Day 10: So Long, Snowdonia. Hello, Yorkshire.

 Much to our dismay, Eric woke up with a fever this morning. After grabbing some breakfast, he ran off to the steam room while I packed up the car. Though he felt fine, we both agreed it was probably best he didn’t drive the 2.5 hours to Yorkshire Dales. Which means...that task would be on me. While he hung out in the sauna, I took the car around the parking lot for a test drive. It really wasn’t so bad. By the time he got to the car, I was ready to go and off we went. My first direction; a roundabout. PERFECT! Eric always goes through those so smoothly which gave me some faith that I might be able to as well. Those actually weren’t bad either. 

 So off we went, into the English Peak District. Yet again, amazing scenery. Got turned around a few times but it wasn’t a bad drive at all. When we were in Lacock talking to the man selling soap, he forewarned us that the streets in Yorkshire would be just as narrow as the ones in St. Ives but instead of this hedgerows fencing each side of the street, there’d be stone-stacked walls. He was exactly right. It made it a little more nerve-wracking when going around tight corners. Not only did you have to worry about a car coming from the other direction that you couldn’t see but you also had to worry about scraping your car against rocks versus soft brush.

 We arrived to our B&B in Malham around 1:30, way too early to check in so we headed down the street to a pub for some lunch, then a short hike around the area.

 The town is small but busy with people of every age dressed in hiking gear. There are a ton of great walks and bike trails in this area. We chose our B&B because of it’s easy access to the attractions by foot. We found it in our Lonely Planet guide which also mentioned that when staying at Beck Hall B&B you should book the “Green Room”. So we did. When we checked in, we finally got to see it and find out why it was singled out amongst the rest.

First of all, Beck Hall was built in the 18th century. It was originally a butchers place but another tid-bit is that during the 2nd World War, it housed refugee children. Our bedroom was one of the rooms those kids stayed in. We were having some trouble with our tiny t.v. so the lady in charge, Lauren (young daughter of the manager), filled us in of the details. The original building was just the white part with the black trim. Then, during the 60’s and 70’s it went through some additions. Then even more additions just 4 years ago. Our room is quite small but has an awesome 4-poster bed, narrow windows that look out onto the creek that runs past the front of the building, and a cool mantlepiece and super old door.

We settled in and relaxed around the B&B. There are plenty of tables and chairs situated along the creek and a finicky WiFi connection to keep us busy before heading back out to find some dinner. There are really only 2 places to eat in Malham that we could find; the pub on the right and the fancier pub on the left. We tried the fancier pub for dinner after trying the other one for lunch. The fancier one had a much tastier (more expensive) menu but also a great atmosphere. Again, more really slow but very friendly service. It was by no means busy when we were there and dinner took us about 2-2.5 hours to get through. But, really, what’s our rush?

We downloaded the latest episode of Breaking Bad (even more intense than the last one!) and dozed off early as I started to get some sniffles...

Day 9: Snowdonia (A.K.A. In Sickness and In Health)

 Suddenly our trip took a turn for the not-so-fun. Eric’s sniffle that showed up yesterday turned in to an evil sinus infection. He was up all night with a stuffy, runny nose, heavy head, sore face and overall discomfort. It came over him like a slap in the face. When my alarm went off for breakfast, Eric stayed in bed and I set off for hunting down medicine and food to try and speed this infection up. I wandered down to the dining hall and talked to the restaurant manager to put together a take-away tray of breakfast for him. I hit up the gift  shop and bought any and everything that was sinus related. When I got back to the room he was feeling like right crud. But like I said yesterday, this is probably the best moment in our trip to recoup.

For almost every negative, there’s a positive. There’s no wireless internet in the room so Eric and I stayed in bed for a good amount of the day watching British t.v. We’re big fans of British t.v. series’ at home and constantly watch them on Netflix. Today we got a great taste of what else is out there in  English t.v. land...and it’s really, really good. Their shows are awesome. They have shows about B&B owners, great antique shows and there’s some about selling/showing homes in the country which is particularly interesting because everything is so old. This one woman’s house dates back to the 13th century and still has the beams, doors, etc... Mind blowing.

The day wasn’t all television, though. Eric made a couple trips to the sauna and steam room. I went out for a bite at lunch and walked around; snapped a few photos...

 

Our room:

 We also made it to our massages, which were wonderful. The rest of our night was committed to serious R&R so we’d be in good shape for our 2.5 hour drive up to Yorkshire Dales tomorrow. We were in for another surprise at dinner, though. When we sat down, the restaurant manager stopped by to check on us with his hands full of champagne and a bag of spa products. A little “Happy Anniversary” present.

 So nice! We think our accidental overtipping at the massages paid off. Though Eric’s not in the best state to be enjoying champagne... I’ll enjoy it for the both of us ;)

 Here’s to a speedy recovery and a bushy-tailed Eric in the morning.

Day 8: Snowdonia

 Today has been full of surprises. After filling up on the usual breakfast and checking out of the Dorian House, we set on our journey up through Wales to Snowdonia. Snowdonia is a national park with the highest peak in all of England; a “whopping” 3,580 feet. Since Eric and I are both big fans of parks, we made sure to visit this part of the country. While searching online, Eric found this route through Wales that’s listed as one of the top 5 drives in all of England. You can read it here. We had about 5 hours of road to complete before reaching our next hotel, Bodelwydden Castle.

First, a note on petrol. Gas here is about £1.37 for regular and £1.40 for diesel. Those prices are per liter. There are 3.8 liters in a gallon. Our car only takes diesel fuel. So that translates to about £5.32 or about $8 per gallon! I think I’ll stop complaining about  gas prices in the US for a bit. So far we’ve only gone through 1 whole tank of gas. We’d like to use the car as little as possible. I’d bet the rest of Britain thinks the same way.

The drive was gorgeous. Filled with nothing but great views. We didn’t really stop except to get some chips, take a picture and yield to sheep. That was the best part about the ride for me; the sheep. They were everywhere and grazed right up to the road. Some would even take a nap right on the pavement. It’s hard to discern which towns were which so here are a bunch of pictures and video from the ride...

 

 

Just before 5 o’clock, we arrived at the castle where we were going to spend 2 nights. Right when we walked in to the reception area we realized something was off. The smell was a bit funky, everything was super accessible, the decor was quite dated and extremely plain, there wasn’t much hustle and bustle. Then it hit us. This castle hotel looked no different than a retirement home on the inside. Eric and I were the only two people, besides the staff, not senior citizens. We lost it and couldn’t really keep the laughter in for a good half hour. Everything started to make so much sense. All the planned activities, the inclusive breakfast and dinner, the bocce courts, no wireless internet in the rooms, the world’s tiniest t.v.’s, aqua aerobics, the course on “tennis tips”, 10am sudoku quiz, the anagram test at noon. Hilarious. We kind of felt like all the staff was laughing at us. But we figured we’d make the best of it and booked ourselves 80 minute massages for tomorrow.

We were hoping the food would at least be redeeming. Come to find out, it was! Dinner was delicious. The help is very friendly and they’re ready to go out of their way for you but they definitely take their time with everything. There tends to be a lot of long waiting about. Unusually long for a glass of water, a dinner roll, etc... But everything seems worth the wait so that’s good. Eric asked for a glass of Coke. They weren’t sure if they even had any! Seemed odd. A long while later, they arrived with a full glass of Coke for him. I’d bet they just got it from one of the vending machines or something. I guess fizzy drinks aren’t really this crowd’s cup of tea.

Eric was feeling under the weather so when we got back to the room, we made a super early night of it. Since the hotel was bit far from our expectations, we figured this was just the right spot in our trip to sleep in and catch up on some much needed rest. Plans for tomorrow were left up in the air.

Day 7: Day trip to Wiltshire

Today we were going to spend quality time at the spa. But we rethought that plan after checking out our guide book and realizing how close we are to some extremely old, tiny towns. So we plotted out our journey and hopped in the car after yet another filling breakfast. Here's our route.

On our way to the first town, we saw this adorable flock of sheep. The coolest thing about it is that here in England, you're welcome on the majority of the land. So we could've walked through this fence following that footpath amongst the sheep and had ourselves a little stroll without trespassing.

First up, Castle Combe. Described in our book as "An idyllic English village ... claims to be the prettiest in the country and, frankly, this is hard to dispute." Eric and would completely agree with that statement. It's awesome. Walking around this teeny, tiny town felt like being in this scene from Beauty and the Beast:

 

 

 The 13th century castle.

 

 Cross-stitched cushions at the pews.

 

 Monument of Sire Walter de Dunstanville, lord of the manor.

  

The church smelled so good inside because it was completely filled with fresh white flowers everywhere.

  

 More details of the town.

 

 

 Breads made by a local man. I picked up a piece of the lemon drizzle. Delicious.

 

From there we drove about 20 minutes to the next town, Lacock. Lonely Planet says, "There are no TV aerials, no yellow lines and no overhead cables in this gorgeous medieval village where most buildings date from before 1800 - it's almost a surprise to see electric light in the windows." It was used as part of the set for BBC's Pride and Prejudice as well as scenes from Harry Potter. 

 

The entrance to a cell where the local disorderly drunks would spend the night if they got too out of hand.

 Eric trying out the cell bed.

 This is Harry Potter's house!

 We stopped in to a craft fair that was going on a bought some handmade soaps. The man selling them struck up a conversation with us. He was quite the talker and we had about a 20 minute chat about the differences between London and NYC. After, we went to a potter's studio and checked out his work. This also turned into another lengthy visit. The potter, David, told us he is a descendent of Winston Churchill, why most clocks with Roman numerals use IIII in place of 4 instead of IV, the rule of 3's, as well as a special way to get to the Avebury Circle. After leaving, I felt like I had to take a picture to remember the moment. Right when I did, he jumped in the doorway and said "I thought I'd be in your photo!". He was a special character.

 A few blocks from his shop sits the Lacock Abbey. It was built in the early 13th century as a nunnery. In the mid 16th century, it was converted in to a home by Sir William Sharington. Three centuries later, William Henry Fox Talbot conducted experiments in developing photography.

 

 

  

This hallway was used in the Harry Potter movies.

 

 As was this courtyard.

 As was this room, the Chapter House.

And this room, the Warming Room. The cauldron cooked food for Queen Anne. This room was for all things food related. There are stone troughs that would house fish, a staple food for the nuns.

 Additional rooms including the brewery (inside shots below).

  

 

 

 

 

 

  

 There was more to see in Lacock but we were starving so we drove to a neighboring town, Rowde, for some good eats that got rave reviews, George and Dragon. It definitely lived up to our expectations. Cozy inside and tasty meals.

 

About 20 minutes from there lies Avebury's Stone Circle. Stonehenge was much too far away so we visited this henge much closer by. It dates from 2500-2200 BC. It's one of the largest circles in Britain. There is an outer circle surrounded by a ditch. Inside is another circle and inside that, 2 more smaller circles. 

 

 

 Video of the area. Aside from the wind, you can hear the faint sound of church bells going off in the town.

 

 

 

 Another cool part about the henge is that goats were grazing freely in the area right along with the visitors. I wanted to pet them so badly but they weren't down for it. So I pretended to eat dinner with them.

Thatched roofs are still a big deal here.

I just don't understand. If the Brits can keep these 13th century homes kicking in great shape 800 years later, why is it that our landlord can't take care of our Victorian apartment? Mind boggling.

So needless to say, this was a long but exciting day for us. We went home, packed up for our departure tomorrow, got snacks at the nearby grocery and watched some t.v. One full week of honeymoon done. Can't believe we're only a third of the way through so far. Trip of a lifetime!