Brooklands Cottage is well situated - you go along what seems like a suburban street in Bellerby, a quaint old style village, and turn up an apparent drive way. And there you are in a world of fields and meadows and orchards with the cottage nestled in a corner.

We drove through Catterick Garrison this morning to get to the A1 south, loads of motorcyclists around must have been a rally. We reached Fountains Abbey to find plenty of people had reached it before us! A lot of families with young children and people being walked by their dogs.

The National Trust have a well appointed modern visitors centre there, we had toasties and slices of walnut cake in the restaurant which had plenty of room despite the numbers of human beings. The price was a little over the top but business is business.

The ruined Abbey itself is huge, hidden away in a valley the original 13 monks chose for a more devout and quiet life. Many of the Abbey's stones still stand to give an impression of what a major place it was. A community of the sacred.

Fountains Abbey

Fountains Abbey

Fountains Abbey

Fountains Abbey

We walked as far as the Studley Royal Water Gardens but didn't see very much as Virginia was feeling worn out. It was a good walk there over hill and dale.

This evening's repast was at The Three Horse Shoes a traditional Yorkshire pub of character with traditional Yorkshire characters in it. Great such places still exist in these days of bistro and gastro pubs, and that they are centres for the community to mingle in. It's just that being squeezed into the bar area and our conversation being drowned out by chatter about pigs and cows and tractors isn't what I was after for a meal out with Virginia. There was more of a dining area they didn't put us in, but there we would have been deafened by loud musak.