Day Six - The Crime Scene

The next morning we got up to do some site-seeing before checking into our next B&B. Jon ran out to get some cash to pay when he was greeted by glass all in the car. Someone had broken the passenger side window and grabbed Jon's cell phone. Ironically the one they grabbed was the one I had accidentally ran through the washing machine. If you had people's numbers in the address book you were fine but dialing numbers was impossible (several of the numbers did not work). Unfortunately, this caused us to lose a whole day.

We reported the incident to the police. A lovely woman came out and took Jon's details. She said they'd send someone out to take finger prints just in case but it had rained a bit that morning so she wasn't hopeful. He called the rental company's window people and it took 3 calls in the morning before they'd give us a time they could come out - between 1 and 3 pm. Mid-morning the CSI lady showed up (Patrick and I were secretly hoping that Grissom, Stokes, Willows or Brown would show up but alas not so). Our B&B owners couldn't have been more understanding. The wife was a great fun to chat with. Her husband offered us plastic and tape to put over the window (but the police said not to until CSI had shown up). Their sweet doggie even paid me a visit and gave me my doggie fix (I was missing Dani dog quite a lot).

Once we got a time from the window guy, we decided to have lunch at the local pub. Bottomleys Arms was hands down one of the best values and best food we had while in England. It made our not so nice start to the day just a bit better. The portions were huge and for the price of 6 pounds 25 pence you couldn't beat it. The place was packed and even if the tables were small the food and service made up for it. Jon said it was the best steak & kidney pie he had ever had. I got roast pork which was flavorful and tender although it was swimming in gravy (what is it with the English and gravy on everything??) and Patrick had their bar steak ciabatta sandwich with some out of this world beer battered onion rings and very tasty chips (our version of fries).

We finished a bit before 3 but still hadn't heard from the window guy. We got back to the B&B and phoned them again. The guy turned up about 20 minutes later. Turned out he couldn't put the window in for some reason so all he did was put some clear plexiglass in and tape it. We were then able to go to our next destination - The Fountain Inn.




Patrick outside the Fountain Inn where Jon's niece, Heather, works in the pub.









Our sat-nav took us in a very round about route but it also gave us a beautiful view of the Yorkshire countryside. What a difference from Shelf/Bradford. Finally the moors of England that I had heard so much about (from Wuthering Heights to Sherlock Holmes). I guess I had a different impression because the moors where quite lovely and not what I thought they were.
Jon was exhausted so Patrick and I left him to nap while we explored the area around our Inn.















To the left of our Inn was this lovely lake area. You were able to walk around the whole lake (for trout fishing) but unfortunately the modern windmills marred the hillside. The heather and other beautiful purple flowers made the windmills disappear.






































Although not hungry after the large meal we had at lunch we decided to have a bit to eat in the pub part or our Inn. We then retired to our quite large and well appointed rooms. I fell in love with their bathtub as it was the first one I could lie down in full length and actually have room - my feet didn't stick out! My cough made for another rough night for both Jon and myself. I was alternating cough drops but to no avail.

Day Five - Stonehenge and Harry Potter

A groggy start to the day thank to little sleep and lots of coughing. Thankfully, the little corner store at the end of Becky's road sold cough drops - was nice to see a familiar brand amongst all the English ones (Hall's). Also tried the stuff that James swears by for my nose - Lemsip. Not sure it worked but that's okay.

After a quick goodbye we piled into the car to head North. James warned us that the area around Stonehenge would probably be wall to wall traffic - just hate it when he's right ;). However, I felt Patrick HAD to see it. I know most Brits think it is just a pile of rocks and it maybe but you have to marvel at the ability of man at that time (with no heavy machinery) to set those huge rocks on top of each other. If you look at it from that stand point it is rather amazing.
























This picture shows barely any cars but just getting to this point was a lesson in patience. We were running late due to the stop/start traffic so we were unable to get out and walk around. But we managed a few good shots from the car (even if the chain link fence was in the way).















Thankfully Patrick had packed his Harry Potter cd's. So we popped in "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" which certainly made sitting in traffic and driving up North much more bearable. Patrick and I had finished the 7th Harry Potter book but felt there had been too much time between 6 & 7 that we forgot things from the 6th book. Jon had never read it so all of us enjoyed listening to it (so much so that Jon ask Patrick to leave the rest of the cd's with him when we left England - Patrick left him what he thought was enough [he still wanted to listen to the rest as well] but Jon got through that rather quickly. He said is going to buy the 6th book and read it on the plane because he wants to know how it ends!)

The drive up North was a long one and we had booked a last minute reservation at the Rook Residence B&B in Shelf. Our hostess was a quite charming woman originally from Holland. We decided to drive into Bradford for dinner. Both Patrick and I were shocked by the difference between the South where Becky lives and this part of England. Much more industrial and it just seemed grayer, more dark and rather depressing. I'm sure there were lovely parts to it but we just didn't see those.