Skipton to Halifax

The B&B in Skipton was very good, the first place to offer porridge for breakfast which we both enjoyed. It was also the first place where I felt the hostess was genuinely polite. There has been a disingenuous superficiality to the demeanour or many of the B&B proprietors, ingratiatingly polite on arrival, but woe betide anyone who steps from the sickly sweet guest’s dining area into the private kitchen of deeper disorder. We had a look around Skipton and happened to fall upon a butcher selling Yorkshire’s award winning pork pies. Here you could have a cold or a warmed pork pie. Maybe the reason that others say a pork pie must be eaten cold is that while eating a warm pork pie, the stock inside is liquid and it runs up your arm as well as down the front of your new coat! We then made the short drive to Halifax. D was pleased to be able to show me a few sights where his family lived when he was growing up. Much of its looks much the same as it did 30 years ago! Halifax was busy, we had a good look around before D put me on the train to London. That is where I am now, in Coach B, the ‘Quiet Coach’ where you can’t use mobile phones (though some are oblivious to this) and one must show ‘consideration’ when holding a conversation with a fellow passenger. Damian is going to stay on in Halifax and spend time with his grandmother and sundry other relatives. He tells me Squirrel Cottage in Queensberry is 5 stars++.