Travelling North

Travelled north to Yorkshire for New Year's Eve via Liverpool.

 Liverpool's Albert Dock area is very flash

 Albert Dock is home to the Maritime Museum, Museum of Slavery, the Liverpool Museum and the Tate Liverpool

 This gives a better idea of the area - it's a large lock developed off the Mersey River

 We stayed in the Holiday Inn Express which was really bad - DIY style hotel - no joke that's the mantra but charged as 4 star. I felt ripped off - chose it off the net because it was so close to the Tate - never again.

 The mighty mersey from the art gallery

 The maritime Museum

 it is a great precinct

 View back up to the older area of the city

 The mix of contemporary and restored architecture is great

 The Mersey is a very bust waterway

 It's huge

 It was a superb day

 The sun was wonderful

Sunshine makes everything look good.
We took off in a north easterly direction and stopped for the night at the old old old market town of Skipton. In Skipton we found the most eccentric and comfy hotel called Herriots. We walked along the canal - the famous original Liverpool to Manchester Canal from pre-railway industrial revolution.
We also sampled the local ales in a few of the very old pubs - most dating back to c17th.

 Herriots Hotel was the old hotel built by the railways.

 It's large and popular

 It's very old, Grade 2 Heritage listing.
The interior is absolutely out of this world eccentric and mad. I hope it stays just as it is - you really have to see it to believe it. If someone comes along and drags it into bland good taste it would lose all its value.

The dining room had a purple ceiling with hot pink cornice and skirting boards, a wild silver reflective floral wall paper, florid carpet, it was split level with painted balustrade, carved magenta velvet chairs all set off with various ornately framed  mirrors all set off with LED lights which flashed and gorgeous Christmas decorations. Amazing. The hot pink trim was warmly echoed in the hot pink lights from the bar in the adjoining lounge.

 The new wing is built on the canal

 This is the canal that goes from Liverpool toManchester

 It extends through Yorkshire

 The narrow barges are privately owned and can be hired for holidays

A turning section close to town

 Skipton is a very old market town mentioned in the Domesday Book

 The Wooley Sheep Inn

 Another dear old red telephone box

 Town square

 A narrow alley

 The Cock and Bottle dates back to early C16th

 Had my first experience of an English - Yorkshire tea shop in Skipton. A pot of Darjeeling with fruit sponge.

The decor was cosy and cluttered, warm and dry on a freeing wet day - excellent.
Skipton is noted as the 'Doorway to the yorkshire dales', the drive across Yorkshire from kipton to Farsley was very pretty and in parts timeless.