Cruising England

We left Selby and headed to Manchester for the night. To be honest I wasn't thrilled with Manchester, I am not sure if it was because I had been in the country for four days or whether the folks of Manchester are just...well...a little out there. It appeared that everyone was drunk and the dress code was simply outrageous. All the girls looked like they were trying to be like those twits from the Hills. However we thankfully weren't there for long and after picking up the car the next day we headed south to the Cotswolds for some more country charm.

clever Street name in Cirenchester

The Local Church

Stone Cottages in Bibury

After driving through the narrow roads of the Cotswolds we found a cute little town called Burton on the Water. Also known as the Venice of the Cotswolds because of a stream running through the middle of town. We decided to stop here for the night before heading to the sea side the next day.

On a bridge in Burton on the Water.

We left Burton on The Water the next day and decided that since it was a lovely day lets drive down to the coast for Fish and Chips. We took a lovely 2 hour drive south through charming towns and cute villages before we arrived in Weymouth.

A class of Sav blanc in the sun.

mmmm YUMMO!

Cruising the strip in Weymouth.

After checking out the a little bit of the Dorset Coast we decided to head back north and by late in the afternoon we found out selves in Stratford Upon Avon, the birth place of William Shakespeare.

Each of these little boats were named after Shakespeare's leading ladies

The oldest pub in Stratford

I loved Stratford Upon Avon it was so much more charming than I expected it to be. I thought I would be really touristy, which it was, but it wasn't cheesy. We spent the next morning browsing the shops and drinking coffee and I could have spent the entire day there. However we needed to continue our way back towards Manchester, so decided to head to Nottingham!

I was surprised to find Nottingham to be such a large city. Every movie or TV show I have seen it's always been such a tiny little village :)

Getting my Robin Hood on

The Gardens at Nottingham Castle. I was disappointed to find out the original medieval castle was mostly demolished by a nob head Barron in the 1600's. He built an ugly mansion on the site instead. However there are still certain elements that are from the original castle of the Robin Hood tale.

English Roses

The Castle Gates.

After a few hours in Nottingham we continued into the peaks district. Through the sheep farms and all the way up to Buxton

Sheeps!

The lake at the doorstep of our B&B in Buxton

Saint Anne's Well. Natural Spring that Buxton is famous for

The Buxton Opera House

The club house, pub.

After a night in beautiful Buxton we zoomed back down the mountains to Manchester airport. I really enjoyed our trip through England, it was so much more magical and interesting than I ever expected! I was sad we couldn't spend more time there however I was also excited because the next phase of our holiday was to head to Ireland to see my two favorite people get married!

Tour de York

With the Tour de France being held in France at the same time that mum and I were going to be in the UK, mum came up with the wonderful idea that herself and I do the Tour de York while visiting England this year. Thankfully the Tour de York was a lot easier than the Tour de France and only comprised of two cyclists, Gayle and Ali who were both deemed winners after getting terribly lost, successfully tackling massive hills and making friends all over the country side.

The Tour was created by Scoot Cycling Holidays http://www.scootcyclingholidays.co.uk/

I can not highly recommend this company enough. Steve met us at the Selby train station and hooked us up with our bikes and maps and the confidence that we would have no trouble at all. Little did he know we'd be shortly calling on him......

The Selby Abbey - the Selby community has worshiped here for the last 900 years!!!

Beautiful archers inside the Abbey

Good old Mary...

After checking out the Abbey in Selby we then got on our bikes and started the first leg of our journey. The first leg was not too difficult, a lovely 15 mile cycle through the country lanes to York,

Bike Cam...

Gayle, a cherry picker back in her youth was amazed by the wild cherry trees growing along the lane.

Fields

Cute sculpture on a bridge

The Rive Ouse, York

Cliffords Tower in York

The Famous York Minster

Service was in session when we were there so we could only get shots of the foyer area, still spectacular.

The Shambles, a really old street! Some of the buildings go back to the fourteenth century.

Back in the day the shambles consisted mostly of butcher shops where they would slaughter the pigs and lambs and then and there and hang the carcass in the shop windows!

York is protected by a massive stone wall.

The Romans build the walls to protect and defend the city of York, and still to this day stand in good condition. Those Romans build things to last!

Gayle getting ready to shoot an arrow!

After spending the night at the Dairy Guest House in York we got on the bike the next day and headed off into the country side for day two!

Beningbrough Hall

The gatehouse at Beningbrough Hall.

Fellow travelers on the path

Stranded on the side of the road! Just outside of Easingwold mum's bike got a flat. Discovering we had no pump we had to call Steve who rushed to our aid and swapped bikes.

We followed cycle route 65 for most of the way. There was a point where we were supposed to stop following 65 and follow the map... um but I missed that piece of information and we ended up going totally in the wrong direction!

Through the farm lands

Cute little English Cottage. I liked the red door.

The white horse

The white horse was actually not on the planned route. We ended up taking a huge detour (by accident) to Sutton Under Whitestone Cliffs. The longest named town in English History. Although it wasn't a planned visit we ended up having a lovely time in the pub waiting for Steve to once again come and rescue us and take us to the right destination!

Once we got to the right destination we stayed in a beautiful inn called the Fairfax Arms in Gilling. There wasn't much in the village other than the Inn but after cycling for 8 hours all we needed was a good meal, a few glasses of wine and a comfy bed! Basically to Drink, Eat and Sleep :)

The comfy beds!

Day three took us up some very large hills and after clarifying directors with a friendly farmer on to a cute lavender farm, where we stopped for tea and lavender scones!

Lavender lavender every where

The spectacular view

On our way to Stillington we took another slight detour and found a 12th Century Church in the middle of no where!

The last night we spent in a town called Huby (pronounced Hew-B) before cycling back to York and then to Selby. And Oh thy tender rump! After 3 days on a bike every time I went over a bump or a cattle grid I was reminded of the pain! However it was worth every grimace, being able to see the country side and smell every variety of manure was a truly different holiday experience!

The friendly cows we passed on our way back to York.

Once back in York we locked the bikes and headed into the highly recommended Betty's Tea Room for some High Tea!

Hmmm Tea

Hmmmm cakes.

Bike cam

Heading back to Selby!

Four days on a bike through Yorkshire was fabulous. I highly recommend to everyone to experience a biking holiday. Despite the sore bum it was magnificent, and felt wonderful to be physically tired at the end of the day and not mentally tired from a day at work. In total we probably cycled around 96 miles or 154km. We were so lucky with the weather and for the most part had spectacular sunshine. We experienced great hospitality from many locals and found everyone to be friendly and helpful, often pointing us the right direction! After returning the bikes to Steve we caught the train from Selby to Manchester to begin the next phase of our holiday where we'd swap the two wheels for four and headed off to experience more of the English country side.