Clydesdale horses originated in the Clydesdale region of Scotland, south of Edinburgh.  On our way south from Edinburgh to York, we stayed at Peggyslea Farm B&B, just north of Clydesdale.  As it would happen, this farm raises beautiful Clydesdale horses, which as you can imagine, made our day.  The morning started out with a delicious full Scottish breakfast, accompanied by a sweet dog who set patiently by our legs waiting to be petted between bites.  We also had a great chat with the proprietor.  Then we headed out to the farm to talk to the animals!  We chatted with goats (including the handsome one below), chickens (who followed Kristin around), two donkeys (who came over to the fence specifically to talk to Kristin) and several massive Clydesdales.  It was an absolutely lovely morning.  Then, we packed up the hybrid Yaris and tooled along south through the Clydesdale region.  After driving through this scenic valley, hit the motorway and eventually stopped at Brougham Castle.  This 13th century castle was our first of the trip, and we enjoyed wandering through its ruins (including a fascinating and strong entry gate).  I took the old stone stairs to the top and walked along the perimeter, though Kristin's knees did not think that would work for her, so she stayed on terra firma.  Our next stop was York, where we stayed at a AirBnB apartment in the city center.  Kristin did the tricky driving in York, since she is the safer and better driver.  Once we parked the car, we left it there until we were ready to leave two days later.  York is a very walkable city, and much smaller than I expected.  York is also an incredibly beautiful and historic city, and we enjoyed it more than Edinburgh.  We then popped out for dinner at a French cafe (food OK, not great) since the pubs looked a bit crowded.  One important lesson we picked up throughout our journey is that Brits appearantly do not do walk-ins.  Most places that we thought would be open seating were actually reservation only.  Go figure.  After dinner, we stopped at a Tesco Express to pick up breakfast food.

Above: Talking the animals of Peggyslea Farm

Above: Brougham Castle

York was a short visit, so our second day was actually a travel day.  We had breakfast, and then packed up the car and drove it to a secure parking garage (we needed to vacate our lodging parking spot).  The drive to Q-Park was not long, but the roads were tight and sometimes crowded with people and cars.  Once we secured our tiny parking spot, we walked to the Jorvik Viking Center, where we had pre-purchased tour tickets.  Jorvik sits on top of a former Viking archaeological dig in the basement of a building near the city walls.  Jorvik is the type of place we usually avoid, with an automated cart taking you through an animatronic Saxon village.  But somehow, it really worked for us.  They have a very large collection of Viking artifacts, and they do a great job with interpretive signs.  We spent several hours here, and could have spent longer.  Our next stop was to Holy Trinity Church, which sits in a quiet walled church yard in the middle of the old city.  It dates back the 12th century, and still has its old pew-boxes, which were once controlled by individual families (one family per box).  As a preacher's kid, this was fascinating to me, and I imagined me sitting in a box at the back with a column in front of me (yeah, I was THAT kind of PK).  We also chatted with a knowledgeable docent here, who clearly has a love for the old church.  When we asked her where should would eat lunch (and scones), she suggested Lucky Days, which has several cafes in the old city.  We had lunch at one Lucky Days (they were out of scones) and Cream Tea at another (not more than three blocks away).  Both were delicious and nestled in very old buildings.  After lunch, we headed back to York Minster to visit a few sites we had missed the day before: the Undercroft Museum in the basement (fascinating and well documented historical artifacts), and the Chapter House (unbelievable stained glass windows reaching high to the heavens).  Our last stop in York was Clifford's Tower, a motte and bailey castle dating back to 1068.  It was also the site of a horrible massacre of Jews in 1190.  The tower is a bit of a climb, and there is not much structure inside the tower shell, but the historic interpretation makes use of audio stations where you can hear various stories from the tower's long history.  Unlike Merchants Hall, they did not shy away from the ugly pieces of the tower's history.  After climbing back down the looong stairs, we walked back to our car, and Kristin drove us out of York thorugh VERY crowded and narrow streets.  We stopped along the way at Aldi's to buy groceries (mostly generic and tasteless stuff that we ended up tossing out).  We then winnowed our way along narrow country lanes to our Yorkshire Dales AirBnB.  This cottage was a converted methodist chapel, sitting in the middle of a farm.  The remodel was so well designed, and the cottage so incredibly peaceful, that Kristin took to calling it "paradise," and I concurred.  This is one of the best vacation lodging we have ever stayed in.

Above: Jorvik Viking Centre

Above: York Minster cathedral

Above: Holy Trinity Church.  Lower Right: Lunch at Lucky Days.

Above: Clifford's Tower, York.  Top Right: Cream Tea at another Lucky Days.

Our second 6-Bingo day in a row!  The Yorkshire Dales speak to us.  After breakfast, we launched out on the often-one-lane and winding roads, over hill and dale.  Our first stop was St Wilfrid's Church, which is simply a charming small town church, but nothing special from a historical perspective.  We then drove to the site where Helen's Farm is filmed for the BBC series All Creatures Great and Small.  This farm is quite lovely, with a creek running alongside and beautiful stone bridge crossing over.  We had a picnic lunch here, surrounded by sheep.  A few cars passed by, but not many, and a few hikers walked across the bridge and up a trail.  But not many.  It is a lovely picnic site.  Then we headed up the road to Buttertubs Pass.  Buttertubs is a fascinating geologic formation, where water has eroded deep narrow chasms (maybe 1-10 feet wide, and 50 feet deep).  Before electric refrigeration, farmers lowered their dairy products by rope into the chasms to store and cool them until the next market.  Buttertubs is hard to photograph, but fascinating to visit.  We then drove to the highlight of the day, Muker Hay Trail.  We had seen this trail on YouTube videos, so we knew it would be scenic.  It surpassed our lofty expectations.  It is a stunning gentle trail across hay meadows, with old stone barns scatters throughout, and sheep at every turn.  The hills rise up on both side, with a river cutting through the valley.  We could have days here.  After Muker Trail, we stopped by Gil Force waterfall.  The path to falls is steep, and Kristin's knees were complaining, so I soloed this one.  The Falls were beautiful and dramatic, but maybe not quite worth a trip far out off the beaten path.  We next set our GPS to take us back to our cottage, and followed its instructions blindly.  Our GPS thought this was quite funny, and so it routed us up along some very narrow steep and winding roads, and then through some closed sheep gates, and onto a high moor.  At the top, the fog was so thick we could barely see 20 feet in front of us.  We could sense that the road skirted the edge of some very steep dropoffs with no guardrails, so it might be better we were blinded by fog.  We puttered along slowly, with Kristin hopping out time and again to open and close gates.  At the top were scattered sheep and countless massive hares.  Eventually we started our decline off Oxnip Ghyll, leaving our foggy moors adventure in the rearview mirror.  For dinner, we ate at Olley's Pizza, and surprisingly it was among the most delicious food we had on the entire trip.  Our original plan had been to eat in Grassington.  However, they were celebrating a 1940s weekend there, and the place was packed.  Turns out pizza was an excellent Plan B.

Above: St Wilfrids Church

Above: Helen's farm from the series "All Creatures Great and Small."

Above: Vistas and scenes from our drives through the Yorkshire Dales

Above: Gil Force waterfall

Above: The foggy drive through sheep pastures atop Oxnip Ghyll

Above: Yorkshire Dales, photos by Kristin