Kirkstall Abbey - Haworth - Skipton Castle

Day 2 in England - (Day 1 was dealing with our rental car issues, etc) - and while still jet lagged we were off to tour our first bits of England. I do have to say - we have brought the SUN out. It has only sprinkled twice in the last three days while we've been out and about, which has been great. Yesterday I actually wore flip flops and just a light sweatshirt.

We started by leaving Morely and heading to Kirkstall Abbey. Built in the mid 1100's by Ciscternian Monks (sp?) the place is now in ruins - however, you can go into and tour the ruins for free. The Abbey is beautiful and the grounds are gorgeous. Its just amazing at how these little guys, and I mean little we did see coffins that look like they probably weighed no more than about 90 lbs and about 5'5" tall at the max, built this Abbey without modern cranes and cement, rebar technology.

After our tour there, we headed out to Haworth - the home of the Bronte's. The Bronte's are the family who wrote Wuthering Heights, Pride and Prejuidice to name a few. We toured the church where Patrick Bronte, the father was the minister and skipped the house because there's now a 7 pound = abt $14 per person charge to tour a 4 bedroom house. We walked up and down the cobblestreet and went into shops. We had lunch at the Arms pubs next to the church where Tim had a Yorkshire Pudding larger than his head. See picture for proof! (Tim's saying it wasn't larger than his head - but we all say it is!!)

We decided to go to Skipton Castle just because it was relatively close to where we were in Haworth at the time. About 15 minutes drive and we made it to this Market town just as the market had closed and was able to tour the Castle on our own for the last hour it was open which was awesome. This is a truly amazing castle. It was used in Battle during the War of the Roses and is over 900 years old. Edward the II granted the castle to a family which still owns it to this day,the Clifford Family who continued to build and modify the building through the English Civil War.

The castle is fairly in tact and a portion of it is still resided by the Current Lord Clifford.