A little geography lesson

Hola.

At the behest (okay, or suggestion) of my brother Belden, I have created this blog because, apparently, email is so last millennium.

While after my previous email, many of you may have gotten a feel for where I live.... I wonder if you still have no idea where exactly I am located. So, a little geography lesson.

 The "B" is where Bradford is. It is a little less than a 3 hour train ride from London and a 20 minute train ride from sister city (and metropolitan area... city) Leeds. *Note about Leeds: Leeds is the posh city of the North. It's the 2nd banking capital of England (after London, of course) and home to very nice stores and designer clothing.

The City of Bradford (and, for that matter, the City of Leeds) is comprised of what we might call boroughs (technically "wards"). While New York City has Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, etc; The City of Bradford has Bradford City, Shipley, Ilkley, Bingley, Baildon, etc... there are a lot. My post code begins with BD1-- that means I live very close to the center of the city. As you go farther out from the center of the city, the number after the BD increases.

After a somewhat mopey morning (my PIN number for my UK chip bank card--- a necessity for living in the UK-- STILL hadn't arrived and it was a bank holiday that day so there would be no mail), I had a brilliant idea to google "things to do around Bradford" and found the "Cow and Calf" rocks at the Ilkley moors. After a 40 minute schlepp out there via the Bradford-Ilkley line (train terminus at Ilkley-- that's how far out in the boonies I was--- Ilkley is pretty much at the end of the city), I finally reached the most quaint little borough I have seen in West Yorkshire.

It was pretty easy to find my way up to the Cow and Calf rocks.... it was a fun trek up the side of the hill on some rugged dirt paths.... a nice scramble up some rocks (was thankful I wore my Keens that day)... beamed with joy, taking in the vistas--- and noticed a car park, pub, and much more user-friendly paths on the other side of the hill. Oh well. Sorry for the poor picture quality--- noticed a smudge on my camera lens! P.S. More pictures will be in my Picasa Web Album.

 Approaching the rocks:

Really good bouldering and climbing areas:

 I thought this was neat. If you look closely, a lot of the graffiti is from the 19th century from people all across England visiting the Ilkley Moors.

Hiking the moor is like ascending steppes.... you think the next one will be the highest elevation and provide you and best vista, but you're usually wrong and you have another one to climb. What you can't see in this photo is that to the right of this is a gorge.

Don't you just feel like you're in Wuthering Heights?

So there was a stone circle at the top of the moors. I don't know if it's a legit Neolithic stone circle or not. I sent an email off to my advisers about it so I will find out tomorrow. BUT I do know there are prehistoric rock art in the area so who knows....