Sunday was my birthday (the year I officially become a pensioner for my main occupational pension - though not by the State's definition, yet).
We decided to keep it simple. The river end of town is popular and very picturesque. We eschewed "Mother Shipton's Cave" which felt a little bit Wookey Hole for our tastes and wandered along the river, through woods.
It was a really nice walk, gentle and not too peopled for the most part. We carried on, past our cottage and under the railway viaduct and eventually reached the Half Moon which is at the far side of the town.
It was 2pm when we arrived. There was a small, but nice, range of beers so we grabbed a couple of pints and found a corner to settle into. Food in this pub was simple: charcuterie and cheese boards at the weekend, adding pizza into the mix Tuesdays - Fridays.
We opted for the cheese sharing board for two. Perfect! The service was friendly and attentive but also easy-going. We agreed it was quite nice that we hadn't exhausted the "best" pubs in the first evening. This was definitely our favourite...so far.
We needed to get up to the town (everywhere is a steep "up" from the riverside) so we hiked up a different hill to the market place. Naturally, being Sunday it was pretty quiet but it's a charming part of the town.
On one side was the last "GBG" pub - Blind Jacks. It's a longstanding entry in the guide but that doesn't always mean it's the sort of place we can relax in.
However, pretty much the second we arrived it felt right. Interesting cask beers of different styles and strengths and a respectable range of craft kegs. We didn't dare ask for 2/3rds though - we suspected we'd be driven out of town. We drank two and then headed to pick up provisions at the local Tesco before strolling down the hill and back to the house.
After a fair bit of walking on Sunday, we (well, I) quite fancied something a little less strenuous on Monday - so we headed to the National Railway Museum in York. Now, I like to travel on trains and a little of my first boyfriend's (in 1978) enthusiasm has stuck with me in the form of mild interest - certainly from the "wow this is proper engineering" point of view. The BBB was also a railway modeller in his youth - and probably would still be now, under the right circumstances.
The NRM is, as the crow flies about 250m from the mainline train station. Unfortunately, that's not the pedestrian route at the moment (I really hope that changes when the rest of the masterplan unfolds) - so you end up walking a circuitous route of about a mile until you finally wind in towards the entrace.
Entry is free - which is amazing - but you have to get a ticket (for managing numbers of visitors, they say) at which point you're encouraged to make a donation. It's fair enough. Frankly they really should charge for the most part.
To say the BBB was the target audience would be understating things by a considerable degree. The whole place is a siren song to (mostly) men of a certain age. It was all he could do to prevent himself from squealing and clapping like a seal. Me? I loved it too - but in a slightly different way.
When we do trips like this, we tend to wander around on our own (often with film cameras) and our paths will cross again periodically. This is something I first experienced on photowalks with Flickr pals. It's a much less stressful thing because, as a photographer, you're not always apologising to your companion for taking ages over a shot.
The main shed is amazing, loads of beautifully restored engines of various vintages - some with carriages arranged around a turntable (this in itself was greeted with enthusiasm). We wandered, took photos, ready the interpretation and, from time to time, met up and cooed at some nerdy thing or other. My favourite in this shed was probably the engine they had bought and then created sections of almost every part by sawing the components in half, in situ. The result is a living schemative of how a steam train works.
Lunch was picked up in one of the cafes and allowed us to sit and look at exhibits whilst drinking tea and eating.
Then there's the "northern" shed - which is more archive than exhibit. It is packed to the gunwhales with...well, EVERYTHING, from clocks and chairs, to models and signalling training kit. To be honest, I found it quite overwhelming. Mostly, I sat (on a GWR bench, natch) and took in the general atmosphere.
Just as I thought we'd seen everything - he said "we haven't even done the station shed yet...". This part of the exhibition is another HUGE shed set up as a station with visitors able to see trains both from ground level (like in the main shed) and from platform level. To get there, you have to walk across the site on another circuitous route.
To be honest, if I could have spent the whole visit in this shed with an array of cameras and lenses, I'd have been super happy I wouldn't have needed to go elsewhere.
By the time we'd finished the station shed, they were giving the 30min to close warning. We headed for the station and the York Tap. the area around the museum and the station seem to be subject to some regeneration work. This made walking around less pleasant than it might be - but, hopefully, it's improving for the longer term. We found the Tap, ordered a beer and slumped into seats.
The beer range in the Tap, with its circular bar, was great: mostly, but not exclusively, Yorkshire breweries but a load of familiar faces, too. BBF, NBB and Electric Bear were all represented. The venue itself felt a little bit impersonal - like a 'spoons from the early days. Nice building, really good beer but the people behind the bar didn't appear particularly invested. Still, it was a good recovery place and allowed us a convenient "which train shall we get" spot.
Tuesday, we headed to Harrogate. It's another well-to-do kind of place so we went to the Pump House museum and had a bit of a stroll around a lovely park but it didn't really have all that much for us. We made an early visit to the Harrogate Brewery Tap in the Montpellier. What a lovely place. Staff were super-friendly and engaging. The beer was great and, even though it was quiet, it was comfortable and nice to sit in. Would definitely recommend.
We walked another route back through the town and arrived at the station - so we popped into the Harrogate Tap (same stable as the York one) on the station. This one felt more personal and welcoming. There was a fire in the fireplace and the gentle smell of woodsmoke and it was smaller than the York site. Also, the staff felt more engaged, somehow. Definitely more our sort of place.
Back in Knaresborough we decided to revist the Half Moon - it was a good choice. We already felt at home, the second we walked through the door and we knew we wanted to try their pizzas - definitely worth it.
The stroll back to the cottage was along the riverside road, in the dark, accompanied by hooting owls
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