Thirsk to Knaresborough

We took the Grand Central service to Thirsk on Saturday and  biked from there to Knaresborough, a distance of about 25 miles.  It took five hours with frequent stops and a harsh spring wind that made it necessary to pedal even on steep downhill slopes.  We stopped in Ripon, where the noble Norman minster is built on the foundations laid by Saint Wilfrid in 673.  As we approached that fabulous building, pretty much in the middle of nowhere (Ripon is a modest market town without a train station), I thought about how it's both a burden and a treasure to have monuments like this one slowly crumbling across the countryside, hardly used and visited only by eccentric tourists.  But the Minster was overrun with people!  There was a rehearsal in progress of Britten's War Requiem with two choruses and two orchestras, not to mention a large number of auditors and a few eccentric tourists.  Music filled the place, and light, and life, though life crying out against death.

Burne-Jones Window at Topcliffe

Half the way to Ripon we rode through the village of Topcliffe which has a fine small church with a spectacular Pre-raphelite window painted by Burne-Jones before he was famous.  It depicts the Annunciation, the Visitation and the Nativity.  Lush coloring and brilliant in design.


We missed our train in Knaresborough, but the next train came an hour later, just enough time for an excellent coffee on the High Street.