06-18 Big Cities on the Canal

One of the biggest cities on the canal is just up ahead. We're all dressed in our short sleeved shirts ready to hit the town.

BUT FIRST...We must navigate a few SWING BRIDGES to get there.



These bridges can be out in the middle of nowhere to allow people to get from one side of the canal to the other or they can be in the cities where you actually stop traffic.

They can be completely manual or completely electric or some combination.

So this manual bridge is locked and it takes a special key (that you can buy anywhere) to unlock it so that you can swing it.





Karen is standing and pushing against the lever arm and swinging the bridge open AND taking a picture. They all are not that easy. Some need more work than others.



Here is the bridge open all the way and I've already moved the boat through.



After I motor on through she will swing it back so that it is usable. Then she will lock it again, walk across the bridge, and climb aboard the boat that I've masterfully landed without deck hand assistance.



In addition to all of the locks that we went through we also went through 48 swing bridges during our week on the boat.

Skipton is the largest town we'll be going through this week. We found someplace to tie-up the boat (which is pretty much ANYWHERE along the canal) and walked about a 1/4 mile to the center of town.



They have a market in the streets about 3 or 4 days out of the week. It's kind of like our street fairs at home but they do it more often. You can see a few of the white tents in the background.



Their other big deal in town is the Skipton Castle which we paid $7 pounds to visit.



This is a greatly preserved castle that, despite having no furniture in it, gave you a great sense for what the living conditions IN a castle were.

There were many school groups with teachers who were giving excellent tour guide information on the castle that we occasionally eavesdropped on. This guy had a sword as a pointer.



The castle courtyard with a tree planted many years ago by the lady of the house.



Rain drain upgrades were one of the "newer" improvements to the castle.



The great banqueting hall.





They had used a kitchen from the 1400's for awhile...



...and then they upgraded to this one with cast iron.



Yep, it's what you think it is. They called it the "long drop" and they usually went directly into the river off the back side of the castle.



We enjoy castle exploring. It makes us appreciate our easy living.

We shopped a little bit in town and Karen found a great deal on a Disney Brave Little Tailor piece.

The "famous" fish and chips in town is Bizzie Lizzies and on our way back to the boat we picked some up and had lunch on the boat on the canal with it. Karen said it was very good because it was cod.



As we continued on through town on the water we came upon the intersection of two canals. The main canal that we are on bends around to the right. The Skipton Spring Canal bends to the left and within a 1/2 mile will be behind the Castle.





My kind of boat!



Along our route today we found a memorial to Polish Airmen in WWII who were in England training and their plane crashed.



Houses and other boats along the canal.





After a long day of "swingin' bridges" Karen gets a break.