After a couple of days in Leeds with Martin's mother we moved on to stay with his brother in Ripon and on Saturday we took our niece Olivia, aged 5 and three quarters, to Fountains Abbey for a picnic and Sunday to the beach at Saltburn. A jewel of a beach with fine silky sand, a big pier for such a small town, with to one side a lovely view of a headland and to the other some factory in Middlesborough belching out copious smoke. Particularly good fish and chips and £1 cheaper than Whitstable. So far they win the prize for best seaside fish and chips, but research is ongoing.
To burn them off, and the numerous Yorkshire curd tarts (can't get them at home so tend to pig out on them whenever in Yorks) we went on a bike ride around the local villages with Domesday book names. Took me a while to disentangle all the shrubbery entwining my gears and wheels but well worth it. The weather has been glorious, warm and sunny - it can't last!