Brontè Country

The drive to Haworth took us through some lovely villages, with homes right on the roadside. The road was very narrow in parts, giving Lindy some heart stopping moments. Lindy was afraid that if someone opened their door and stepped out as we drove by, we'd take them and their door with us!

It's been 8 years since I was last in Haworth and while the village hasn't changed that much, the Bronte museum has grown. Lindy and I went through the old church graveyard first, then into the house, which is full of Bronté memorabilia. We couldn't get into the school house, as I did before because there was a wedding reception going on. We bought some Turkish delight and barley sugar from the Old Sweet Shop, then sat down for a 'cream tea' which is a pot of tea with scones, jam and cream.

After two hours, we were ready to drive to our hotel for the night, the Dalesgate. It was only about 5 miles away but when we were almost there we came across a road that had been closed to traffic, so had to travel miles out of our way to come in from the other direction. The Dalesgate is a lovely place, built of the local stone, which is pale and warm looking. Our rooms are below ground but we didn't have to worry about stairs because our room was level with the car park at the back.

Lindy went to the bathroom but was soon calling for help – again! What is it about the bathrooms here in England? She asked me how I thought the soap dispenser worked. It was Dove Cleanser and we squeezed and pushed and pulled it to no avail. Lindy had already tried all that and all she succeeded in doing was detaching the whole thing from the wall. We finally found that you have to squeeze the container up near the top. Lindy tried, but she needed two hands to squeeze the hard container, which wasn't very successful as she then didn't have a spare hand left to catch the soap! 

Then it was the toilet roll, which was situated a long stretch away on the opposite wall. When one reached over to tear off a few sections, the roll kept unrolling so by the time you had a hand free to stop it half the roll was piled on the floor. 

The shower was a rubber Y piece attached to the faucets, with a hand-held shower head. The rubber piece wasn't very long so we were puzzled about how one would go about having a shower. Lindy insisted that this time, I had to go first and work it out for her. I had to half crouch down with my back to the wall so that the water didn't go everywhere. Despite my care, most of the bathroom - and my dry clothes - got washed along with me.

It soon became obvious to us that the English prefer baths to showers.

We went for a nice long walk to stretch our legs. The countryside is lovely, green rolling hills and quaint stone houses. There wasn't much room on the footpath, and every time a car came along, we had to move to single file. All of the houses had a tiny area in front, for a garden, and some were lovely. It's surprising how many plants, shrubs and trees one can fit in a tiny space, and how much variety there can be here. At home, we'd have to stick to a reliable few, and even those would die off in the heat.

After our huge breakfast, and then afternoon cream tea at Haworth, we didn't feel hungry so opted for a piece of fruit, and biscuit and a cup of tea, before going to bed.