Today we are planning to head south(ish) passing through Sheffield (to collect some Ivorine for knife handles) and then on to Nottingham to meet up with Eric and Joy.
We start off by heading westwards (as you would) so that we go past the ruins of Fountains Abbey. When we got there it was too early for them to be open so we we just saw what we can see from the entrance way. When we came here on one of our cycling holidays 'when I were a lad' I think we could freely wander in and look around but now you have to pay and there are strict entry times. Progress.
After FA we continued west into the southern Yorkshire Dales and some very impressive countryside. Rain squalls kept hitting us from the west but there were enough sunny intervals to make it interesting. We passed throughnthe pretty village of Pately Bridge in Nidderdalee, about halfway between Ripon Grassington. At Grassington, we turned to the south heading down to Bolton Abbey - another victim of The Reformation - but we didn't go in to see the Abbey.
Continuing south we headed for Keighley but then got a bit messed up and missed our road to take us down through Halifax. We ended up going through/around Bradford which was very slow and then on to Halifax where we were able to pick up a road heading towards the M1. I should say that I tried a few times to call the guy at the cutlery company in Sheffield, eventually leaving a message for him to call me back. When he did call me back it turned out that there was no-one at the place until Thursday/Friday and they didn't really have any Ivorine at all so I would not be able to get the Knife handles that I wanted. Grrr!
Anyway we headed towards the M1, and lunched at a place called Midgley along the way. I called Joy and Eric to let them know our expected timings and we headed down the M1 towards Nottingham. This wasn't quite as straightforward as it should have been as there is major work going on which kept the speed down to 50mph but we got to Nottingham in reasonable time and had no difficulty finding Eric and Joy's place near the Uni.
I should also mention that Garth had lent us his Gps which I had taken out to check a few days ago. Unfortunately, when I went to get it out to get it I couldn't find the Gos unit itself, only it's charging and mounting harness. We had to make do in the end with the Gps on Dominic's Android phone but it did the job. We will have to empty the car out to find the missing Gps. Pity it doesn't have. Gps locator on it!
It was great to catch up with Eric and Joy during the afternoon. One of the things they have been fighting is a light rail system which has taken away part of their garden but the battle is now over and construction is well under way. This runs along the back of their garden with the Uni on the other side. Of course there is all the construction noise that they have to deal with too.
Eric took us on a tour through the Uni later while Joy had someone in for a dance class. In the evening we walked out to have a nice meal at their favorite Indian Restaurant which is not far away. A very pleasant way to spend the evening.
