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My wife (or as Todd S. would say, SWMBO) and I are thinking of another trip to the UK. Originally scheduled for mid October, we may postpone till next summer.
The plan is to fly into London, train to York, then rent a car to drive about "James Herriot country".
Even, hopefully, hiking through the Dales.
(This last is the reason we might not want to go in October.)
Any experience among the OLF'ers?
Any advice? Warnings?! Useful web sites?

Whatever you might know would be of real help, so, TIA.

Steve

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From Nacogdoches...the oldest town in Texas.

http://www.stephenkinnaird.com

I know that I'm jealous. I have always wanted to visit my ancestors homeland.

Al

Steve,

As with everywhere in the World, predicting the weather gets harder and harder. You can get some glorious Octobers here but also some wet, cold and windy ones. Mind you the same is true in the Summer The advantage of October would be that it will be less crowded and things will probably be cheaper.

Here's a couple web sites I found that may be of use:

Yorkshire Dales National Park

Accomodation etc

If you are passing by and have time you are welcome to call in.

Hope this helps.

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Dave White
De Faoite Stringed Instruments
". . . the one thing a machine just can't do is give you character and personalities and sometimes that comes with flaws, but it always comes with humanity" Monty Don talking about hand weaving, "Mastercrafts", Weaving, BBC March 2010

What Dave said Steve, let me know when your coming over and we'll see if we can't arrange a visit. I can't promise you'll sleep in Elizabeth I's bed but I can in a room built before she was born!

The Dales can get busy in the Summer especially around Hebdon Bridge, (it tends to be thought of as 'Last of the Summer wine' country now rather than Herriot country). I tend to like County Durham, around Teesdale better myself The people are the friendliest on Earth.

Teesdale

From there you have access to Yorkshire Dales, North Yorkshire coast, The Pennines, Northumberland and, just across the Pennines, to the Lake District, my favourite part of England (Fabulous geology!), but as Dave said maybe better in October as it can get busy in Summer.

While you're here don't forget to visit York and Durham Cathedrals, Durham is the best, a World Heritage Site, still with Viking, influence on the architecture. Even as a non-believer, I find it very powerful.

ColinColin S38980.2961805556

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I don't believe in anything, I simply make use of a set of reasonable working hypotheses.

Hi

I'd agree with the others about the weather, its so varied anyway you might get rained on a bit but you can get some realy good weather in October.I visited some friends in Scotland in early December last year and it was sunny most days - don't be oput off by the legendary weather !!

As mentioned above the Lake district is well worth a visit.When looking for acomodation the best bet is the small B&Bs (especialy if its a B&B that happens to be a pub ) rather than hotels.

If I were you I wouldn't get the train: The rail service is very expensive. If I were you and was hiring a car anyway I'd probably just drive up.

I travel to the UK about once a year and have found that www.easyrentacar.com are one of the cheapest hirefirms with ofices at or near the airports. (I hope its ok to post this - I do not work for them )

You might also compare the price of an internal flight with the train fare.There are several cheap airlines that fly internaly in the UK now for example www.easyjet.com.

Hope this helps.

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Richard

Thanks, all. Useful sites, which I've saved to favorites, will be perused later.
I did find a site that called one of the hiking trails the "Herriot Way". It recreates the hiking trip he chronicled in his book about Yorkshire.

Dave, Colin, thank you for your gracious invitations!
It would be an undeniable treat to visit, and see where those wonderful instruments come from!

Again, thanks for the help.

Steve

_________________
From Nacogdoches...the oldest town in Texas.

http://www.stephenkinnaird.com