A day out in Whitby

We visited Whitby via the North Yorkshire Moors Historic Railway. The railway runs old steam engines, and travels through the North Yorkshire Moors National Park. Flat Stanley came with us as you will see.


Sofia and Stanley on a double decker bus. We sat on top. See the roof going by in the background? I always think riding on the top is a bit like a carnival ride, which features tree branches coming towards you at 60 or 70 miles an hours. Its a one/two lane country road; why slow down at all?!

The Yorkshire Express Steam Engine arriving at Pickering

Sofia and Flat Stanley with the conductor

Sofia and her friend.

Mum and Me. Thanks Sofia.

A Pheasant. These little guys are all over the Moors, at least in the Park.

A cute little historic train station. One of these was used in the first Harry Potter film.

There are flowers everywhere you look in England in the sprintime, even next to the train tracks. So pretty.



The stunning view of the North Yorkshire Moors National Park from the train. Although I must admit I am a bit jaded from going over the tops so many times.

A short video of the train ride. Sofia is obviously fascinated. (she's reading a magazine.) Teenagers make great travel companions.

Another view from the train.

Arriving at Whitby with this amazing view of a viaduct.

(train bridge not a water bridge)

Mum and Me in front of the Harbor at Whitby. The church and abbey are on the hill behind us, but you can't see them very well from this view.

We decided that we couldn't come to Whitby and NOT climb up to the Abbey, so this is the view from half-way up, aka a good reason to stop so I could catch my breath! Living on Kent Island (read very flat place), in a rancher does not give you much opportunity to develope those muscles that take you UP! York isn't very hilly either, so hills are always a treat!

  

Sofia and Mum leading me on.

Whitby Abbey made famous by the book Dracula by Bram Stoker.

Why anyone built an Abbey up here, we can't imagine. Its soooo windy!

Mum and Sofia taking a quick break.

A Picture Perfect Day!

The view from the church yard next to the ruins. All the names have been blown off the gravestones by the wind and salty air.

Enough of the scenic views, we are off to find some fish and chips, but look at this awesome Victorian tile that I found instead. I know, I'm an Art-geek.

Rock

The seaside/holiday treat for British kids.

Its a foot long piece of hard candy with the name of the town twisted into the core. Yum!

Time to catch our train back to York

York Minster with Mum

Mum just came to visit and as luck would have it, flat Stanley was also in town. We managed to squeeze in quite a lot in 5 days. We had a wonderful time and did a lot of touristy things which we have not done so far, just waiting for someone to visit us. England in the spring time is amazing! We started out in York and visited York Minster

Mum and Sofia in Museum Gardens, in front of St. Mary's Abbey ruins.

Buying a "Fat Rascal" scone at Little Betty's Tearoom

A break for icecream in the Minster gardens

The Natives by the River

Constantine I, became Emporer of Rome in York in 306

Glass in York Minster

Masonic symbolism in glass

Angels in the Minster

The West window York Minster

Sofia posing with the Minsters inhabitants.

An English Holly

The Long and Winding Road:Part III

I did warn you with the title :)

My last excursion was to Bradford Cathedral. It was a lovely clear day with the bluest skies, so a good day to wander through town. I did not get a curry for lunch as one might suspect! The cathedral is very close to the train station, so I really didn't see much more on this visit.  I went to see the huge William Morris and Company windows, which are in the apse. I wasn't as excited as I had planned to be. It was a very big window, with tiers of Saints and more Saints, which were hard to appreciate with so many featured together. See what you think,

Street level entrance to the cathedral grounds

Ribbed vaulting.

William Morris and Comapany windows.

Originally this was one huge window, before the East facade was renovated. 

There was a lot of interesting bits and pieces throughout the cathedral

Part of an 18th century memorial plaque

Carving on the pulpit

A sheep in the glass; it is lambing season!

Part of a larger window, but I liked this little scene. Reminds me of Bolton Abbey,

which is not too far away.

Mason's Symbols on a Memorial plaque.

A creepy memorial plaque. Carved babies always look odd to me.

The Yorkshire Rose; part of the WWI Memorial to the West Yorkshire Regiment.

This window had some really lovely details.

 The West window in the setting sun. Time to go back to York!

In case you missed it, I chose Henry Holiday and the Virtues window for my essay topic. Henry Holiday was a Victorian artist,  who coincidentally did a lot of stained glass windows for clients in America. :)

The Long and Winding Road Part II

Leaving Knaresborough

Sofia and I travelled by train to Bingley on a Saturday to spend the night with my Auntie Pat. The local parish church is at the bottom of the hill from her house, which I had passed a dozen times, but had not been in. After reading that there was some hidden glass by William Morris and the East window by Henry Holiday, his contemporary, I decided I should investigate. I was not disappointed! This church also dates back to the 12th century at least, but lost all of its Medieval glass during the Reformation. Lucky for us, the Gothic Revival inspired some great replacments. See what I found!

Saxon era font, found on site.

16th century partial box pew

Carved pew post

 My new favorite window, The Virtues by Henry Holiday.( Isn't that a great name!)

and some details....

Truth

Love

Patience

Charity

This is a WWI Memorial window. Many churches feature these memorial windows, because so many towns were devastated by the losses of so many of their men. Often, father and sons would have been lost in a single family. I really liked this window, for its grisaille look and minimal use of color. Notice the angels in yellow praying behind the Crusader.

Here is another memorial window for two brothers who were also killed in WWI. The faces are actual portraits of the men.

Imagine, all of the details painted by hand!

Last but not least, this is by William Morris and Co. and was found behind the organ, through a hidden door in the rood screen. The organs here are often quite massive and often have windows behind them, sometimes completely or partially hidden from view.

Here are some more of my tombstone obsession...

Mason?

In Memory of...

Reminds me of Pennsylvania Dutch motifs.

All Saint's Parish Church Bingley

I may have found my inspiration, but alas, I already had a train ticket to Bradford for Tuesday morning. So I carried on to see which was better. Stay tuned for Part III Bradford!