Mrs. Teabody Returns to England Part 2: York and Shire, April 1-3

 After leaving Stratford, we traveled  to York where we spent a week enjoying the best of Yorkshire, which is pretty wonderful. Herein days 1 and 2. Once again, this is a journal which you may or may not find interesting.

Here we are in Herriot ( and Greathead) country

Friday April 1, York. Less than three hours after decamping from the Shakespeare Hotel in Stratford upon Avon, we arrived  by Sapphire Taxis at our rental which would be home for the next week. This location was just one half mile from the York Railway Station and all of York proper was just through the walls that almost completely surround this beautiful city.

Stairs, cases😂 Donna's room was entirely too small but Donna is one of those traveling companions who make the best of everything. We moved in, then once again donned winter scarves and hats and made our first precarious walk along busy, busy, busy Leaman Road past the enormous Railway Museum and through our pedestrian ( and bike) tunnel.

Just after that we came close to our gate to the city but not without my exuberant praise of the primula blooming everywhere!

We were  thrilled to find a place for lunch inside an interesting building, which had once served as a "Gentleman's Club"!) Check out the suits and whiskers!

We settled into Pizza Express for pizza wraps and dough balls. 

Afterwards we wandered the old streets ending up first at arguably the most important building in the city, York Minster, which would be one of our main points of exploration during our stay. For the moment it was enough to ooohhh and aaaahhhh.

York Minster

However, evening was rapidly approaching so we found a Marks & Spencer for our big shop for food essentials and then laden with purchases found a taxi rank and we lucky four returned to Phoenix Boulevard, where we had a morning eight o'clock date the following morning. We found our favorite spots in the lounge for tea and catching up.

With a long journey and a quick exploration of our immediate surroundings behind us, all of us were up for an early night. We climbed the stairs.

 Saturday April 2. Another magical day. We met Andy who would become not just our driver but our fast friend. Sentimental journey into Herriot Country to find the home place of Johnny's ancestors. Hill and dale, valley or vale, all of it bursting to become spring. Andy snapped one of my favorite shots of the trip next to a sign announcing the Yorkshire Dales.

The fields shone green under blue skies, lambs did every single thing their brand new fuzzy bodies permitted as long as they were not far away from their fuzzy moms. What a sight! Can earth show anything to make a heart more tender than new, wooly, four-legged life? 

Lambs creating traffic jam

We found the rural graveyard where J's ancestors are reputedly buried.

We were not successful finding a tombstone with legible names but there were several from that era and the beautiful chapel on the property had an active congregation until 1921. We shall return. The scenery all around was just breathtaking and our driver was kind enough to drive us past a house we'd thought (rather absurdly) of buying several years before. A proper Yorkshire stone dwelling with lots of out buildings. Sigh.

Dream house bought out from under us, or so we like to say. . .

 

After lots of oohing and aaahhhing and arguing about what constitutes a "fell", we arrived in the market square of Richmond and it took no eagle eye to find a tea shop. The Cross View Tea Shop insisted we have tea and scones and Welsh rarebit. Who argues against that?

Following our nibbles on scones, we explored the town square and then  it was on to  Easby Abbey where Peter Greathead owned one third interest back in the 1400s. But that was then . . . More than wonderful.

Time has a way of getting ahead of you and we had Fountains Abbey on our "absolutely must do" list so off we went. If ever there was a place that proved it was all it was ever cracked up to be, it is Fountains Abbey

Fountains Abbey, our last stop on the tour, was nothing short of spectacular. A broad verdant meadow near a stream, the most massive Abbey ruins, still much intact-- all this next to a stream whose banks were dotted with a host of golden daffodils -- I think more than even Wordsworth could imagine. We walked and talked as long as we could, found Andy and had him whisk us back to Henderson. What a day and even more fun to come: the proverbial icing on the cake: dinner with our friends at Middlethorpe!

 Middlethorpe. Christmas 2019 was spent on what is known as a "holiday break" at Middlethorpe. In four days marked by wonderful experiences, one of our best was meeting a couple somewhat younger and ever so chic, Margaret and David. Through WhatsApp, we have become closer and we were more than thrilled to be asked to celebrate their anniversary by joining them as their guests for dinner. Seeing them for the first time after a two-year separation was remarkable. It truly felt as though we'd just been with them at Christmas the day before. "It's like it's the next day" we kept saying over and over. We were so pleased to be together I think in part because we'd all been so shut in during the two-year interval. We quickly drank an entire bottle of champagne sent them by their son. Delicious! Buoyed by bubbly, the importance of the occasion and the fact we had all survived the plague, all our spirits could not have been higher. 

Our courses came in such a beauty of preparedness it seemed shameful to break their perfection. More photographs, the revelation of their impending grandparenthood, summer plans, travel plans. Conversation never lagged and we finally retreated to the drawing room, possibly my favorite room on earth. Although we never wanted the evening to end, Andy was summoned and we were soon home. What an entirely blissful day!

We'd had our talented friend, Fran personalize a couple sweatshirts for the anniversary couple to wear on their boating adventures. Just as sleep was about to find us a text revealed our beautiful friends modeling their new shirts. Aren't they something?

Here I am just at the end of chronicling our first two days in Yorkshire and yet  my poor words cannot begin to capture all the joy of those two days. Once again  I am filled with a sense of wonder that all these long-laid plans had finally come to pass and unlike some plans, everything was going even better than I had ever imagined. I shall press these days hard into my memory bank and come back to them any time I feel the world has nothing more to offer. And I will chide myself for such a foolish thought when the world is, indeed wide. And glorious. And more beautiful than we ever give it credit for. Blessed.