19th August Petrified? We weren't even scared!

Whether it's old age, the cumulative effects of doing bugger all for the past 16 months or an almost fatal combination of both but being a tourist is suddenly hard work. Gone are the days when TOM and I could whizz round 101 places of interest in a city and still be up for more. Now the priority appears to be 'is it flat?' and how many places to sit per 100 m seem to be the order of the day, something that those uploading to Trip Advisor don't place very highly in their reports.

After just mooching around the lanes and green spaces of Harrogate on Tuesday, with a little afternoon siesta thrown in to recharge the batteries, yesterday we headed much further afield, well 5 miles further afield if you want to be precise, with a little train trip to Knaresborough, famous for Mother Shipton and the petrified Teddy Bears. I don't know why they were so scared, perhaps if we had not been too tight to pay the £20 admission fee we might have found out. Still for those of you who really want to know the effects of calcified water on fur there's always Youtube.

Instead we had a wander down by the waterfront that ran along a stretch of the River Nidd, admiring properties that would have cost considerably more than an arm and a leg. We sat drinking hot chocolate whilst being shown by a group of 6 chinese tourists, why that superpower hadn't won many medals in the rowing events in Tokyo, unless it was in an event that required the non sychronised use of oars, in a manner not shown in any coaching manual, in order to keep a boat in a stationary position in the middle of the river.

We then took a photo outside the place we refused to pay £20 to go into, before heading back to the market place to give 'Spoons' another chance to redeem itself, which it partially did via a panini & chips and a pint of Dark Fruit cider. Then it was all we could do to wander into the castle grounds and admire the stunning view overlooking the town and it's famous bridge over the river.

I am sure if I looked it up on google that I would discover that other great explorers like Marco Polo (discoverer of the hole surrounded by a minty ring), Christopher Columbus and Ferdinand Migellan all ran out of steam in the afternoon and required a snoozette. If not then perhaps TOM and I could use this platform to set ourselves up as influencers for middle aged adventurers everywhere.