Tuesday 16 September - Bridlington

The original York station signal box has been turned into a coffee shop

We came to Bridlington by train changing at Seamer which has an island platform in the middle of nowhere. There was a flock of wagtails in the high hedges eating the large numbers of red berries. Some of them were performing acrobatic feats to get at the berries.

Station concourse

Bridlington station ticket window.

The station concourse

Bridlington station was quite a surprise. The booking hall area is covered in and contains a riot of flowers. The actual booking office is a well preserved old style one with metal separators topped by wooden shelves.

Bridlington has seen better days. It bills itself as an old time experience and possibly nothing has been altered in many years except prices. There are many vacant store fronts and most places could do with a good clean. A sign of the seaside resort is the number of large conveniently situated public conveniences.
Rags provided a good lunch, dressed Bridlington crab then steak pie/seafood plate.

The restaurant also provided a passable Wold Top Anglers Reward pale ale.

View of the harbour from close to the Rags restaurant.  The restaurant windows were in need of a good clean.

The sandpipers were very busy searching the weeds in the pots for food.

There was a fair bit of activity around the harbour with many seagulls, but also sandpipers and ducks. We had a soft ice cream and made our way through the amusement arcades and fairground rides towards the north beach. The sand is quite good but you have to go some way to get to the posher part with nice flower beds and a lack of stalls selling fast food. 

As at Whitby and Scarborough a pirate boat was giving rides

Anything to get people to part with their money

There seemed to be a lot of people with mobility chairs. Many women had coloured their hair occasionally at random. Is this a local fad or some charity stunt?
Click here to see all pictures taken at Bridlington
We caught the train back via Seamer but went through to Scarborough which is a more pleasant place to transfer. It was possible to see a little more than when we came in. The fog had turned into mist and the visibility had improved so that we could see all along the white chalk cliffs to the north.

Monday 15 September - Mary's Birthday

The view at The Star in the City overlooking the river Ouse and the museum gardens in York.

 

The Veuve Cliquot champagne.

Aaack, they ran out of New Zealand Sauvignon blanc! Nil desperandum, they had a lovely bottle of Sancerre.

Bread was served in a flat hat.

Seared sea scallops with Yorkshire pork cheek with cauliflower purée & Picallilli vinaigrette.

 

The mains. Risotto of local estate shot red legged partridge, braised chestnuts, wilted curly kale, Wensleydale cheese & truffle oil.

Duck with chip shop chips & wilted spinach.

 

A surprise birthday platter of mignardises.

Honeycomb ice cream & lemon thyme & honey ice cream. (Oops, started eating it before remembered to take picture).

Cheeseboard of local cheeses. (One piece already eaten).

Topped off with a decaf cappuccino.
Then we literally staggered home from this awesome meal

 

Monday 15 September - Shildon

Keep looking up.  Decoration on the Starbucks coffee shop in the Lendal

Today's forecast was for rain and, even though it is Mary's birthday, we agreed that I would go to the National Railway Musem at Shildon leaving her free to go shopping etc., at York.
I caught a train to Darlington where I changed to a two car pacer to Shildon. After Darlington we were on the route of the first public railway with steam haulage, the Stockton and Darlington of 1825. In spite of the long industrial heritage of the area we were soon in fields of sheep with coveys of partridges.
The museum is a little walk from the station with the collection building at one end of a short running line and some historic buildings at the other.
The collection building is purpose built and pleasant to walk through. However, it suffers from the problem of several long lines of locomotives and it is difficult to get back far enough to see them properly. Just after I walked in there was a public announcement to evacuate the building. None of the staff took any notice and it seems it was merely a test of the system  

This GWR pannier tank was in the workshop area.   I remember standing on the flat top of one of these taking water at Reading Low Level, holding down the chain to take water and getting completely soaked in the process

A fireless locomotive.

A Stockton and Darlington Railway passenger coach, patterned after a stagecoach.

Several historic locomotives were on display, the most interesting to me being the GWR 2-8-0 and a GWR 0-6-0 pannier tank, both of which types I have worked on. The exhibits are not all identified, many locomotives being identified merely by a large luggage label. I personally would not have included a few coal wagons or BR  rolling stock but that is a matter of preference.
The really interesting part of the display was at the other end of the line which has coal staithes, stables used by the horses on the original railway, an early goods shed, the first industrial building in Shildon, Timothy Hackworth's house and the Sans Pareil, Hackworth's entry for the Liverpool and Manchester Rainhill locomotive trials.

The Goods Shed

The Sans Pareil.

Early chauldron waggons

First industrial building in Shildon

Timothy Hackworth's house.

It is a peaceful area now. Waiting for the train to Darlington I could hear a parliament of rooks, a murder of crows, a magpie and some robins.

The rain was light at times

The tranquility of Shildon was shattered by the crashing and banging of a Pacer, the train everyone loves to hate, as it crashed and banged its way over the poor track to and from Darlington.

Click here to see my pictures from Shildon

Sunday 14 September - Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal Water Gardens

It feels just like Sunday morning at home - as we made our way through the vomit and dried blood on the sidewalk. People come into York on Saturday evening to get drunk.  Some of the women look more formidable than the men.
Half of York was shut down today for some bike riding. Good day to get out of town. There is a once a week bus to Fountains Abbey on route 812. It was reasonably full by the time we arrived, mostly local people going further towards Grassington to hike in the Dales.
The National Trust visitor centre had everything we needed including a good restaurant.
We set out to walk down to the ruins of the abbey and were immediately struck by the large numbers (coveys) of pheasants. They were everywhere and did not seem bothered by us at all. There were a large number of rooks, (a parliament), flying around the tower.
The Studley Royal Water Gardens were very peaceful in the still, morning air. A few swans added a graceful feel to the place.

And called it macaroni

 

 

Partridges were everywhere

If a number of rooks is a parliament these must be MPs.

We walked in a circle around the ruins and gardens to come back to the visitor centre for lunch. The roast pork and Yorkshire pudding was good and a good Black Sheep bitter helped it down.
This afternoon we walked off lunch by exploring the ruins and walking down to the bottom lake. We came back along side the Deer Park but didn't see any deer.

St. Marys Church

Click here to see all pictures taken at Fountains Abbey
The one bus of the week arrived on time and brought back the same people it had taken out this morning.
The Olde Starre Inne is a new favourite because it has two New Zealand Sauvignon Blancs by the glass. I tried a Theakstons Old Peculiar which is a dark mild, well named. The Black Sheep brewery Riggwelter was quite good. It is a strong dark mild which is full of flavor of chestnut.