2nd Aug - Hawes and York

We had breakfast at 9:30am, slightly late but Herriot was nice enough to overlook that. Breakfast was splendid, besides the usual orange juice and cereal, we could select from a choice of cooked breakfast. Both of us ordered pancakes and it turned out to be really good, it was sweet (though maple syrup was still provided) and slightly crispy. It's actually a bit like my mum's pancake but much bigger and thinner. It came with sausages, egg and bacon. When we checked out of the hotel, Ross told me he guesses the hotel is called Herriot because of the author James Herriot originated from Yorkshire. I got really excited because I read his whole series of "All creatures big and small". We walked around the lovely town and I really loved the place. I've decided that I like Yorkshire.

Our first stop of the day was at Thwaite to see the buttertubs, which was a series of potholes that streams fall into. They became known was buttertubs when farmers going to market lowered their butter into the holes to keep it cool. We took the B6270 to Muker and then Askrigg.

It started to rain but we didn't really mind it that much by now. We headed for Aysgarth Waterfalls next. The road to Askrigg from Muker was tricky. There was a steep, upslope 1st gear climb for a mile which was extremely windy. The view when we reached the top was spectacular. We could see beautiful slopes of grazing land, there were no trees, no houses or any sort of buildings. It felt absolutely peaceful. We took A684 to Aysgarth. Due to time limitation, we only visited the lower and middle falls of Aysgarth.

From Aysgarth, we took B6160 - B6265 to Greenhow Hill, Stump Cross Caverns. We stopped there for 20 minutes or so. We were initially worried about walking to the caves since it was raining but realised that the visitor's center has been built over it, which made it very convenient. I was actually slightly disappointed with the caverns, Yangshuo (China) was better, but it gave us a good chance to stretch out our legs.

We then got on B6265 to Fountains Abbey (near Ripon). The grounds of Fountains Abbey was huge. It was beautiful but it was a pity that we had limited time on our hands. I would have loved to spend the day exploring the area but we only had time for the Abbey and the Fountains Hall.

Our next stop for the day was York (A64 - M1). I was looking forward to York since Ross said he likes the place. It was a nice large town, much more cosmopolitan than Hawes. We found York Minister easily. It was so majestic and huge. The church was closing early that day and we only had 5 to 10 minutes to look around. After the church, we walked the city gates.

After having dinner in York (Caesar, Italian), we continued our journey to shorten our distance to Ramsgate. We stopped at Wakefield Travelodge slightly after 10pm. I didn't really feel safe driving on the highway since it wasn't very well lighted.