Bridlington is a harbour-town on the East coast of Yorkshire, north of Hull, south of Scarborough and as I hadn't been there I decided I'd get up in the morning with Gail,( 4:30am, crazy stuff), leave her at the Dexa van for the day and take myself off to the harbour for a walk and a good look around.
Bridlington is known for it's wide beaches, at low tide, no beach wase evident on my arrival, and is a typical english sea-side town with games parlours and rides along the sea front. Early morning does have a charm though, if a bit bleak.
A short drive north out of town to the Flamborough Headland there is some spectacular scenery, beach, cliff top and scenic walks as well as abundant birdlife.
Quite a lovely day out and Gail did call me back early as there were only a couple of patients that day so a stroll tyogether and a late lunch were in good order. On returning to the Bridlington shore in the afternoon the beaches were indeed impressively long flat and wide but I wonder at the speed at which the tides would rise and steal your bucket and spade away. The surf fairly pounded the sea wall at high tide.
Every Saturday night the village just over the A1 highway, Boston Spa, has a jazz night. It is called Jazz in the Spa and is a Saturday evening thing we have been meaning to go to ever since we arrived in Wetherby. This month we took ourselves off with a bottle of wine and some nibbles to see what the deal was. It so happened that this night was a long awaited event where a famous Dutch 6 member band, Freetime Old Dixie Jassband, were doing a dixieland set. Dixieland is not our favoured jazz style and the audience was a little older than we expected but the night was a hoot. Held in the Village hall the place was packed, I'd say a couple of hundred folk. The band was great and solos by the Trombone, the Clarinet, trumpet, drums , banjo, double bass and sousaphone (a very dutch oompah band type instrument, like a fancy tuba one wears rather than holds) were all very good, especially the particularly rock'n roll heavy metal sousaphone tirade.
Of course the title of this month's blog indicates Gail's 
old schoolmate and matron of honour, Alice, arrived for a short week of wandering through Yorkshire. The photo here is at Leeds Intergalactic railway station where we met her and immediately escorted her into the Queens Hotel for a resuscitating Margarita. We then drove home, dumped the luggage and headed off to Sicklinghall, a couple of miles from home for a typical roast beef and Yorkshire pud dinner... The roast was sold out regrettably so Alice needs to return next year to fulfill this longed for treat. A good solid meal and significant wine was enjoyed in lieu.
Because of our somewhat busy travelling year this year Gail had run out of holidays so Alice and I spent a few days out and about without Gail. The photos show some of the adventures we all had together but not shown here were the days Alice and I spent touring Wetherby, Harrogate and Leeds. Also not photoed were the two nights of comedy at the annual Wetherby Festival. Alice and I had a fantastic funny night with David and Carolyn our neighbours at the stand up comedy night which was truly and achingly funny. Gail joined us for the Knicker lady, a historic tour through ladies underpants which was regrettably less so. http://www.wetherbyfestival.co.uk/ will give you some idea of the other events the festival hosts... It is quite a tour de force for little Wetherby.
Alice visited us because it is mid term and she is currently teaching in Istanbul, Turkey. Small world story, she works with a bloke from Knaresborough, so that nearby market town was a definite port of call during her stay. This snap shows Gail and Alice posing on the wall of Knaresborough castle overlooking the Nidd River and its victorian rail viaduct.
That same day took us up into the dales, through Patley Bridge and over Lofthouse to Masham where we had a good old pub lunch in the Black Sheep Brewery.
Because of Alice's interest in all things historic we visited Pontefract the next day and toured the castle grounds before heading off to the Yorkshire sculpture park. Pontefract is covered previously in this blog's pages for June when we visited for the Licorice festival. If you remember I included a description of the Towton massacre back during the war of the roses. In an attempt to put some scale to that story we went to the site of the battle and walked the ground where so many had died. It is now a barren plowed field with a remnant tree or two, but being there and placing the documented events on the real earth brings a tragic realisation to the place.
So it was wonderful to head off from historic places to the ever changing Yorkshire Sculpture park and roam the manicured fields and parks we didn't visit last time with Noeline in August. The weather stayed fine and as you can see from the snaps we had a great wander and found some enchanted rabbits among the woods. I will not bang on about the park again as I did that not so long ago but I do want to show you a few more of the sculptures and grounds.
All too soon Alice had to leave us to return to her studies, these required a three or four day trip to Malta mind you, not really a hardship by all accounts. 
It was decided that as Gail had Alice's last day and the next few days off, we would drive Alice to Manchester stopping on the way to take in some sights.
It was decided that as Gail had Alice's last day and the next few days off, we would drive Alice to Manchester stopping on the way to take in some sights. As it turned out Plumpton Rocks, which Gail and I have been trying to see for years, was closed so we headed off for lunch at the Wine Press pub, near Littleborough, picture.
The pub sits on the west side of the Pennines on a reservoir built in the early 1800's to supply water for the Leeds to Liverpool canal. The top up of the canal was needed in the days when industry was thick on the ground in these parts and the canal full of barges travelling up and down, constantly draining and re-filling the locks.
After a burger and wine and a short stroll Alice was sufficiently prepared for her return trip to Turkey and despite us circling for a while not knowing at what terminal to deposit her (Manchester is a notoriously driver unfriendly airport) we finally found the right gate at Terminal 2 and shoved her off. I am sure she will be back soon as the time was short and there is so much she has yet to see.
That is all for this month. You will see things are quietening down here as the days cool and activity slows but I will continue to capture any entertaining events as the winter months close in over us.
See you next time!
