Aye Up, Part Deux!

Click to Listen!
(NOTE: May take a bit to download ... patience is a virtue!)

OUR-A CULPA

Apologies for the static on the podcast! Dunno what happened, but at least you can pretend you're listening to AM radio! :-D  We'll remedy the situation by next week's podcast, fer sure.

In the second part of our England show we start by recording in the car heading up to the Yorkshire Dales (a dale is a valley ... and yes, actual space on the web was used just to keep these typed words). Imagine both of us with mics in our hands chatting like it's nothing. We went up to see Simon's brother & sister-in-law.

We did do some re-capping before we got to the house, though ...

Betty's Tea Shop, York

Vodafone

National Railway Museum

Fortress Wall Gate, York

While we didn't actually record at Simon's bro's house, we did spend a couple nights there. The house is older than America (but beautifully updated inside ... looks totally modern), and even had a "presence" -- some guy who'd died 100 years ago and didn't know he was gone yet. Naturally, Greg freaked out about this, but Simon spoke to the erstwhile dude and gave him an out which he apparently took!

On our day in the Dales, guess where we went? :-)

Wensleydale Creamery

Swaledale

Morrit Arms Hotel (& Pub!)

We then went back to Simon's bro's place where Greg got really acquainted with scotch. Lots. :-) Naturally, this didn't help when the ghost guy was brought up.

The next day, we continue podcastin' in the backyard of Simon's grandparents' family home, omplete with songbirds chirpin' like maniacs. We'd already left Simon's bro's place and checked into Suddaby's Inn in "downtown" Malton. Simon jammed with a few friends of his, and even let Greg up on stage to rock the crowd with his loungy "Mack The Knife!" Good thing we didn't record that, haha!

Suddaby's Crown Hotel

That day, we went back into York and picked up Ashok, our regular contributor, who was in town to do some things up in Scotland (he'll update on that next time we have him on the podcast). So The Three Amigos enjoyed the evening at Suddaby's, where they hosted a local beer festival. During the festival, Greg & Ashok were approached by a really cool guy called Hugh. When he left, other locals in the pub let us know that he owned over 7,000 acres between Malton & Whitby. When Hugh came back, he invited us to his estate! Simon couldn't make it, but Greg & Ashok sure as heck went. Greg had the foresight to bring the recorder, and our recording (though somewhat staticky) is here for your listening pleasure. :-) You'll have to imagine the area he spoke of, because Greg doesn't have the pics up yet. Still, Greg found this pic online:

Wintringham

Also, type in "Place Newton" in Google Maps/Earth, and you'll find it!

We continue our chat about all kinds of things, from silent wrens to bumblebees (freaking Greg out) to the state of military affairs. We'll see if we can connect with Hugh on Skype sometime, if not head back over for another visit.

And with that, we wrap things up in the bakyard of Simon's grandparents' place and call it a vacation in Yorkshire!