Chapter 3 - DAY 1 - London to Skipton

---

LONDON to SKIPTON

Was great to spend night at the Darlington Hyde Park, we even had our old room again! After a delicious freshly cooked full English breakfast we headed for Paddington to catch the Heathrow Express to pick our rental car. Everything went smoothly, tickets from machine, on train 15 minutes later stepping off at Heathrow. The public transport around London is fantastic.

We upgraded our car slightly to a later model with a built in GPS, it is also diesel. While fuel prices are roughly the same here (in fact diesel is just a wee bit more expensive) you do a lot more miles to the gallon on diesel so overall we hope the costs will balance out.

While we were confirming bookings etc the heavens opened and it absolutely bucketed down! We got the mini bus from Heathrow to where the rental cars are located and tried to get organised. It was a bit of a mission the rain was torrential, we had never used a GPS and the girl who was trying to show us how wasn’t familiar with the new Ford Focus one. In the end she set in the address in Skipton for us and we were on our way.

Jeanette drove and being the first time in the UK, going straight onto the M25 (one of the most notorious roads for traffic congestion in the UK), poor visibility, surface water and more torrential rain, not easy! Took us a few goes to get out of the car park and onto M25 but once we were away the trip was largely uneventful. Heaps of traffic, especially trucks but very good roads (mostly 3 lanes) and the GPS was invaluable. Time wise it would be equivalent to travelling from Upper Hutt to Tauranga, but because everything was so unfamiliar seemed like it was much longer.

SKIPTON - NORTH YORKSHIRE
We checked in at Park Hill B&B, it is extremely highly rated on Tripadvisor and if first impressions count it will at least live up to that. Then we went for a wander around Skipton to get our bearings and check the town out, lovely little market town –very busy but nice feel to it. Fiery Freddy Trueman - widely regarded as Englands greatest ever fast bowler - was born in Skipton and appropriately there is a statue of him by the Canal in the town centre.

We found a Pub – The Red Lion -that had a ‘two meals for 8.95’ special so we dined there, great value – not really a weight watchers approved menu though (still on holiday can’t be too concerned with things like that - but probably should be)!

All in all mainly a travel day, it’s great to be in Skipton settled into our accommodation and looking forward to the next phase of our holiday.

---

Photos

Welcome to Skipton
Sheep are a very much a part of Skipton's heritage (including on this welcome sign) - feeling right at home!

Skipton Canal
Looking down the canal towards the town centre

Fiery Fred
A tribute to one of Skiptons favourite sons - Fred Trueman

Comments

[Terence]

Looks like fun
I think the upgrade to satnav was a good idea, especially when you're driving somewhere you're not familiar with. I realised yesterday that I should've given you my London A-Z for when you were there. How long are you in manchester dor?

[GrantD]

manchester
Just going to Manchester for the day tomorrow, but based in Skipton - just north east of Manchester for 7 days