North Yorkshire Cruise: York To Newton-on-Ouse

Friday 17 June York to Newton-on-Ouse

The cyclists and walkers go to work under an overcast sky again, in a gentle breeze. The plan is to travel ten miles up the Ouse, with possible stops at the pretty village of Nun Monkton and Beningborough Hall, near Newton.

Annie moored above Lendal Bridge, by York Museum Gardens

Cheeky squirrel

Lovely, if you like willows

someone else's obsession ...

The York museum gardens are a nice route from river to town. A naughty squirrel was chasing the pigeons! After coffee and emails at Costa, off we started, past continuous uninspiring willows, with hardly any wildfowl, for miles until well past the York ring road.

the rough mooring at Nun Monkton

Liana didn't fancy the rough mooring at the confluence with the River Nidd to visit Nun Monkton, so we continued past the large Horse chestnut trees on the Beningbrough Park estate to the Dawnay Arms at Newton. A rare boat with fishermen passed by.

Dawnay Arms mooring

Tying up on the short (for Annie) 50' pontoon was ok, with a lovely river view. John put a third coat of iron oxide primer on the boat front, while Liana read. It is a 100m walk over a stile up to the pub, which has friendly staff, relaxing décor and good music. While not cheap, we thought our meals (Lemon Sole, succulent Gammon,) were really nice. The village is well-to-do, with a feel of an estate village, and we enjoyed our walk. The lovely church has three bells worked, unusually, by a carillon (chiming) arrangement. The clock winder told us the clock used two bells, for the hour and half hour, as we heard. TV Euro soccer and reading ended the day happily.

Thursday 16 June York

The Hogwarts Express?

After watering up and putting away the loo holding tanks, John avoided the multitude of scullers zooming up and down, returning to our mooring and charging the batteries for a while, as we watched the end of the England-Wales Euro 2016 match (fortunate, as England scored in extra time and won!). Steve recommended the Alice Hawthorn pub and church at Nun Monkton, and the Dawnay Arms pub at Newton, upriver.

We enjoyed a walk through the town, then back to the Railway Museum, which Liana found more interesting than she expected.

Mail train

Liana on a BR Intercity!

Apart from carriages and lots of steam engines, we watched a demonstration of a turntable. tea and cakes were good, too! Taking a tourist train back to the Minster, which had a £10 entry fee and was filled with scaffolding for the mystery play,  we left this for another time and enjoyed a walk.