York

8/7/2017


From the canal on the western flanks of the Pennines we travelled today by car, first visiting the Standedge Tunnel, to check our passage booking. This required crossing the Pennines, the tunnel 600 feet below us, to reach its eastern end. The hills high, bare, old quarry scarred, grey stone farms clinging on little spurs.
The landscape tamer as we move east to York.

Curious about possible moorings for Santiago, we walk along the Ouse, amused by the icecream boat in the photo. We chat with a young couple living aboard their widebeam boat (about 13 feet wide), on the perils if any of the river. The main concern is sudden rises in the river level, after heavy rain upstream in the catchment. Being a little nervous of rivers, i will be following Yorkshire weather closely for the next few weeks.

Then a ramble through this beautiful amazing city. We worked out that we have been visiting York since 1988, but still get bushed in its mediaeval tangle of lanes, alleys...

A certain anniversary today, so we celebrate with dinner at the Concerto Cafe (excellent, and we'll return tomorrow, its walls papered with old sheet music), and emerge to the Minster forecourt, and by happy chance, a concert of Early Music-  Monteverdi to be precise, in the Minster itself. Sublime visual and aural feast. My favourite dragon roaring above the nave. Painted gold, actually a mediaeval crane used to raise stones for the cathedral construction, weighing up to a ton, and left in situ, a crazy beautiful functional addition to the soaring fan vaulted ceiling.

Comments

  1. Unknown8 July 2017 at 14:35

    a gold dragon...we will have to see that. Looking forward to seeing you on the 14th at 6pm at Huddersfield train station. where are the shadows???

    ReplyDelete
  2. Michael E9 July 2017 at 18:35

    If you are going to meet at Huddersfield I see a very aptly named town very close by! The only canal I see close by it though is the Calder and Hebble Navigation.

    ReplyDelete

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