Car Rides Through the Countryside

I caught an afternoon train last Friday and headed way up north to meet up with Fulbrighters Christy and Tessa for a weekend in the Yorkshire Dales at Tessa's house. I haven't posted much about trains, and since train travel isn't such a common thing in the states, I thought I would document my train journey just a bit.

From school, I walked about 15 minutes up to the Clapham South Tube station and caught the Tube to Euston station. About 25 minutes later, I arrived at Euston, which is both a Tube stop and a train station.

Euston is big travel hub, and it's always pretty busy, especially on Friday afternoons. Once there, I collected my ticket from a little machine (forgot to take a photo) and then checked this giant reader board to see which platform my train was departing from:

Then I headed down to my platform and walked waaaay down past the lovely first class (which I can never afford) and found the coach where my seat was assigned. I prefer to book a seat ahead of time, though you don't have to. For me, it's just less stressful to know there's a nice empty seating waiting for me instead of having to hunt around up and down all the coaches looking for a place to sit.

Shiny Virgin Trains

Nope, not for me...

Coach A--the Quiet Coach! This means people aren't allowed to be
on their phones or talking the whole journey. Unfortunately, many
people seem to forget they are on the quiet coach...

 Once onboard, you can stash your larger bags on a little rack at the door of each car, and above your seats, you can place all your smaller items (much like on a plane). I like to get all nice and settled and then take a good look around at my traveling companions. :)

I purposely booked a seat at a table so I could work
on my marking (aka grading) while on the train.

Love my fellow travelers. The critical professor and the worn out young
 businessman who snored.    :)

Once I arrived in Lancaster, about 2 and a quarter hours later, I was so happy to see my lovely friends waiting for me on the platform! I felt like a special guest!

Tessa and Christy!

After a quick trip to the store and a drive around Lancaster, we headed back to Tessa's house, which was about 45 minutes away. We had a nice, relaxing evening in Friday night as we were all pretty wiped out and Christy wasn't feeling very well.

The next morning, we started the day off right with a proper American breakfast! Now, don't get me wrong--I'm definitely a fan of the full English breakfast (also known simply as a "cooked breakfast," it usually consists of fried eggs, grilled tomato, sausage, mushrooms, "bacon" which is actually what we consider Canadian bacon, and toast--plus blood sausage if you're in a really traditional place), but nothing compares to a good, old-fashioned eggs, bacon and pancake breakfast. Tessa even had maple syrup, which is a lot harder than you'd think to find around here! I'm not much of a cook when it comes to making a good breakfast, but Tessa and Christy whipped up an awesome feast. We were all in heaven!

The chefs

Bomb pancakes, bacon and eggs!

After our hearty breakfast, we set out for our long car ride through the countryside. Tessa was a great hostess and showed us many of the local attractions. I particularly loved watching the landscapes change very dramatically and quickly, from the green rolling hills in the Dales to the stark, bleak wastelands of the Moors. I also loved seeing all the cute sheepies all over the countryside. They were everywhere!

Here's some photos of the Moors...It's pretty bleak but still strikingly beautiful. 

Being a bit of a nut about seeing film locations in real life, I was super excited when Tessa took Christy and I to see two different waterfalls from the film "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves," one of my mom and I's favorite movies! The first waterfall we visited was Hardraw Force. This is the waterfall where Kevin Costner bares his behind to an unsuspecting Maid Marian. Love it! The coolest thing about this place was the fact that you have to go through a pub to get to it. In fact, the pub owners also own the waterfall, so you actually have to pay a few pounds for access, but it was so unique and interesting that none of us minded.

Green Dragon Pub, which you walk through to get to the waterfall

Inside the pub

It's a pretty little walk to the falls.

Look familiar?

It was seriously freezing cold outside, raining/snowing/drizzling all day, but we didn't let that stop us from having fun! The next stop was Aysgarth Falls, where Robin Hood and Little John had their little fight in the shallow waterfall. There are three falls here, and we walked to each of them.

Pathway to one of the waterfalls

There's the first one we saw! 

My new buddy!

That sign makes this look pretty dangerous...Don't fall
on your butt!

Waterfall #2

We walked along this to head back up to the main path

To get to the third fall--the one where the scene
from the film was shot--you need to pay a pound
to the Honest Box.  Love this because it reminds me
of the fruit stand near my parents house where you
take your fruit and just leave your money in an old
coffee tin. 

Please ignore my ridiculous rolled-up jeans...

Here's the spot where ol' Kev-Kev shot his big scene! It must have
been freezing!!!

We were thoroughly drenched and freezing, so naturally we stopped for a hot drink and little afternoon snack at the tea room.

The old mill. The tea room is in this building.

Hands down the tastiest scone I've had in England. White chocolate raspberry!

Next we headed to Richard III's old castle ruins, called Middleham Castle. We only had a half hour to run around this castle before closing time, but we made the most of our time and darted around checking out whatever we could. And honestly, it was SO COLD that a half hour was about all we could bare outside. My favorite part of this castle was climbing way up to the top to check out the views of the countryside. Richard III sure picked a grand location!

King Richard III, still standing among his castle ruins

Up the stairs I went! 

Looking way down on the Great Hall

Pretty incredible views!

Our final stop of the day was Jervaulx Abbey, another old ruined site. The abbey was built in 1156 and later torn down in the 1500s (thanks King Henry VIII...). Still, it's lovely and haunting and very interesting. We enjoyed a good wander around the grounds. Unfortunately, all these photos are from my iPhone, so they aren't very good quality, but you can still get a feel for what the site is like.

On the way back to the car, we stopped to admire the sheep in the fields. They were enjoying an early supper.

Lots of sheep

Kneeling down on front hooves only for easier access to the tasty grass

Such a beautiful part of the country!

And this wasn't our only encounter with the sheep! On the way home, this guy almost ran into the road. I rolled down my window to say hello and snap a pic, but he ran off!

The weather turned even more grim as the evening set in, so we headed back home to Tessa's. You can kind of see the snowy dales in this blurry pic from the way home.

My backseat view :)

We certainly covered some miles on our Saturday adventure! I'm so glad I was able to get out of the city, head up north, and see more of England's gorgeous countryside.