Cow and Calf Hotel Ilkley

... completely on your own, such is the size of this place... There are no restrictions on movement and only two areas are pay on enter (which we had seen before anyway). It was peacful, rich in history and a fantastic playground for someone like me who has the mental age of 10... A truly magical place indeed.. It would be wrong not to mention the journey back to Goa on the train and the enjoyment and company of our cabin friends - the quite wonderful trainee priests.... The kindness of ...

... the gorge up the gorge” debacle followed by kilometres of what, bog? on top of a mountain?!! where the hell were we?!! Also, damn the reservoir where, having run out of water, Ryan requested that I wade in and try and get some water for boiling. Cold! Muddy! Undrinkable! Squidgy!

Last brief entry, just to say we are safely back home, arriving yesterday with Sue picking us up at Manchester airport.

We've had a fantastic trip - very memorable! Thank you for following our trip. Hope it hasn't been boring, certainly hasn't for us.

Ok......so the nerves are kind of kicking in, actually no I was more nervous last weekend. But now I am just VERY excited. Cannot wait to see what it's going to be like. The anticipation is killing me more than anything, the not knowing. the completely different ...

... saw thee?
On Ilkla Moor baht 'at?!
On Ilkla Moor baht 'at?!
On Ilkla Moor baht 'at?!

Tha's been a cooartin' Mary Jane
On Ilkla Moor baht 'at
Tha's been a cooartin' Mary Jane
Tha's been a cooartin' Mary Jane
On Ilkla Moor baht 'at
On Ilkla Moor baht 'at
On Ilkla Moor baht 'at

Tha's bahn t'catch thi deeath o'cowd
On Ilkla Moor baht 'at
Tha's bahn t'catch thi ...

Today was a rainy day and the forecast was for much of the same all day, so the girls decided to assault the local Mark's & Spencer store and spend some money on needless frivolities, like clothes. The M&S in the area is a massive store that is more like the size of a small shopping center. Luckily…or not…they had wheel chairs available, so we grabbed one for Connie so she could spend even more time there…but not get too ...

Train ride from Edinburgh to Newcastle was great. The English countryside is absolutely gorgeous! Everything is so green and lush.      Upon arrival, Ally and I met some of Rose's friends from school. We also finally got to meet Charlie's fiancee. (Charlie is another English girl studying in Castellón) We all went to a local pub for lunch.... since I'm updating this a month later, I've forgotten ...

... I did what I hoped I wouldn't have to do, and wake up Helen to get a ride to the bus stop. She was less than pleased, but a trooper nonetheless, and got me to the bus station just in time to watch the bus for which I held a non-amenable, non-refundable ticket pull away. Fortunately, the bus 40 minutes later didn't charge me extra (or fully) and I still had enough time to make my transfer in London. I got to the MegaBus station where I was told less than politely by ...

... it certainly helped us to settle in. After they left we settled into our routine. I was at uni five days a week, obviously the kids had school, Michelle started looking for a job. Hardly the sort of thing you want to write about. But as I write this we have just spent 3 weeks in Greece and Italy (more about that later) and I'm sitting in an Internet cafe in Zeebrugge with some time to kill before catching the ferry back to Hull this evening so I'm all primed to do some blabbing. Have I ...

... ones that look fairly short on the map but ends up taking about 3 times as long as we'd expected. Having said that it was through some beautiful country (the Cathar Castle area of France) through deep valleys and winding rivers. About 20kms south of Carcassonne we passed what looked like a nice campground but decided to continue on because we had read about a nicer one on the north side of town in our (out of date) campground guide. Well after about 90 minutes of driving around trying to ...