Saddleworth

On Saturday morning we went to Meanwood Park

It was surprisingly sunny & lovely!

On Sunday, we went down to Dove Stone Reservoir and the nearby village of Saddleworth

The reservoir is just at the northern end of the Peak District National Park--on the way to Saddleworth, we saw the Pennine Way hiking trail

It's really breathtaking countryside out there--very hilly, with windy little roads and stone walls

Saddleworth

Out of order shot...more countryside

Saddleworth's little river

Conservative Club (political party pub)

It was great to get out of Leeds and see something new. We went to a lovely little tea room in Saddleworth (the Riverside Cafe) and I had the best caramel latte ever, and we shared a rhubarb crumble with custard--delicious! On the way home, we checked out Huddersfield. It was interesting--like a bigger version of Halifax, really. The city centre is like one big shopping mall. Every little town around it has an old mill--it's amazing to imagine them all back at the time of the Industrial Revolution, the heart of the textile industry, employing thousands of people (including kids) and then to see them now, some refurbished into new things, and some just looking derelict.

Happy Valentine's Day!

The way to a man's heart is through his stomach...

Otley

All Saints church

He was a maltster--I had to look that one up when we got home! It's like a brewer--he treated barley with malt to make beer.

National Media Museum

This weekend, we went to the National Media Museum in Bradford. It was really impressive--I couldn't believe it was free. In the basement, they had a gallery on photography that covered everything from the camera obscura and Daguerrotypes to Polaroids and digital cameras. On the main floor, there was a games area with classic arcade games like Space Invaders and TV console games like Donkey Kong & Super Mario Bros.

Floors 2 & 3 were both devoted to current exhibits, which happened to be on photography, too. The 4th floor was devoted to TV and BBC news production (they had some really cool early TV sets), and it had some great interactive stuff (a blue screen and a teleprompter to play with). The 5th floor had a section for kids that we skipped, and a nice gallery on animation history. It had an original set from a Wallace & Gromit movie that I actually had seen, so that was cool. The 6th floor was all about TV, and there were quite a lot of references that I didn't get--it made me realize how important media is to understanding national culture (and this, coming from a communications postgrad student)! I thought I knew all about Britain and British TV by now, but there are some things you'd have to be a native to know (especially references to children's shows). The 7th floor showed the IMAX projection room--the reels of film are massive. Each one lasts an hour, and it's way bigger than normal film.

It was crazy! Apparently, the bulk makes it too heavy for normal film reels, so they use these huge platters--a 2 1/2 hour film weighs 551 lbs! Yikes!

I can't say that many nice things about Bradford (Leeds-Bradford is like Seattle-Tacoma...), but this museum was definitely worth the trip to Bradford!

Fish & Chips at the Market

On my cafe crawl earlier this week, I made a detour to the market for lunch (and to see the kittens at the pet stall!)

Graveley's really is a nice, authentic chip shop (4.50 for fish & chips)

Addingham

Me at my desk back in November--just hadn't posted it yet

The Crown Inn, where we had a lovely Sunday roast

The staff were all very friendly and we ate in a cozy little side room with a fireplace :)

A park along Main Street

Addingham's public library. We also saw a really cool specialty place for collectible children's books, TP Children's Bookshop, but it's only open on Fri & Sat, 10am-4pm!

A mile marker near Addingham

Harrogate

This was the lounge in the ladies' room at Betty's, the posh tea room/cafe in Harrogate. Pretty elaborate for a bathroom!

St. Peter's Church in the city centre

The Yorkshire Hotel