York

Today we went into York.  Mostly we walked around the downtown area and I also visited the University there.

The Shambles

The building being redone is where my dept would be in York

One of the dept buildings

One of the dept courtyards

Yorkshire

Today we drove with our friends from Malpas (on the West coast) over to Ripon, a small city near York, on the East coast.

On the drive

We stopped at Fountains Abbey, a UNESCO World Heritage site, started in the 12th century.  It also has 18th century formal gardens anda park.

Ludlow Castle

Today was sunny, so we went to Ludlow Castle.  It was an amazing castle, and there were very few people.  Building started in 1086, but there were lots of additions in the 12th, 13th, 15th and 16th centuries.  Beautiful views from the top!

Inside the outer bailey

Gatehouse, rebuilt 1581

Main tower and Judge's Quarters

Round chapel

Tudor living quarters and Great Hall

View of Ludlow outside the castle walls

Sunset Walk

I went for a walk in search of the sunset yesterday, as the clouds happened to clear up right around 3 in the afternoon. I headed out up a hill to the southeast of Ludlow along some of the local trails and bridleways (dirt paths that you can ride horses and bicycles on).

View from the lane that we've been going running on

View back towards Ludlow

24 Mill Street

As promised, we've cleaned up the house we're staying in and taken pictures! It's a small townhouse, with 3 rooms all directly on top of each other. The corner of each room is taken up by the very steep stairs.

Ground floor, entry door and dining table

Kitchen on the ground floor, with a window out into the courtyard

Second floor, I've set my desk up on an ironing board. I need to have a table, I can't work on my lap.

Second floor other direction. Kate works on the sofa.

Third floor's the bedroom.

View out the bathroom window

Not much else going on this week, we've started working (sigh...). We go to the market in Castle Square just up the road every day, though, so that's pretty fun. Always something different. Yesterday there was a guy with homemade bread (we picked up a loaf of sun-dried tomato and cheddar), and a neat tool vendor. On the next sunny day (there aren't many) we're going to go explore the castle.