Blogs from Thirsk, North Yorkshire, England, United Kingdom, Europe

Today I headed out in the chilly sunshine, meandering towards the North Yorkshire moors again, this time via the caravan route, which promised to be a bit more sedate than the 25% Sutton Bank. I had learned my lesson on day 1 that sausages for brekkie and crazy steep climbs have disastrous consequences for my digestive system. I looped around the foothills to Kirkbymoorside, where I took a nice quiet climb up through Hotton-Le-Hole, clearly named as such to give an air of French sophistication. It was actually quite a quaint picturesque village so to label it “the hole” would seem a little harsh. After a cattle grid the route reached the open moorland. There was a bit more gentle climbing before the road plateaued as it then followed the ridge line pretty much all the ... read more

A late morning and went on a beauty hike with beautiful friends at Kilburn WhiteHorse , a park on Sutton Bank in Yorkshire. It was a gentle walk except a 152 steps down to the first valley and a steep climb back up to the top of the hill. At the hill top people have carved out the hill bush making a white horse on the hillside limestone rock. Within the park were glider aircraft which soared well above us in the blue sky. Below we could see the decorative English landscape with the harvest well underway and beautiful working fields. We had a nice drive back to the City of York where we had a delicious meal followed by a “York Ghost Walk”. The York Ghost adventure was excellent giving us history and haunted sites ... read more

Last night I saw a bit of a scruffy side of Haworth and reading pamphlets etc. in the hostel realised this was where the Bronte's lived and were brought up and so decided to visit the more touristy part of Haworth and see where they lived. I was only outside their house but all looked good - they lived at the top of a steep cobbled street. From there my route was Keighley, Ripon and onto Thirsk. Leaving Haworth though the rain started again and whilst it stopped after a period of time I was soaked for the 2nd time in 24 hours. Soaking, soaking, soaked to the skin Soaked on the outside, soaked on the in. Emily Bronte is soaked I am soaked That person over there is soaked The American is soaked A Yorkshire ... read more

Another day with an early start. This would be the longest drive of the trip so far and we needed to make a number of stops along the way yet still arrive at our destination before the New Year's revelers got out in full force. Tonight we would be staying in Thirsk, a tiny village North of York, England. This would also be our most expensive accommodations of the trip so I wanted to savor every minute we were paying for. Hotels in York were hard to come by for New Years and I felt very lucky to find such a highly regarded B&B only a few miles away in Thirsk. Route Map Once again we were treated to a fantastic full Scottish breakfast. Even though we were in a hurry to get to all the ... read more