Eh by goom, the Yorkshire Wolds!

We said goodbye to Peterborough this morning and I feel Geoff may have done the place a disservice with his harsh and unrestrained criticism, unlike my own more kindly assessment.  We drove out through a nice part of the town and had plenty of time to take in the neighbourhood as we were gridlocked in peak-hour traffic for over half an hour. In that time we saw fresh-faced children, skipping to school, cheerful dads walking Labradors, pretty gardens and lots of parks.  I assume this means our hotel was out in the boondocks and our walk to the CBD took us to the crumbling nether regions of the inner city.




I must also report that our Peterborough hotel had a trouser press.  I'm ashamed to go anywhere without a sharp crease in my Fletcher Jones slacks, so this was a boon to my always impeccable grooming.    

[Geoff elbowing in here: It's also worth mentioning that if you look closely at the power point at the bottom right of the trouser press you might see an adaptor in it, specifically an adaptor that converts Australian appliances (like, you know, phones and tablets) into British points.  Well, not to put too fine a point on it, but it's still there (in the hotel in Peterborough).  It will no doubt be a great boon to the next Australian who visits.  Unfortunately, we ourselves won't have the use of it for the remainder of our journey.  Here endeth this lesson. Signed G Skillen, 4B.]   Sorry, Snorks. Signed Anne Ackroyd, 4A

After a couple of false starts with our sat nav yesterday, we fired it up for a real excursion (Peterborough to Bishop Wilton in Yorkshire) this morning.  As a back-up plan, Geoff had hand-drawn a map for me to interpret in case the sat nav didn't live up to expectations. The sat nav was mostly okay, but it was alarming when we lost the signal, which happened several times, fortunately not at major roundabouts with 10 exits,   Also, Geoff's hand-drawn map bore no resemblance at all to the instructions given by the sat nav so that was a challenge.  But we got here eventually and I must say, ooooh it's looovely!  

Bishop Wilton is a tiny little village in North Yorkshire, and. like so many others, has a massive, ancient church which we will inspect at some stage over the week we are here.  Our home for the week is a not-very-old-but-beautifully-appointed-and-equipped cottage.....

               ...that looks out across the lane to what we assume are the Wolds.  It is such a pretty place - this pic doesn't do it justice. 

The cottage has everything that opens and shuts but is so well-secured with three back doors that all need to be locked when we go out, we ended up asking a neighbour to help us out as we couldn't re-lock them after we opened them. I'm sure she thought we were from Barcelona (a Fawlty Towers reference for those saying 'que?') and we also needed instructions on the shower which I'm not sure we grasped but we nodded politely while feeling stupid.

Question: why are English showers (a) always over the bath tub (a safety hazard surely) and (b) always so complicated. It's never just a couple of hot and cold taps but invariably a big, daunting chunk of metal with levers and switches.   But these are small whinges, because Bramblefield Cottage at Bishop Wilton is an absolute gem.




That woman again, In our backyard eating lunch. The nerve of her.

After we'd sorted ourselves we drove to the nearest biggish town, Pocklington, to get some provisions at Sainsburys.  On the way out of the store with our trolley full of Horlicks, Marmite etc, Geoff decided the door clearly marked "fire exit" was the way to go, and so heave-hoed the big metal bar up, and out into the street we went, closely followed by a Sainsbury check-out chick yelling, "You've set off the alarm! That's the foire exit!"  Ah well, we'll know for next time then.

All in all, a great day and well done, Geoffy for your excellent driving and for finding this little bit of paradise on the interwebz. Over to you, now, lovey-guv. xx

Yes, still getting the hang of the satnav.  So far I'm giving it 8 out of 10.  It sometimes loses the GPS signal, which may not be such an issue if you're on the M1, but not so good if it's taken you down a country lane and you've no idea what to do next.  And the route it chose for us from Peterborough to York bore no resemblance to the one that suggested itself to me via Google maps.  But anyway, it did get us here.  Only minor quibbles, and I'm sure things will improve (everything crossed).

The Yorkshire wolds is considerably more attractive than Peterborough, to say the least.  So far we've explored Wharram Percy, described as a DMV (deserted mediaeval village).  Not a hell of a lot to see, no doubt since it was abandoned several hundred years ago, but there is the remains of a church (St Martins):

.. and a graveyard.  You park the car and walk almost a mile down a path:

      Alright, this photo isn't so special, but you'll just have to take my word for it - it was a really nice gambol through the wilds [or Wolds - Ed.], made better because we had it to ourselves.  Although there's not much left to see, Wharram Percy is described as the most significant DMV is England, and we're glad we went.

The only public facilities in the village of Bishop Wilton are a 'village store', that is in a tiny house, and a pub, 'The Fleece', that we'll be patronising tomorrow.  Talk about priorities - no real shops to speak of, but a pub.  My type of village!

 All up, it's a ripper, Rita.  xxx