We wheeled our luggage up to the deserted airport desk, thinking “great, we’re so early to check-in that we’ve beat the crowds”.  Then we learned that our flight actually left an hour earlier and there weren’t any empty seats to Vancouver till July 30th.  But I digress…

The last blog post ended with us hiking in Malham – did I mention we came across a farmer shearing sheep? Only had 2 left to do that day….500 more altogether!!  He was able to shave it so that all the wool came off in one fell swoop.  Here’s the proof.

After the long hike that day and a 75 mins drive, we were quite glad to arrive at our final B&B of the trip.  The Moorhouse was the most expensive of all the places we stayed and I had booked us in for three nights so we had our fingers tightly crossed that all would be worth it as we drove thru moor and fields and into it’s little parking lot behind a pub.  Our initial impression was a bit uncertain…

but the welcome from our hostess Jane couldn’t have been warmer. We practically had the 5 bedroom guesthouse to ourselves for our whole stay and we luxuriated in the comfort and peacefulness of the inn and the countryside surrounding it.  And the rooms!  Well, here’s a glimpse…

yes, mom did make me pose…

The weather changed slightly for our last 3 days, with intermittent rain showers and cooler temperatures forecasted.  That was okay with us, though; after 2.5 solid weeks of touring, we were happy to take things a little easier.  Tuesday we nipped into Ripon for a nice picnic lunch in the park, a look-see of their very fine 13th C. cathedral, and a pleasant walk along the River Ure.  By early afternoon the storm clouds had built up so we retired to the Moorhouse for an afternoon of reading and computing.  As we were way out in the country and we didn’t feel much like tackling the narrow roads in search of place to eat, we dined at The Drovers Inn, the tiny pub that fronted the B&B.

Mom enjoying the Drovers

Built in the late 1850’s, it was actually the first building built on this property.   At some point the owner added a hunting lodge onto the back of the pub (grouse & pheasant shooting), and eventually that turned into the Moorhouse guesthouse.  The little pub is a classic old-style ‘local’ with about 4 tables nestled together and a miniscule bar with room for only 2 bar stools, yet the Lilliputian-theme didn’t carry over to their meals: the dinners they served were so gargantuan  I had to remove 4 potatoes, 2 cauliflower, and a cupful of carrots to even have room to start cutting into the rest of my meal!

A slow start to Wednesday morning as we had little on our schedule and grey skies overhead.  We thought we’d might as well go for a ride in the car (for a change) so we toodled down to Marston Moor to check out the real battlefield depicted in a cherished painting of Sheila’s….

“Return from Marston Moor”

the real site looks a bit different…

Then a cream tea lunch (again!!) at the Harrogate version of Betty’s Tea Room, and drive around the local moors, before ending our day with another nice afternoon sitting by a toasty coal fire in our B&B’s lounge.

Thursday we were off to visit our friends, Barbara & Brian, at their new home in Collingwood, near Wetherby, Yorkshire.  We had stayed with them on the first night of our trip to England last year, so it was fitting to spend our last night with them this time ’round.  We had a lovely chat and luncheon, before Barbara took us on a little tour of the area, including a short hike at Ilkley Moor,

followed by a wonderful dinner and an early retirement for the two of us travelers.

We left Collingwood Friday morning at 8:45am, plenty of time for our supposed 2:15pm flight out of Manchester.  A slight panic returning our rental car as there were no signs approaching the airport as to where to go to drop off, and we circled a parking garage that had no exit for oh, 10 mins, but we eventually succeeded it giving it back to Europcar, but just not quite at the right terminal for our departing flight.  But no worries, we had plenty of time….  Or so I thought.

The last email I had from Cheaptickets.com said ‘your flight is confirmed, check in at airport’ but apparently they had sent me another email, one which I never got, stating there was a change in the departure time to 10:50am.  So our first few hours at the airport were a little bit stressful – no more flights out that day, none actually for the rest of the month, and the only people who could fix this for me were in the main office in Montreal, which of course wasn’t open for another 2 hours.  After a costly 45mins cell phone call to the States, we finally booked ourselves into an airport hotel, and I spent the next 3 hours on Skype, begging & pleading for seats on a Vancouver flight, which I eventually got for the following day.

Saturday we showed up to check-in, 4 hours early, and only had to wait 30 mins while they tracked down our reservation.  Luckily too, as the flight was 4 seats oversold.  We returned to the hotel to lounge for a bit, then made our way slowly to our gate.  We boarded the plane, back in cattle-car this time round, and sat in our tiny seats with our knees to our chins and waited for take-off.  And waited.  And waited.  After 1.5 hours sitting in a hot plane with no A/C, they de-planed us all and said that the cargo door was broken so this plane wasn’t going anywhere.  Go sit in the lounge for 3 hours and we’ll see.  We went, and sat, and after 3 hours we saw a new plane at a new gate waiting for us.  So we tried again.

5.5 hours (+ one day) late, we took off for Vancouver.  Three hours into our flight our seat companion decides to shake things up a bit and so she faints into Sheila’s arms.  (bobs onto her shoulder really, but that doesn’t sound quite so dramatic).  So we call the attendants who bring ice, and sweet drinks, and some really good attention and revive the poor girl who hadn’t been listening and hadn’t read her instructions on the seat card in front of her and hadn’t wiggled her toes enough to keep her blood flowing and ergo fainted.  And so on we flew.

We flew the polar route, as one does, over Iceland and Greenland and Baffin Island and all that nothingness of northern Canada.  I had a fantastic view of a small portion of the harshness of Iceland, as well as of multiple glaciers in Greenland, and a huge flow of icebergs flowing from one to the other.  Unfortunately my camera was packed so I only had my wimpy 2nd generation iPhone for pictures….

volcanic ridges of  Iceland

masses of icebergs flowing from Greenland

multiple glaciers breaking off into one inlet in Greenland

After a 9.5 hour flight we landed in sunny, warm Vancouver.  Just a small 15 minute delay trying to get the airplane to the terminal (are you kidding me?!!!), we tumbled out into Canada’s welcoming arms and finally ended our Germany & England vacation.

Sheila and Allison and Portia#2 will be on the road again later this month to…………..?