Cowboy On The Yorkshire Trail.
It is often said there are more acres in Yorkshire than letters in the Bible.
(I am better qualified in Yorkshire’s acres than the Bible’s letters.)
The largest English county with a rich diversity of terrain, people and culture.
That Yorkshire attitude… Down to earth, often stubborn… Or argumentative.
Welcoming of strangers.
Tolerant and with fortitude.
Above all… Fiercely independent!
That Yorkshire Attitude!
No matter where in the world you meet; Ask “Where are you from?” and the first answer will be Yorkshire! This is true. People from other counties may say England or even British but not Yorkshire people. It is instinctive; county ranks higher than nation to us. Being British is similar to saying we are European; both are somewhat contrary or additional to who we really are. They represent an alliance or allegiance with people who are somewhat foreign to our way of thinking. To some this may seem bigoted and arrogant, particularly when coupled with our northern habit or being economical in speech:- But it is not.
©Charimage 2013
The Heartland of The North.
In Celtic times Yorkshire was the established territory of the Brigantes Tribe that controlled Northern England. Aldborough in North Yorkshire being the site of their capital. Nearby Boroughbridge came to prominence in Norman times. Under Roman rule York (Eboracum) was named as joint capital of Roman Britain. The Romans left and the Celtic tribes divided and ruled. The Danish Vikings established a kingdom here. They called it the Kingdom of Jórvík. The Norman Conquest and the Battle of Hastings heralded Yorkshire darkest times. With the Harrowing of the North by an enraged William the north of England was laid to waste in one of the first recorded acts of pure genocide. Yorkshire suffered the brunt of this fury when thousands were slain. The entire region was burned and the soil poisoned for years to come with salt resulting in the surviving population facing starvation. During the civil war the Yorkists stood their ground as royalists; York was besieged… the Round-headed Parliamentarians finally famously quelled the county at the Battle of Marston Moor.
©Charimage 2013
The Wars of The Roses.
Here we have a great confusion that needs explanation. Put aside modern (particularly sporting usage,) the Wars of the Roses had nothing to do with the counties of Yorkshire and Lancashire. The Royal Plantagenet House (or family) had two factions The House of York (White Rose) and The House of Lancaster (Red Rose.) The House of Lancaster was actually based in… (wait for it!)… York! The House of Lancaster controlled and was based in London. The Wars of the Roses is perhaps best considered as a feud between the Northern aristocracy and the South. The defeat of the Yorkist Richard III at Bosworth Field ended both the feud and the Plantagenet Line; Henry Tudor married Elizabeth of York and the white and red roses combined to form the Tudor Rose.
©Charimage 2013
A County of Contrasts.
Travel across Yorkshire and you’ll find a patchwork of heritage and history. People and communities that are a product of that diversity. There are areas specific to all types of farming and horticulture. National Parks and World Heritage locations. You’ll find areas marked by heavy industry of all types; steel, mining or textiles. Many are now in decline but they created what we see today. From Fishing on the coast to Farming in the uplands. Forestry in the Fells and Finance in Leeds. There is literature and leisure; theater and cricket. Roast beef or Yorkshire Tea with jam on scones. It is a county that doesn’t take itself too seriously but takes life very serious indeed. It works hard and plays with a similar passion. There is plenty for all and all are welcome. God’s Own? I do not know…
But it has acres a plenty.
“Independence For Yorkshire!”
We hear it called for… every now and then. It is a cry that gains little support. Yorkshire doesn’t need independence to be granted. It has always been independent and always will.
©Lifecruiser Cowboy Trails
Other Cowboy Trails Posts at Lifecruiser:
Rivers of Life
I Want to be Alone
Why Do We Travel?
There has always been lots of travel postcards where ever you go on holiday, so I thought I would send you a special postcard from Costa del Sol, Spain, where we are now. What could be more Spanish than Paella…? This one is special though…
…but have you noticed that the postcards have decreased? Like myself, people don’t send postcards anymore, they post their photos and greetings on Facebook or similar networks instead.
Good or bad? What do you think? Both I think.
©Lifecruiser Love Spain
A couple of other travel postcards related posts at Lifecruiser:
The Brutally Honest Postcard From Florence, Italy
Travel Postcard: Diving Cat?
There is absolutely no doubt about it: bad weather causes travel for sure! Especially for us coming from countries with long winter season, like UK and the Nordic countries. We love to do winter escapes from Sweden, this time we went by road to Spain: a 3350 km long roadtrip and then further within Spain.
The day we started our trip from Stockholm, Sweden, in late February, we were lucky because we had clear sky and dry roads – just the day after we left it started to snow again… We started the right day for sure, especially since we have summer tires on the car not suited for any snowy weather conditions!
That’s because we had winter tires with spikes at home and that is not allowed in Germany (or some other countries) so we had to summer tires before leaving Sweden. Earlier there were a exception from that regulation that said that you were allowed to have them if you were passing through from one country to another, but they changed that in 2012.
We did drive through Denmark and Germany without any bad weather either luckily, in fact: the first 2000 km went so smooth that we started to think that this trip was going to be an easy ride all the way! Boy, was we wrong… First there was very foggy roads when entering France slowing us down quite much.
Then hubby started to feel very ill… In fact so nausea and dizzy that he had to stop acute at least 4 times along the road to throw up at the roadside… Yikes! That’s not any easy ride when out on a long roadtrip at all!!!! Luckily we did not have that long leg planned for that day and he was better the next day.
When we were entering Spain finally after so long time on the road, I did happily burst out with a spontaneous “Buenas Noches España”, feeling so pleased to have come so far – and the late sunset were gorgeous to our winter tired eyes!
We went sightseeing around the coastline in Spain down to Alicante where we were going to celebrate a friends birthday, so that was our first longer stop (more than for the night only). We did smaller excursions to check up even the surrounding smaller places too, but we never did find any places that we got found of. Maybe Playa San Juan nearby Alicante, but that was just the playa.
Alicante actually greated us with some rain too, but still: it was way much more nice than the snow in Sweden – wouldn’t you say too? this photo below is from Playa Postiguet nearby Alicante harbor.
After that we went down south from Alicante along the coast line exploring all the places and beaches on the way and at last, we ended up in Nerja which is our second visit to this smaller tourist town, we liked it already the first time we were here – it’s a nice little town. We have been walking around all over this place for days now.
The weather has been mostly OK, but very variated. Some days practically summer weather, others rainy or windy. All the scale, but looking at the weather reports for the rest of Spain I would say that we have been very lucky!
We have been researching around the coastline down from here too, all the way past Malaga and Marbella. So far we have made around 5000 km during this roadtrip altogether with different excursions! You see, we’re checking things up for other years winter escapes…
What I can say is this: we’re not alone doing winter escapes, there are so many Scandinavians, Englishmen, Dutch’s and Germans all over Spain, that I almost feel sorry for the Spaniards: their country is totally invaded and sometimes that is not in a good way at all. (When the tourist has taken over the places).
Where would you like to escape the weather…?
©Lifecruiser Love Spain
