Day 4: York yarn and Carperby cottages

Woke up late this morning and missed the pre-breakfast stroll (again); this time it was to find all the cat sculptures scattered about the York city center. But I did rouse myself enough to join the group for the Minster when it opened. It was magnificent as always, and the Chapter House was beautiful. It’s a big octagonal room with a beautiful ceiling and windows and great acoustics. I had to change my camera battery and every noise I made switching it out was magnified tenfold. I was very tempted to sing, but thankfully I couldn’t come up with anything.

Chapter House ceiling

The East Window is pretty impressive; it’s massive, and filled with stories from the Bible. Each pane related to one story, and there were neat touchscreen guides to help navigate. Without context I couldn’t follow along well, though; there were just a lot of people standing with different backgrounds. But don’t get me wrong! Really beautiful window.

And here in the left panel we have, uh, Jesus?

  

The central tower and its bosses. I want a coffee table book that’s just a picture of each boss.

The organ in the quire. Beautifully carved wood.

Even the little wooden struts in the ceiling under the organ have their own bosses.

The Organists of York Minster: the list goes back to the 1400s!

After the Minster I stopped in a neat little bookshop and got a book about folklore of the Lake District (and a couple others, I have been buying a lot of books). Then we headed back to check out of our hotel and visit a neat hardware store and the adorable craft shop next door. I got some beautiful yarns made in England from English sheep!

A sheepful of wool!

We picked up the rental cars and drove to Fountains Abbey. It was fun riding on British roads, it’s like a very mild thrill ride. Going around a roundabout to the LEFT? Are the speed signs in miles or kilometers per hour? So exciting!

We reached the Abbey after about an hour of exciting right-hand drive. The parking lot was very pleasant, lots of little graveled bays with trees between each one. Quiet, pretty, and much cooler than the typical lake of asphalt, I want to see if we can get some of these in the States.

So pleasant to park in!

Then we walked to the visitor center, got our maps and tickets, and headed off. This is all on a huge park owned by the National Trust, and it’s got not only the Abbey but also Studley Royal water gardens and a ton of wild space for deer and other animals to live. It’s nice to know that not all of England is farmland. We stuck to the main part, however, which was plenty.

Fountains Abbey was founded in 1132 when thirteen monks were thrown out of St Mary’s Abbey in York; they floated for a while until the Archbishop of York gave them some land to settle on. They started with a small stone church which over the next few hundred years expanded to the enormous structure whose remnants can be seen today. Of course, Henry VIII had the place destroyed in the Dissolution of the Monasteries, but what remains is still impressive. Some of it even has ceilings!

I’m not sure what part of the abbey this was…

On the left is the nave of the main church, and on the right is the cellarium

The cellarium is still mostly complete

The south aisle of the nave

The nave, from the south aisle

The other side of the main church (the quire? I'm still terrible at this)

The grounds were massive, and part of the church buildings went over a stream, which was really neat. There was a mill upstream a bit, with information on how they used to grind flour, and the guide there told us about all the different sieves used to sort the flour by fineness (the laborers got the flour so coarse it still had rocks in it, while the abbot got the really fine stuff we’d probably consider decent). It was an awe-inspiring area in general.

Connected to the Abbey are the Studley Royal Water Gardens; these were owned and curated by a Victorian gentleman who really liked the Abbey (but unfortunately it was on his neighbor’s land). So he built up these really nice gardens and ponds with viewpoints over to the Abbey so he and his friends could all look at it anyway. His son was able to purchase the land with the Abbey, and eventually it all ended up in the hands of the National Trust.

View of the gardens from the ridge above

View of the stream from a bridge. Over by the Abbey it looks like an actual stream, but in the Studley Royal gardens they wanted to control it a bit more.

We walked back up to the gift shop, hoping to buy some of the things we saw and liked when we bought tickets, but it had already closed! What strange tourist attractions close the gift shop before they close the rest of the grounds? I would have given them a lot more money if they had let me, but I suppose it’s a good thing I couldn’t buy those books. I have waay too many already.

We hopped in the car and headed on to Carperby for dinner and the hotel. We’re staying at the Wheatsheaf, the honeymoon location of James Herriot himself! It’s a very nice little place, with a cute lounge and lovely bar and restaurant. Dinner and bed!

Day 3: Roman ruins and Viking poo

The group woke at six this morning to walk the Wall and explore the town. I did not, which turned out okay since the Wall doesn’t open until eight. The plan was to explore first the Jorvik Viking center (the most Disney-ish place in York) and then see where the day would take us. I wasn’t interested in a cart ride through ancient York or the associated smells (they had preserved human feces for your olfactory pleasure!) so I wandered a bit and found a notepad. After that I regrouped with Mom and we explored the Yorkshire Museum together. There was some neat Roman history and then a new exhibit on the Vikings running this summer: after it finishes up here it’ll go on tour (it’s part of a partnership with the British Museum). I liked the Viking stuff but I missed out on all the Richard III history that was here last time. Ah well, the Vikings were more interesting than one poor sod who ended up buried in a car park, amirite?

One fascinating thing was a room on William ‘Strata’ Smith, the Father of English Geology. He spent his life collecting information on the various types of rocks found in and around England (while doing other jobs like surveying) and eventually published a whole book of maps and cross sections and whatnot. It’s gorgeous, they had one of the 200-ish remaining copies of his book and we could look at a page (it was in this case covered in velvet unless it was being viewed, and then you flipped the cover back over when you were done). It was beautiful.

After the museum, we hopped in on a free walking tour of York and got to learn about the city’s Roman, Viking, Norman, and more recent history. For example, Whitby jet is a popular stone from here, although it’s not stone so much as petrified wood. Specifically wood from the monkey puzzle tree, which grew here quite a bit when the weather was warmer millions of years ago.

Monkey puzzle tree! Don’t see so many of them here these days…

Then we hit the Roman history with the multangular tower (a big almost round tower with several chamfers cut out of it, the corner of the old Roman fort at Eboracum). We learned about wall construction techniques, such as the band of red bricks that were used to increase the wall’s structural integrity. We skipped ahead to the end of the Middle Ages with St Mary’s Abbey across the garden, which was destroyed by Henry VIII in the dissolution of the monasteries. Apparently he yanked one wall down, took all the stone and whatnot he needed, and then let York have the rest. A pretty good way to ingratiate yourself with the town while you knock down your places of worship.

Most of the remains of the abbey is this one wall of the…quire?

One of the four main columns that held up the central tower of the abbey. This thing was about the same size as the Minster (more on that tomorrow!)

After we finished up feeling sad about destruction, we went through the backyard of the York art museum, which was running an exhibition of minigolf courses that local artists had designed. My favorite was the Bridges of Koenigsberg.

The card reads “Please note there is no score for this hole as it is unsolvable.”

We walked the wall from Bootham Bar to Monk Bar (bar in this case meaning gate) and ended up at the Shambles, learning along the way about Trinity Church (one of the old churches in town, one of very few anywhere that has the box pew setup, where instead of a line of pews all facing the altar, each family gets a box with benches facing in; the head of the family got the seat facing the altar, and the lowest-ranked member had to sit facing backwards away from the sermon) and the Minster. They’re still working at the restoration they were doing last time I saw it, but they’ve finished the east side (although they’re still finishing up the window).

You can see all the lighter colored stones from the restoration mixed in with the old ones.

After that we had dinner and finally rested for the night. Tomorrow, the Minster, Fountains Abbey, and off to deep Yorkshire!

Day 2: York ho!

Our first morning in England! We woke up bright and early (Mom and I were in a room with six other women, and all but one poor person got up within about 5 minutes of 7:00am) and headed off to find breakfast. Turns out that on a Sunday morning at 7:30 there aren’t many shops open, so we had breakfast at a Starbucks and then headed to King’s Cross via the Oxford Circus tube station. Yes, King’s Cross, where the Hogwarts Express departs. There’s a little monument near platforms 9,10, and 11 with a sign for Platform 9¾. There’s half an old luggage trolley sticking out of the wall and you can get your picture taken with a Gryffindor scarf and a wand. We chose instead to hit up the Waitrose for snacks and drinks. I love foreign grocery stores! I got mini Jaffa cakes in honor of both Stargate (Kree!!) and the Great British Bake Off. For those who don’t know, a Jaffa cake is a three-layer cookie-ish thing composed of a firm sponge, a bit of orange jelly, and a coating of chocolate to top it off. They’re okay, not my favorite but still fun.

Trains!

Arches!

Once our train’s platform was announced, we got out there and boarded. The luggage section was full and there were no overhead racks so we stuffed ourselves into the seats with all of our bags. It was pretty uncomfortable, but I still got more sleep in those two hours than I did on the flight from Calgary.

And then we arrived in York! It’s such a lovely city, the streets are adorable and the Minster is magnificent.

The Minster, east window. They were redoing this last time I was here, it's great to see it all freshened up.

Street! Nice view of the Minster above the shops.

A busker! He juggled fire. Blindfolded. On a really tall unicycle.

York has a Coffee Culture too! I guess it's not that unique of a name.

We caught the Sunday evensong and enjoyed a lovely Bach fugue on the organ, then went up the Tower to see the city. Man, it’s windy up there! Although apparently it’s just really windy this week in general. Not normal for York this time of year.

We climbed the south tower before crossing over to the main one. Got to go along the roof for a bit!

BUTTRESSES!

Looking out west across York

We dined at the No. 8 Bistro, which was lovely, and then retired for the night. Our hotel is just so cozy! It seems like real effort went into decorating, and the bed set has beautiful floral paintings on it. Looking forward to another full day of exploring!

Northern England Day 1: An Long-Expected Journey

And we’re off! I’m here in the Calgary airport waiting for Riley to get here and then we’ll all board the flight to Heathrow. It’s still hard to believe we’re actually going. This is real!

The last few days have been between hectic and panic-inducing. This isn’t the first long trip I’ve taken after joining the working world, but it’s the first that covered some serious deadlines so I was scrambling to finish everything before skedaddling yesterday. But I think I got everything done, or at least enough to not worry too much while I’m gone. I’m just starting to really relax and get excited. Whew!

Aaaaaand after a quick flight with an utter failure to fall asleep (couldn’t find a single position that wasn’t painful to either my back or my neck), we’ve landed! Wooooo! Just checked in at the hotel and now we’re waiting to go visit the British Museum. We’re in a youth hostel near the British Museum, and it’s a nice little place!

Nice little café and bar

We dropped our bags off in the lockers and ran to the British Museum to catch what we could before it closed at 5:30. We got about an hour in there, but it was worth it! We swung through the Parthenon, marveled at the Assyrian stone sculptures (I reaffirmed my desire to learn how to write in cuneiform), and perused a lot of Greek amphorae. The detail was amazing, and they were surprisingly decorative for just using three or four colors.

Carvings from a temple to Apollo that depict a battle between the Greek Lapiths and a bunch of drunk centaurs

Ashurbanipal killing a lion with a sword through the heart

Oh the amphorae!

We unfortunately had to boogie after that (we saw the mummies and some ancient Europe before we were herded out) but it was still really neat to be in that amazing building again. I could die happy there.

After the Museum, we found dinner in a nice little pub/restaurant that was full at the bar but silent in the dining room upstairs, and enjoyed a pleasant meal with some properly English perry cider. And then we began our hunt for wifi (it’s really spotty at the hostel). I’m finishing this at the nearby Starbucks which is closing in about five minutes. After this, our goal is to stay up until 10pm (I’ll be happy if my eyes are open after 9:30), and then we’ll be rolling up to York in the morning! Can’t wait to see everyone and start the trip going in earnest!

Ecuador day 7: Vamos a Tena!

This morning we rose bright and early to catch first a bus to Riobamba and from there to Tena, out east in the rainforest (tropical rainforests, oh my!). We packed the rest of the fruit from yesterday's market trip and headed out to the station, saying our farewells to Guaranda.

The ride was mostly uneventful, except that Chimborazo (tallest mountain in Ecuador, tallest in the world if you measure from the Earth's center instead of sea level, inactive volcano) was for once on the trip not shrouded in mist. We saw the whole thing!

Unfortunately the bus window was pretty dirty and also damp with condensation, so I didn't get many decent photos. 

We also saw a few vicunyas, the llama relatives that only live really high in the Andes, on the slopes of mountains. They were really cute! I saw a small herd of them loping down a hillside, very picturesque. 

After we passed Chimborazo we stopped in Riobamba for a bus transfer and an early lunch (we had an hour layover). Then we were on our way to Tena! It was neat watching the landscape slowly change from high mountains to low mountains to foothills to hills to relatively flat. The plant life changed too, from grassy slopes and conifers to more and more trees as the elevation came down. Eventually we were in a massive forest of trees, bushes, flowers, and all sorts of things I couldn't identify. 

We finally reached Tena after about five hours, hopped off, found a taxi, and got to our hostel. It's on the outskirts of the city, far from the hustle and bustle and noise. It's also up on a bit of a hill so the view from the patio is quite nice. 

Looking out upon the city from the hotel

We lay in bed for a few minutes, recovering from the heat (it was a warm, sunny day, and the bus became quite uncomfortable by the end), and then we journeyed out upon Tena. 

We walked down to the river where there's a cool footbridge that stops at an island in the middle (I think two rivers come together here, so it may not actually be an island). There's a neat little nature area that was unfortunately closed for construction, so we climbed the bridge's tower and looked out upon the city. 

You can see the hotel from here (there's a pink building in the upper left on the slope)

When the rivers come together, you can see a line where the different silt concentrations mix. 

Looking east, out toward the flat areas and the deep jungle. West are the first foothills of the Andes. 

And so many bromeliads! The trees were covered in them, to the point where you couldn't quite tell what was tree and what wasn't.

We had dinner at a place called the Guayusa Lounge (guayusa is a kind of tea very popular in this area), which serves decent Mexican food and therefore Patrice loves it. They also serve delicious drinks, and during happy hour they're half off, which brings them down to $1.75. We enjoyed that, and then played drunk (well, tipsy) chess. Patrice won, but we didn't notice for five moves because we were distracted by the other side of the board. 

Ecuador day 6: The Shire of the Andes

This morning we started our day with a trip to the Guaranda Market for some South American fruit. We got a grenadilla (much like the passion fruit, probably closely related), some [other Ecuadorian fruits], and brought them back to Patrice's apartment for breakfast. They were delightful, especially the grenadilla.

Ecuardorian market! I tried to be reallys surreptitious taking this photo but people were still staring at me with my camera.

We finished grabbing the last of our laundry and played a bit with Patrice's cat. She likes the sunny patio. 

Happy cat!

After that we headed to the city center to see the historical buildings and the central plaza, which was a lovely park with a statue in the center of Simon Bolivar, who liberated the northern half of South America from Europe (Guaranda is the capital of the province of Bolivar). We stopped at the bank so Patrice could pay her electric bill and then caught a truck to the town of Salinas de Guaranda.

The town of Salinas and its cliffs

Salinas is a small town higher up in the Andes (3550 meters, about 11500 feet elevation: it's lovely and cool) where a lot of different cooperatives have developed. This is the result of efforts in the 1970s to improve the economy and the lives of the inhabitants. The three biggest ones are chocolate, cheese, and wool (I don't know the order). So this place is already pretty wonderful for someone like me. Add to that the fact thst it's beautiful and looks like the Shire and you've basically created a place I will not willingly leave.

When we arrived in Salinas we met Patrice's Peace Corps friend Hannah, who's leaing a Community Health initiative up there; she teaches yoga to seniors, handwashing and the fundamentals of a healthy diet to children, and I think even a teen ballet class. After meeting up with her and her puppy Henry (only about four months old and already large enough to almost knock me over, I'm a little afraid of what he'll become when full-grown), we went for sandwiches and some of the most delicious hot chocolate I've ever had. It basically tasted like melted chocolate. After lunch, we took Henry on a little hike up to the cross that oversees the town while Hannah went off to teach a class.

Salinas, the salt mine that is also a big part of the town's industry, and Andean hills beyond.

Salinas is shadowed a little bit by this gorgeous rock outcropping that forms a sort of canyon with little caves, tiny but lovely waterfalls, and a carpet of grass perfect enough for a picnic. Since Hannah calls the surrounding area the Shire, I decided this canyon was Rivendell. Henry had a wonderful time off-leash, bounding back and forth along the path and hitting me hard in the back of the legs accidentally, while I just stared around wondering how something this cool was even possible.

Middle Earth is apparently a small part of Ecuador. They've even got giant, Orodruin-esque volcanoes

After the little hike Hannah rejoined us (it turns out school was cancelled for the day, although she didn't find out until after she'd taken a truck taxi all the way out to the community) and we went to the wool factory. It was pretty cool, especially because we could just wander through the factory without any guides, fences, or anything.

The big wool washer. There's a channel of soapy water and a big frame with rods sticking down to grab the wool; the frame moves forward, up, and back in a circular motion to stir the wool and slowly move it toward the pile in the front right of the image. 

Not sure what this does, possible a dryer? But it had a cool belt system, I liked it.

After that we stopped at the yarn shop attached to the factory. I spent at least twenty and possibly as much as forty minutes just staring at the pretty yarns with a stupid grin on my face. They had sheep and alpaca wool and I had to get at least some of each (I got more than some!)

When I finally made a decision and purchased some yarn, we went to the Texal where finished products are sold. I found a handknitted sweater (with a hood! And pockets!); Patrice found one as well, and we both left a few bills lighter and several measures happier.

Then the chocolate factory. The tour is similar to that of the wool factory, except behind glass. Mostly a bunch of machines whose purpose we couldn't quite make out, except one that was being used, which looked to be a hopper and a feeding mechanism for bits of chocolate (cacao?) to be fed into a grinder/melter. Being an engineer (especially one who's currently working with and on hoppers), I was unusually excited to see this.

After chocolate was of course cheese! We hit up the cheese factory, another slightly less than exciting tour (they were doing molds! But that was all I could identify with the two afternoons' experience I have with cheesemaking). But the cheese was really good. We tried a couple of samples and I bought some to bring back to the States. All of my souvenir shopping was done in one day, in one town. But it's probably the best place to do such things, because all of the money is going directly back to the men and women of Salinas. Or at least that's my excuse.

After I shopped my wallet to death, we had dinner at a pizzeria. The owner (apparently Hannah knows him) brought out some nachos con queso, which was literally Fritos and some shredded white cheese, warmed up and stuck in a bowl (Ecuador is not a hot spot of good Mexican food). I also got to try a bit of the local moonshine, Pajaro Azul (Blue Bird). It's made with anise and consequently has a strong licorice flavor, which I actually don't mind. As liquors go, it was one of the more pleasant shots to take. I also ordered a canelazo, remembering the deliciously warm fruit drink I had in Quilotoa. This was not that. It was probably about 30% Pajaro Azul, and tasted more like hot alcohol than anything else. After finishing the shot and drinking half the cocktail, though, it started to taste pretty good.

It was getting late and we were running out of time to catch the last truck back to Guaranda, so we finished our food and drinks and headed out.

Sunset over Salinas

Hannah came with us, and when we got back into town we went to the local hangout, Siete Santos (Seven Saints). We each had one more drink and headed back to Patrice's apartment to chat some more and hit the sack. It was an enjoyable night after quite an exhaustingly wonderful day.

Ecuador day 5: Never miss a chance to do some STEM outreach!

So first things first, I have to set a couple of things straight. Quito is ~2850 meters (9000 feet) above sea level, not 4000. So when Quilotoa is at 3910 meters (almost 13000 feet), it makes a lot of sense that it gets pretty cold at night. It was nice, I like a good bundling up.

We started the morning with some laundry. The washing machine was available, which was lucky since apparently it's often being used by other people in the building. We took Patrice's cat to the vet and then came back and hung or clothes out to dry. Fun fact, pretty much no one in Ecuador uses a clothes dryer; I really like this idea except that it rains a lot so most of our clothes are still wet.

Another fun fact: only about 50% of homes have an oven because baking isn't as important here as in the US

Today we stayed in Guaranda because Patrice had to work at least a little bit this week.  I got to help out, which was pretty fun. I talked to the students about being an engineer, although since they don't speak much English and I speak essentially 0 Spanish, it was mostly a Q&A session, and they mostly asked me if I had a boyfriend. Relationships and marriage and children are a much bigger deal in Ecuador than they are in Oregon. I did get some questions about engineering, though, so that was nice. There were a couple kids who want to be engineers, yay!

After school we stopped at a supermarket for some groceries. It was surprisingly homey; it looked and felt and smelled like a Freddy's. We had planned to hit the outdoor market for some cool tropical fruits, but they were closed so we'll hit that tomorrow morning before we go to Salinas (a town full of different little cooperatives, including cheese, chocolate, and wool: Patrice is going to have to drag me out of there).

Guaranda is a lovely city. It feels a lot like Corvallis, although the hills are much steeper and taller. It's called the City of the Seven Hills and pretty much every street is straight up or down unless it's parallel to the slope. I really like it, it's small and quiet and clean (it's my favorite city in Ecuador, although that's only out of two so far).

Like Corvallis, but equatorial!

It's also got some great views of Chimborazo, the world's tallest mountain (if measured from the Earth's center instead of sea level) and also a volcano (inactive, luckily). It's been pretty cloudy so I haven't had a chance to look at it yet but hopefully it'll be clear at some point while I'm here!