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Wednesday 26 March 2008 After a couple of hours on the train from Sowerby Bridge we arrived at Leeds train station and caught the free city loop shuttle to the bus station. The shuttle gave us the opportunity for a quick tour around the city because the bus station was the last stop on the loop. From the bus station we caught the Ripon bus out to Killinghall where Barbara’s cousin Lucy lives. The bus ride was long but quite scenic as it took us through many nice old villages and through the pretty town of Harrogate.
We met with Lucy and her husband Keith, Auntie, kids Will and Ellie and Will’s friend Callam over a delicious soup lunch which was perfect for the wintery weather.
After lunch we went for a drive through the nearby villages and out to the Yorkshire Dales (photos) but Ellie didn’t want to come out because it was wet and muddy.
At the Stump Cross Caverns, we put on our hard hats and ventured deep into the ancient cave network (photos). We observed the interesting textures of the cave walls and some of the formations even looked like dragons’ wings. Michael
also taught the boys about stalagmites and stalactites. It was quite fascinating.
We hopped back in the car and continued driving through the countryside, past gorges, farms and along the way stopping for livestock and farm gates (photos).
Next stop was Malham Cove where we stumbled along creek beds and climbed up the muddy rock steps to the top of a cliff that used to be a waterfall (photos). At the top of the cliff we found a rock formation called the Limestone Pavement (photos) which formed when the rock was scraped smooth by an ancient glacier. The boys also found lots of snow to play with and amused themselves with snowball battles (photos).
Wet and muddy, we headed back to Lucy’s for a delicious warm dinner of Thai creamy chicken curry...mmmm..! Then, exhausted, Barbara crashed while Michael and Lucy headed out to the local pub in search of Trivia. They found beer instead and weren’t too disappointed.
Thursday 27 March 2008 While Keith headed out to work and Lucy to run some errands, we enjoyed spending the morning with Ellie, Will and his friend Jim. Will even taught Michael how to play Nintendo Wii.
When Lucy returned she took us all to visit the City of York. York is a beautiful medieval city surrounded by castle-like walls (photo).
In York we visited the National Railway Museum where the boys - including Michael - got to play with lots of big toys like the Rocket which was the first steam train (photo), the Chunnel train (photo), The Flying Scotsman (photo), the Mallard which was the fastest steam train in the world at the time it was built (photo), the Japanese Shinkansen (photo) and even Thomas the Tank Engine (photo). There was also a fantastic photographic exhibition about the use of the steam locomotive in China.
We rode on the very original York Wheel which gave us a birds-eye view of the city (photos) and then on the miniature train (photo) that took us into the old town centre. There we visited the York Minster (photos) where the boys burned off a little energy in the park nearby. The York Minster certainly has some of the coolest gargoyles we have seen!
Next we strolled through the Shambles which is a network of small old lanes with buildings dating back to the 16th
century (photos). The buildings are so old that they lean and curve in the strange kind of ways that would make a modern-day engineer cringe. We also spotted the house of Guy Fawkes but it was closed for renovations (photo). We browsed through the NewGate Market (photo) and munched on local sweets (photo) before heading back across the canal (photo), along the city walls where the boys liked to play (photo) and back to Killinghall. On the way back Lucy showed us a strange quirk of English architecture - the fake window (photo). These were apparently developed when buildings began being taxed based on the number of windows so people began filling them up with bricks and painting fake windows.
Back at the house, we enjoyed meeting Lucy’s mother Margaret over a delicious dinner she had prepared (photo). Unfortunately Lucy had to scoot off to work.
Friday 28 March 2008 Michael woke up to the sound of sparrows farting to mark uni assignments for the day. Lucy needed to take Aunty to the hospital and Keith was at work. So Barbara amused herself with a trip south to Nottingham. In order to get there, she embarked on
her first experiment with National Express, the budget coach line operating around the UK. She easily and economically booked her ticket online and received her ticket via SMS. She caught the Ripon Bus back to Leeds where she caught the National Express to Nottingham. It was a long journey and the bus times didn’t connect very well but the bus was quite comfortable and ran on time.
When Barbara arrived in Nottingham she encountered one of the strangest things she had seen yet on this journey - a system of caves in a shopping centre in the middle of a city. To enter Nottingham Caves (photo) you walk into Westfield Broadmash, follow the ‘Caves this way’ signs, walk into a shop inside the shopping centre, collect your construction helmet and walk down a flight of stairs into the caves. The cave experience is quite fun as people dressed in character tell the visitors all about the history of the caves and their various uses through time such as tanneries, residences, air raid shelters, etc (photos).
Barbara then set out on a special mission: to find her great great grandfather’s tailor shop. She only had a little bit of
information to go on but thought she would give it a try. Unfortunately the vague instructions she had pointed to a construction site that had been demolished only weeks earlier (photo). Disgruntled, she turned her back on the overly-commercial Clumber Street shopping district - riddled with McDonalds and Starbucks - and went in search of any historic buildings that had been preserved. She did find a couple, but not many (photos). The city’s planning committee - assuming they have one - don’t seem to be concerned about preserving history. Barbara enjoyed a stroll up the lovely King’s Walk shopping arcade (photo). She turned down a ride on the Nottingham Wheel (photo) - it seems every British town has one now - and walked up the hill towards the castle. On the way up Maid Marian Way she found the Tales of Robin Hood museum (photo). It was very overpriced and looked very overrated so she passed straight on by and continued up to Nottingham Castle (photo) which is now surrounded by icons from the legend of Robin Hood. Next door to the castle is a pub that claims to be the oldest in England (photo).
With strong desire to
locate her great great grandfather’s store Barbara headed down to the city archives where she found the shop listed in the 1896 Nottingham Business Directory along with its correct address. Armed with this information she headed back to Clumber Street where she found it was now a Superdrug Pharmacy (photo). She was thankful for the small blessing that the building was still standing and called her father to let him know. Comforted with this information, Barbara then headed back to the bus station and travelled back to Leeds. Michael and Lucy met Barbara at the Leeds bus station as they were in town at the time. We then all headed to Lucy’s friend Helen’s house for dinner of Lucy’s yummy yummy lasagne. The kids decided they wanted chicken instead so we went and bought a roast chicken. But after they’d eaten their chicken and seen everyone else enjoying the lasagne so much, the kids also decided they would have lasagne as well!
Saturday 29 March 2008 In the morning Keith drove us all to York because we had a lunch appointment with Barbara’s father’s cousin Bob and his daughter Criona and her husband Pete.
We found the
Pitcher & Piano with relative ease and met everyone as they arrived. We chatted for hours over a delicious lunch (photos).
It was such a nice opportunity to meet with everyone that we decided to continue the occasion back at Bob’s place (photo) where we happily shared stories, memories and photos for another few hours. Unfortunately soon it was time to leave so we said our goodbyes, packed everyone into the car and drove back to Killinghall.
Margaret visited again that evening and prepared a delicious duck dinner. It was lovely to have some more time to spend with her.
Sunday 30 March 2008 After a lazy morning we headed out with Lucy for a daytrip to Liverpool. After a couple of hours driving we arrived and were greeted with banners proclaiming Liverpool to be the 2008 European Capital of Culture (photo). Unfortunately, the ‘revamping’ of the city was only part-completed and looked by the number of cranes around like it might be ready some-time around 2018 (photo). We also noticed that at the outskirts of the city, complete streets of houses had been abandoned due to lack of population and the houses boarded up. The
council had tried to beautify the empty houses by decorating the boards, but it still looked derelict (photo).
We headed straight down to Albert Dock (photo) where we visited the Maritime Museum which had great exhibitions about the Titanic, the Lusitania and the Empress of Ireland which all sank and had an association with the Liverpool docks.
Next we visited the first ever International Slavery Museum (photo) remembering those who had passed through the ports of Liverpool during its heyday as a slave-trading port and similar activities throughout the world. The exhibits were very moving and also very informative about how the slave-trade came about and also how the trade was ended.
For some lighter entertainment we then headed to The Beatles Story Exhibition (photo) where we rocked along to old Beatles tunes while learning how they formed, composed, argued and split.
To satisfy Michael boat fascination we ended our visit in the town centre by wandering around the docklands looking at all of the boats including the famous ‘ferry across the Mersey’ (photos). His imaginative mind was also amused by the traffic signage (photo).
There was one stop left on the schedule before returning
to Killinghall. Barbara had been advised only the previous night that she may have a relative living in Liverpool. That morning Barbara had ‘Googled’ this relative, found her telephone number and called to chat. Indeed, the information proved correct, so our last stop for the day was to visit this mystery relative. We drove Angela’s house just outside the centre of Liverpool and met with her over a nice cup of tea. She turned out to be Barbara’s great grandfather’s niece - to clarify somewhat for Barbara’s other relatives out there, that’s Edward’s wife Emily’s sister’s daughter. Angela is a truly amazing woman to meet and we had a ball chatting with her for many hours (photos). We were amazed at her stories as she showed us her medals for the charity work she does - but not just any charity work mind you - she abseils down tall buildings to raise money for hospitals and children’s charities. This may not seem such a big deal until you consider that she is 89 years old and legally blind.
Extraordinary!!! As we had stayed so late in Liverpool, we missed Margaret’s visit when we returned to Killinghall but did talk
to her on the phone instead to say goodbye.
Monday 31 March 2008 In the morning we said our goodbyes to Lucy and her family. Unfortunately we hadn’t had much time to spend with Ellie as she had been busy trading her labour for shoes for much of the time we were there. However we had very much appreciated her hospitality in lending us her room during our stay.
We trudged down the road to Enterprise Car Rental with whom we had battled on the phone the night before to arrange the rental of a car. Fortunately the pickup was relatively painless and soon enough we were on our way.
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