory would be in Wensley - but it was on the edge of Hawes. Chris and I love cheese, so it was a bit of a must, despite the climb! (You'd think by now I would be used to exercise, but I'm really not!) The rest of the day was spent in Reeth and then down at the river, which was behind the B&B. Jenny - Chris' younger sister - found tadpoles and fish, while Sophie (Tim fiancee) built an impressive dam. we headed back and got ready for dinner in Thwaite. Sadly no photos, I left my camera behind, but we had a really good night.

Sunday was a quiet day and wet with it. Chris decided to show me the inside of White Scar Caves, which was really interesting - here's a (bad) photo of us outside.



It soon got cold and dark and wet after this, but a lot of fun, trying not to bump our heads and listening to stories from our cave guide. We headed to Tan Hill pub afterwards for a bit of lunch and some live music (although we didn't know that until we arrived). Tan Hill is the highest inn in Britain, so I'm quite pleased that Chris took me there and brought me a half! We spent the afternoon asleep, recovering from Saturday night. The weather cleared and we headed over to West Burton falls before dinner. Chris gave me a beautiful photo for me birthday last year and to stand in that place was really wonderful.

On Monday we went to Settle to get on the train to Carlisle, through the countryside and through Dent, which has the highest train station in Britain. We spent lunch time in the city and headed back on the train for dinner with Chris' family. Yesterday we got up early and went to Masham to the Black Sheep Brewery before getting on the A1 and heading south. We've done quite a lot, including eating, socialising and spending time in the pub. It's easy to get to know people and the event that Michael and Gill put on for their friends will be remembered for a long time.

This is the first proper holiday I've been on it quite some time - I got to Bristol, but that has an association with work still and every other time I've been away, I have been working...in fact I think the last time I went on a proper holiday was Paris 2005.

This weekend I'm going to send my phone to be repaired! Joys of technology slowly dying on me!