Europe IV: Helmsley

After a great time in Durham with the Byers, Monday morning we took the hour long train ride to York and then hopped on a 30 minute bus to get to the small, quaint town of Helmsley, England.  Matt and I knew we would be going non-stop in London, Durham, and Paris so we wanted one part of this trip to be secluded and relaxing.  The Feversham Arms in the English countryside seemed perfect.

When we got off the bus in Helmsley, I could tell where our hotel was by the steeple poking out from some trees.  I had seen in pictures that a church was right across the street from the hotel, so we headed straight there.  Now remember, Helmsley is very small.  It only takes about ten minutes at a leisurely pace to walk across the town center.  So, within minutes we were at the hotel.

It was still very cold outside and we were exhausted, so as soon as we checked in and got to our room we crawled under the covers and took a two hour nap.  Speaking of our room, it was pretty great.

In fact, the entire Feversham Arms was pretty close to perfect.  The staff was incredibly friendly and attentive, the food in the restaurant was amazing, and the interior and exterior were really beautiful.  It wasn't too small or too big.  Matt and I came away from the hotel feeling like this was "our" hotel.  That may sound silly, but we had a really great, special time here and this is the first hotel I've stayed in that as soon as I left I genuinely missed it.  This place feels really special to us and I hope Matt and I get to return.

After we woke up, we showered and got ready for dinner.  Our hotel package came with breakfast and dinner included so we ate at the hotel each night.  Not only did that make the time spent there 100% stress free, the restaurant was so good I wouldn't have wanted to eat anywhere else anyway.  There was plenty of variety so each night the meal felt different.

Each night after dinner we would choose a DVD from the library and get in bed early to watch it.  Yeah.  This portion of the trip was relaxing.

The next morning we woke up to a surprise.  Remember how our weather had been winter-like to this point in the trip?  Well, the next day had a high of 79 degrees!  It was the most bizarre change of weather I've ever experienced.  Everywhere we went that day people could not stop talking about how warm it was - like Los Angeles when it rains.

Well, since we were right next to a national park, we decided we would go on a walk (hike to us American folk).  We didn't have a car, so after having breakfast in bed we went to the front desk to find a hike that lead out of Helmsley.  We were directed down the street (and by down the street I mean like 50 steps from the front door) to a wooden sign for Cleveland Way.  From there, we would find markers leading us down a 2 1/2 mile hike to Rievaulx Abbey.

This walk was one of our favorite things we did in Helmsley (and all of England for that matter!).  It was perfect.  We were constantly surprised by beautiful views of fields and green rolling hills, by streams that had perfect spots on the shore to sit and relax a while, and of random farm animals that would block or approach the path.

Like I said, the hike ended at the ruins of Rievaulx Abbey.  It was so beautiful!  And peaceful.  We could've sat there for hours.

After hanging around for a while we turned around and headed back to Helmsley.  When we arrived we stopped by Ryeburn Ice Cream for a refreshing cone.  I am not exaggerating at all when I say this was the best ice cream I've had in my entire life.  A perfect way to end a perfect walk through the country.

The next day we woke up and had breakfast in bed (again!) and then it was time to head down to the spa (are we spoiled or what!? I just feel indulgent for writing all this!) for our massage.  We put on our swanky robes in the room and headed down.

After our massage, we decided to sit by the pool as it was another abnormally warm day in England.

A couple hours later, we decided to go on another walk since the previous day's trek was so successful.  Once again we headed to the front desk to get a suggestion from the concierge.  This day a new guy named Paul, the self proclaimed "human Sat Nav," was there and he was more than a little excited to help us.  After a long conversation consisting of him explaining all the different options, he held up a finger, went back to the desk, and made a phone call.  We heard him ask the person on the line if he could send some guests to walk through their property.  They obviously said yes because he gave a big toothless grin and proceeded to give us directions to Duncombe Park.

This park was closed for the day but we were able to walk through it due to Paul's phone call.  It also didn't hurt that the owner of this park and house is Lord Feversham.  We were again treated to beautiful views, this time of expansive sheep-filled fields and the town of Helmsley itself.

After that walk we returned to the hotel, enjoyed our last dinner, and got ready to leave for Paris in the morning.

Helmsley was one of those rare places that you develop an immediate bond with and want to go back.  It seems crazy when planning another trip to Europe to go back to Helmsley instead of the million cities we've never seen, but we'd do it again in a heartbeat.

Europe I: London, Europe II: Leavesden Studios, Europe III: Durham 

Europe III: Durham

We left our swanky, non-touristy London flat dragging bags down the uneven stone streets, quickly doing away with any rumors that we were simply locals no one had noticed yet.  "Oh look, they were tourists after all.  Pip pip, cheerio," the real Londoners said behind our backs.

We hopped on a train that took us a few hours north to the town of Durham and right into the open arms of our fantastic friends Andy and Miranda Byers (and their incredible children who I've always wanted to steal). They've moved to Durham for Andy to pursue his PhD at Durham University in the narrative structure of the Gospel of John...or something like that.  Andy and I got to know each other when we were both working at Mountain Brook Community Church, and it's not too often you find someone who is truly a kindred spirit. Plus, we're both pursuing artistic dreams and our families are sacrificing big time to do so, so we just sort of get each other.  Needless to say time with the Byers always encourages, refreshes, and pushes us forward. The long and the short of it is, we just really love the Byers.

It was freezing when our train rolled in to Durham, and Miranda had made us a pot of potato soup as a quick warm-up before we took a tour of the town.  We saw the kids' schools and the Durham city center, which is a really amazing mix of ancient city and college town.

Then they took us to the beautiful Durham Cathedral and Durham Castle.

The courtyard of Durham Cathedral was used as the Hogwarts courtyard, so if the utter architectural grandeur of the place wasn't enough, we were satisfied because it was a Harry Potter set.

Ellen is making that face because some lady fell on her butt as we took this picture.

Surely you've noticed I'm wearing a purse in all these pictures.

That night we ate dinner at the Cellar Door and got drinks at the Courthouse Inn pub.  A fantastic end to a fantastic day.

The next day was Sunday so we got to visit their church, then we drove north past Newcastle to Alnwick (pronounced "an-nick" because that makes sense).  This is where Ellen found her happy place - a spot called Duchess View.

We ate lunch in a treehouse.

We toured Alnwick Castle.  Sorry, you can't move in.  Someone lives there already.  No, really. And they have a Downton Abbey-esque staff.  We talked to a staff member who said he would have been a footman, so I'm thinking... William?

The kids got to dress as knights and pretend to fight a dragon.  Cavan, their youngest son, solidified himself as the coolest guy I know when, as we were leaving, he yelled over his shoulder, "Goodbye, dragon.  I'll kill you again on another adventure!"

And don't worry, they filmed a bunch of Harry Potter here too.

 In fact, that night before bedtime I read Harry Potter to Brynn, the Byers' oldest daughter.  You see what this trip centered around, right?

We had dinner at a quaint inn called The Church Mouse and then just spent time talking with the Byers.  We also gave them the gift of Bill Dance.  The next morning we were off to the train station to head to Helmsley...

Europe I: London, Europe II: Leavesden Studios

Satisfied in You

Thanks for the rec Avery.

Europe II: Leavesden Studios

Yeah, that's a mandrake.  No big.  That's the sort of thing you spend 5 hours looking at in Leavesden Studios.

Leavesden is a quaint little town about 30 minutes outside of London, and for some bizarre reason Warner Brothers has a studio and backlot there.  It's where all the Harry Potter movies were filmed, and thank the geek-gods above they've turned several sound stages and a backlot into a walking tour of all the remaining Harry Potter sets, wardrobe pieces, creature designs, etc.

One quick note before we get to the pictures.  None of my photos do any of these sets justice.  The set pieces were gigantic and extremely intricate, and the photos I took with my phone in constant low lighting are just not very good.  But luckily they gave us a sweet little book with professional photos of essentially every piece on the tour, so we're good.

The tour started by queuing next to Harry's cupboard under the stairs.  Ok, pretty good place to start.  Now remember, this isn't some crappy recreation; Daniel Radcliffe sat in that very piece while Chris Columbus directed him.

Then we were sent to a theatre where we watched a video that ended with the walls of the theatre raising into the ceiling to reveal we were really sitting right in front of the door to the Great Hall!  Except the walls were broken and we had to awkwardly file through a small door, around a corner, and then there was the Great Hall.  Everything can't work all the time, I guess.   But still.  The Great Hall!

This blog post could quickly become the length of Harry Potter & The Order Of The Phoenix, so let's just put it this way.  We saw the Hogwarts entrance gates, the Gryffindor Common Room, the Burrow, Dumbledore's Office, Tom Riddle's grave, the Ministry of Magic, the Hogwarts Bridge, Privet Drive, the Gryffindor Boys' Dormitories, Hagrid's hut, the Potions classroom, Diagon Alley......you get the picture.  They told us the tour would take about 3 hours.  We were there for 5.

The tour ended with an absolutely breathtaking (don't worry, I heard how stupid I just sounded) GIGANTIC scale model of Hogwarts and its grounds.  They used this model for all the exterior shots of the castle for the films.  The model was the size of half a basketball court, they were piping the HP score in through some speakers, and there was constantly changing theatrical lighting on the castle.  I literally wanted to cry when I saw it.  Instead I took a hundred pictures.

It was an incredible tour that was so full of detail I think I could walk through it again and look at completely different things.  If you ever take a trip to London, go to Leavesden.