Around Ripon

Entering the third week of our holiday and the sky is cold and grey - how I imagined Leeds from Em's descriptions over the past months of Winter she has enjoyed. After an exceptional week of sunshine for our Bath and environs tour, the weather has become increasingly English, first in Oxford and now in Yorkshire.
It has not stopped us exploring this area. Yesterday Tess devised a route through towns of the north east Dales including Ripon, Masham, Bedale and Leyburn and all the tiny places like Studley Roger and Lower Ellington (but not Cold Kirby) in between. They just sound funny names until you drive through and see the inhabitants walking the street or drinking in the pub and then they become very quirky and endearingly English.
Take Pateley Bridge for example, a buzzing metropolis compared with Farnley and Dacre Banks before it. They still pump fuel for you here - 98p pl - and the old Workhouse has been converted into a workshop for two local glass blowers who demonstrated how to make a paper weight for us. I bought a second. The Workhouse had also been a hospital in WW1 and other things before and still looked in good nick. Good Yorkshire craftsmanship that:)
We lunched in the pub at Ripon yesterday next to a table of Yorkshiremen and the Monty Python sketch came to life. One old gent in particular, who looked like he had retired to a permanent seat in the corner, was loudly holding forth about this and that to his friends/antagonists, mostly critical comments, including pronouncements on the worst football team of them all - Chelsea. No attack apparently.
I know this is not news to anyone who has travelled here but it still needs to be said - the pubs throughout the British Isles are so civilised compared with ours with lots of small cosy rooms with lounges you would have in your own home and an endless variety of regional ales and ciders on tap to distinguish each village from the next. Perhaps we should just focus on a pub tour next trip.
I should tell you about Ripon Cathedral, the smallest in England although one in Wales is even smaller. Small is a relative term, however. It's still a cathedral. We liked its compact footprint and asymmetry - its 15th century renovation was never finished so it has odd touches like its pillars of varying widths and styles and its mix of gothic vaulted roof and flat painted tower ceiling. I don't have any photos of the interior as we discovered they charged for a photo licence after we had made a donation! So check out the web if you want inside shots and more history.
After Ripon Tess promised a visit to Middleham and Richmond castles using our National Trust membership cards. Imagine my disgust to discover English Heritage ran the castles and they wanted 4 pounds for a visit! Given the late hour, we settled for a walk around the outside. We could see there was nothing inside so it was money well saved.
Today is damp so we have started slowly. I need time to record some of the tour details not that this wretched novotel has decent internet. I miss it more than TV and would certainly use free wifi as an important consideration in any long stay booking in future. Apart from robbing us of 1.5 of our 2 hrs when I did cough up the 10 euro access fee (apparently closing a browser is not logging out!), the signal is so weak in our room that anything other than email is a chore. No more big attachments while I'm away Ian!
So after planning our Scottish adventure it is off to find Tess's hairdresser for tomorrow and perhaps some free wifi for me. Next trip Tess will have an iphone:)