UK 2014, Yorkshire Dales

After an early start, picking up the rental car, we got on the road and hunted for a place to have breakfast (desperate for coffee) and to pick up gas (started with a quarter tank). Only regret - that I didn't ask, this time, for an automatic, so we are dealing with shifting on the left hand side.
We had a lovely full English breakfast at a café and continued to Bolton Abbey at the south end of the Yorkshire Dales.

The abbey is in a stunning location. Nestled into a valley (dale), with the moors in the distance,
 in the bend of a river, surrounded by sheep and foot paths.

Don taking a picture of a sheep. We walked down to the Abbey though a field of sheep,
and their poop!

The river was very full and rushing by. It was full because it had rained most of the night and was still showering,
off and on. The rain and the high winds we experienced today are vestiges of Gonzales that hit Bermuda and
Newfoundland before heading across the Atlantic, to us.

The surrounding graveyard could have taken the day to explore, so I just walked through and tried
not to be drawn into it.

Bolton Abbey is an amazingly photogenic location and we were gifted with sunny skies most
of the time that we were there.

The building was started in 1154. It was gradually expanded to include a Priory, Chapel, and residential area. 1539, King Henry VIII, closed down Bolton Priory and stripped the furnishings and the roof. The Nave was retained as the Parish Church, as it remains today. The church itself is also lovely. Choral music was playing, sun streaming in the stain glass windows, and enough information provided to guide us through the Nave. We walked out and back to the car wishing we had more time to spend.

Stopping to take pictures up on the moors, very windy. Later Don's Tilley blew off and he
had to chase it into a nearby field.

The roads were narrow and winding through the dales and steep and winding up into the moors between. We were lucky its off season and that there wasn't a lot of traffic. Only came across one sheep who had escaped the confines of the dry stone walls, that laced the hills, and was eating at the grass verge.
Next stop, actually a pilgrimage, to Wensleydale Creamery to buy Heather's favorite cheese.

We walked around the show room and had the opportunity to taste Wensleydale cheese at different ages and
with different additives (ginger, garlic and herbs, pineapple, blueberry, cranberry, salty caramel). It was
tough to decide but I bought 3 different ones and Heather and Don bought 6 (after all it was a pilgrimage)

 

 

The landscape changed dramatically from the soft, rolling hills and deep lush valleys of the Yorkshire Dales
to the steep sided mountains and deep lakes of the Lake District, in about half an hour. This is the evening
view from my bedroom window in Keswick.

This is the bathroom window.