Boog's Blog

Woke to rain and cold and lots of rain. 39°.

Reasonable start time at 9:45 and 10 AM. Three levels of hikes offered. Jeff did middle level. Sharon did alleged 4 mile (5.5 on watch).

During dinner found out that the guides belong to HF Holidays, a cooperative that has been around since 1913. Hike leaders are volunteers but get room, board and a travel allowance. All the hotels are called houses, they own many, possibly hundreds , but they don’t advertise and they have about 45,000 members who pay 100 pounds a year.

Interestingly, one of the guides will be a client on the next hike that we are on.

We did two separate walks, when we compared notes, they seem very similar: roots and rocks, mud slippery mud, more slippery mud, rain, Sharon even got some hail. Sharon sang the Mud Song very quietly. The timing of Jeff’s walk was a little better. The rain started when we stopped to look at the mill and by the time we left the mill rain had stopped

after dinner, a presentation on the national parks

Taxi ride to meeting. Driver, Nigerian, says war only impacts gas prices. His family in Nigeria not much affected as everything there is a total mess: no electricity or water. Corruption. House has ground well and diesel generator.

Road Scholar bus ride.

Assembled with lots and lots of instruction, filling out forms, food choices for picnics and dinners, on and on. Leader working hard but unnecessary complications.

All Americans on this trip. Next venue we will join up with HF Holiday (local company) Brits.

🏘️ – Via AI
Sedbergh
Sedbergh is a small, quiet market town tucked at the edge of the Howgill Fells, known as England’s official “Book Town.” It has a handful of independent bookshops, stone cottages, and a calm, unhurried pace. The River Rawthey runs alongside town, and within minutes you’re out on footpaths that lead into open countryside. It’s not a tourist hub, which gives it a genuine, everyday English feel — a gentle and fitting place to begin a walking journey.

Thorn Hall
We begin our walk at Thorn Hall, a rambling 16th-century country house set above the small town of Sedbergh in the Yorkshire Dales. With its creaky staircases, wood-paneled rooms, and views out toward the surrounding fells: more like a manor than a hotel. Designed for walkers coming in with muddy boots. Meals on long tables, comfortable English countryside.

Slept until noon again. Maybe jet lag?

Walked along the Ring Road over to the Chetham library and pass this interesting place for breakfast, but it’s actually 1:30 in the afternoon

Brunchfast included a proper porridge and very bad hair day.

Rain: proper Manchester weather.

Next, to Chetham library, the oldest public library.

https://share.google/1GnhJequcB17LuIsf

Arrived and surprised to find you can only see the library by a guided tour, for which you must book tickets in advance. Went online to find the tickets were all sold out, rather like the Cheese Shop.

Wandered back to Hotel via Marks & Spencer and Sainsbury. Picnic dinner in the hotel room.

Statue is quite impressive, representing loss of sight by soldiers in the first world war.

Sharon declared we did adequate Manchester.

We check out in the morning, and taxi to meeting point for the start of the walking tour.

The blog was published last night UK time, but for some reason, did not get distributed by email.

Jet lag: we slept until almost noon

Heat wave continues: Manchester at 70F.

If you walk through that archway now, you’ll find the intersection where the Ashton Canal meets the Rochdale Canal, a spot that was once one of the busiest “parking lots” for barges in the world. (SD personally believes it’s ancient Roman)

This on a Wednesday night

We start with a few days in Manchester, followed by a hiking trip in the areas pictured, London for a while, the Queen Mary 2 to NYC and onto RI.

Easy flight.

I rarely watch movies but I wanted to see Marty. Why? I played table tennis against him in NYC. Lost, not close, but a good lesson. The movie: lost, not close.

Plan was as follows: taxi to Euston Station, travel on one of many trains to Manchester.

Euston station closed due to construction.

Eep.

Taxi from Euston to St. Pancras, train to Sheffield, then train to Manchester.

Took quite a few discussions to find a route with minimum changes.

Getting There: The Hope Valley Line is one of the most scenic train journeys in England, connecting Sheffield and Manchester. It makes the valley incredibly accessible for day-trippers.

While this was not our original plan, it was the only route we could take and we got lucky. The scenery was beautiful.

Train full with day hikers. Primarily school age as this is Easter school break.

🏙️ via AI
Manchester
Manchester is a lively, modern city with deep industrial roots, known for its red-brick architecture, music history, and unmistakable energy. Once at the heart of the Industrial Revolution, it has reinvented itself as a cultural and creative hub, with galleries, restaurants, and a strong sense of local pride. Even in a short visit, you will feel the contrast with the quiet countryside — a bustling, urban landscape to start a journey among fells and stone walls.

Dakota Hotel is a nice place with good service. They sent us to the Bay Horse Tavern for dinner.

End of a very, very long day. Now begins jet lag.

We saw a rusted out gardening cart, but there was no signage so I don’t know whether it was art or an abandoned rusted out gardening cart

Return visit to chelsea passage, this time to eat chow fun. However, they had only pulled noodles and Dan Dan noodles. Most dishes were marked spicy or very spicy. They must’ve been New York spicy.

And now the lighted version

Thursday

• Breakfast with Sarah, walking, packing, final dinner out, and Don Giovanni

Not to do a decimal system. Look carefully and you can figure it out.

We are temporarily past noodles out

Terrible first act singers took a long time to warm up. Excellent Second act

And so I travel Adventure ends. 

A day of wandering the hood followed by dinner at John’s- a tradition.

Wednesday

Chores for leaving done and trip to Trinity church to hear their restored organ. A concert.

We came to hear this renovation of the organ. Details, more than one is likely to need, follow.

First 10 of 15 seconds mostly organ than the choir jumps in 

The village Halloween parade is tonight. We will be seeing it from sixth Avenue not far away.

Found a new place we like: a tavala calda.

Note the little pumpkin pastry above: almond mousse base (“dirt”), almond cake, chocolate mousse and pumpkin cream. We didn’t have the nerve to try it.

Big presence in case there is crime

Anish Kapor exhibit at the Jewish museum. Went especially to see the VANTABLACK, known as the blackest black there is and owned by him; explained in the wording below

So black that there is no shadow and you can’t see the depth

Then we went up to the museum of the city of New York. Same exhibits as we saw in our previous visit.

Select pics from village walk.

35,238 steps today. Legs tired but rejuvenated by dinner at Eataly.

Sunday:

When we got to Newark airport, the line to get in through immigration was probably an hour and a half long due to they’re being only one or two immigration desks open. Fortunately, we had global entry.

Global entry now is face only no form not a single piece of paper not even a way to declare how much we brought back walked right through

We got a nice collection of russet and a few others

Try to get into a Vietnamese restaurant that I had read about many months ago. The line looked like it was about two hours so we left and went to the Ramen place above.

At the Morgan Library

Fabulous collection of rarely seen drafting

Rain, heavy today.  Very heavy at times.

Early morning departure from the ship for late departure from the airport; there’s lots of time look around HND

Modern airport with many shops nicely arranged on the second and third floor.

 The airport even has two onsens. 

Sampled cheese, flavored macadamia nuts with sugar and cheese filled cookies and brie I think at one of the shops.

Nice lounge with acceptable food, but certainly not as good as the ANA lounge in Chicago even less so the Polaris lounge San Francisco

We were able to check in especially early. Flight departed on time.