Day 2 in Ilkley - a town nestled on the southern edge of the Yorkshire Dales National Park. We are very impressed with the amount of green space in town and it's so picturesque with the River Wharfe running through. We managed an impressive 21,000 steps and 17 floors today!! Hoping to be ready to begin our 138 km hike north to Windermere on Saturday.
Andrew's choice for breakfast - a smoked Whitby kipper with a poached egg. I think he might choose differently tomorrow?
One of my favourite things in England are the chimney pots, not sure why, but I think it dates back to when I watched Mary Poppins as a young girl and loved the song and dance of Bert on the rooftops.
We walked along the River Wharfe this morning and upwards into Middleton Woods where the spring bluebells are abundant and very showy. Next photo shows we were about 2 weeks too late. Only dappled sunlight on tired looking bluebells.
Andrew captured the lone tree in the field - makes one wonder why it is all by itself in this large meadow.
The Middleton Woods has existed for hundreds of years and is classed as a semi-natural ancient woodland. This is known as Mount Calvary and a previous owner of the land had these sculptures done in the 1850s by an Italian artist, representing the Stations of the Cross. It was a very quiet, secluded spot in the middle of these woods.
This was at the end of the walk through the Stations of the Cross - very pretty.
First of many 'kissing' gates we will travel through over the next 2 weeks.
Coming back into Ilkley, we visited All Saints Church, built on the site of a Roman fort (AD79). There is a record of a church in Ilkley in the Domesday Book (1086). There have been 14 centuries since the founding of the church on this site.
I so wanted to yank on this cord to see if a bell would ring - apparently there are 8 bells in the bell tower.
This was interesting to see these chairs that replaced the old wooden pews - you can see where the pews were at one time.
Waited seven years to breathe in these stunning vistas.
Known as the White Wells Spa Cottage, this building was erected around 1700 as an open air spa bath. It still functions as a cold plunge pool and you can try it out today when the building is open (which is when the flag is flying!)
This evening we climbed some more hills to take in the Darwin Gardens and Millenium Green. Darwin liked to visit this area and likely spent time at White Wells.
And I stood on the human sundial, which was surprisingly fairly accurate. The inscription on the centre disk reads - Time was, time is, time is yet to be - now take your stand upon eternity.
Finished up our day at a local fish'n chip shop. The sides were mushy peas, gravy and curry sauce. I have to say the the main course was delicious.
And this finishes up our second full day - more to be added on the Yorkshire Moors as we will likely be heading back up there on Friday.
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