SOLO EUROPE IV: DAYS 12-13 [HAWORTH & YORKSHIRE VILLAGES]

on my last international trip i decided to take a chance and stay at a village in germany. it was a bit out of my comfort zone as public transportation becomes more scarce, but the slower pace & being somewhere i can observe everyday life instead of staying in cities that cater to tourism was really interesting. it really brought me joy, so i decided to do something like that for this trip too. it also worked out well that this was during my birthday. i decided to stay in haworth as there were places to visit that peaked my interest (jane eyre & trains)

from keighley ("keefly"), i took a bus to the village of haworth. it was a pretty bus ride winding down narrow roads & seeing the green rolling hills. it was nice to be in wide open spaces.

haworth

i dropped my stuff off at my accommodation (more on that later) & decided to take advantage of the remaining daylight & walk down the main street. main street has old buildings from the 1800s including the accommodation i stayed at. the village is most well known for being where the bronte family lived. more on that later. it was a pretty empty walk as it was early evening & maybe half of the businesses were closed (it was a tuesday).

now a restaurant, but this was the post office the brontes used.

halloween vibes

i stayed at the fleece inn. i honestly chose it because they had good rates & offered single person occupancy rooms (which keeps the price even lower). they also had free breakfast! such a rarity nowadays. as it is an inn, the downstairs is a pub and the upstairs is accommodation. i thought this was so fun. as a dumb american, i have seen many a period piece where after a long ride in the carriage, a lady stays at an inn. i did end up having dinner at the pub downstairs both nights, the village is small & there are not a lot of places to eat during the week.

the fleece inn

my cute little room with my twin size bed.

the pub downstairs.

for dinner i  had pork in a apple puree & sherry sauce with potatoes cooked in duck fat. i also had soda water with currant.

i thought i would try sticky toffee pudding. i did not realize custard is like straight up cream (it was super rich).

the sunset from my window

i decided to be brave and have a spooky little stroll at night. literally no one was out (maybe only ghosts).

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i woke up early & had my first traditional english breakfast. i was surprised to find out they also had an espresso machine. i was very happy since there was not a good place to have an espresso in town (i had done my research in advance). i am not picky & will generally eat anything in front of me, but a traditional english breakfast is not my favorite (i don't care for runny eggs, a lot of meat that early & black pudding). i could get use to eating beans for breakfast. i do not seek trying unusual meats, but if given to me i will try them. i am only weird about gelatinous or chewy textures with meats. i generally will try anything once, but won't eat it again. that is how i feel about black pudding. it is a sausage made with meat, blood, & oats. it does taste like blood, but it was the taste mixed with the crumbly texture i did not like.

for this breakfast i had a sausage, english bacon (which is really just ham), eggs, a small hash brown, a mushroom,  a tomato, beans, & of course black pudding.

i then walked to the bronte parsonage around the corner from the inn. if you live under a rock, 3 of the bronte sisters published some of the most popular british books of all time in the 1800s - charlotte wrote jane eyre, emily wrote wuthering heights, & anne wrote the tenant of wildfell hall. i have read all 3 (but never finished wuthering heights). jane eyre is one of my favorite books. the building was built in the 1770s, but the bronte family moved to haworth in the 1800s as the father was appointed priest of the church next door.

 

my favorite - hydrangeas

ultimately the message i got from visiting the museum was of tragedy. me and an older english couple ended up chatting about this. not knowing just how sad the family history was. weirdly, i visited on the anniversary of his the son's death, who died in one of the rooms (described as a tortured artist with addiction problems). he even drew his own death before he died. the family had a wild & crazy life. the father outlived his wife & all 6 of his children. his wife died first. next was the 2 oldest daughters who died as children in the same year. the son & emily both died in 1848, with anne dieing in 1849. charlotte (who was pregnant) was the last to die in 1855. the father lived until 1861. all the brontes died near haworth & are buried there except anne who died on the coast & was not brought back.  

charlotte, anne, & emily

not pictured, but i liked seeing some of the clothing & drawings from the bronte girls.

it was interesting how they set up branwell's room like it was lived in by him with belongings thrown around & food on the floor

i was really intrigued looking at the papers on the floor, very tortured artist.

after going to the gift shop & spending too much money (they had a jane eyre embroidery kit), i walked along one of the trails along the bronte way. behind the parsonage are the moors where you can visit some of the locations that many believe inspired certain scenes in the brontes' stories (especially wuthering heights). i did not have a ton of time, so i only walked a little ways out. 

behind the bronte parsonage

i did make a quick visit to the church next door that the bronte patriarch was a minister at. it is also where most of the family are buried.

jagged headstones like crooked teeth

i stopped at some more of the shops on the way back, including a store that looked an apothecary.

i then took the bus to the ingrow (west) station of the keighley & worth valley railway, an operating heritage railway. the railway opened in the 1860s & operated for a century. in the 1960s it was preserved & reopened as a heritage railway. it is also known to be used for the filming of the railway children (a show i had never heard of, but is well known in the uk).

  

ingrow (west) station

i was lucky & able to see a train leave or arrive from all 3 stations i visited this day.

ingrow station also has a museum. inside are quite a few carriages & many are used for television & movies. i really wanted to visit the carriages that were used in the bbc's north & south, one of my favorite period pieces (it has cutie patootie richard armitage). some of the carriages were also used for peaky blinders, brideshead revisited, & the english game.

i bought a chocolate bar at the gift ship & had a conversation with a volunteer who tried to explain to me what the measurement "stone" was.

i then took the bus to visit another station, but this also involved a mile walk through some winding small roads. luckily they were not busy, but i had to be careful because at some points, there was only room for one car to go in one direction. there was even a turn where cars had to honk before they turned the corner as there was only room for one car. it was nice pleasant walk through green fields. i was even able to walk past an old brick mill.

i saw some sheep

oakworth station (this was one is actually original - 1867). i also got an elderflower soda & a ginger flapjack bar (a dense oat bar).

the station is restored to look edwardian (even has gas lamps!)

my mile walk back to haworth. 

the last station was haworth station, dressed as a 1950s country station

i then did one last peruse through the main street of haworth.

i had  a girl dinner in the pub. it was an assortment of local cheeses (mature cheddar wensleydale, brie, & yorkshire bleu) with chutney pickles (carrots, beets, & onions) & the smallest side of veggies.

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the next morning i took the bus to keighley station. though this is a modern train station, one of the platforms is also used for the heritage railway. the station has some original 1840s features. 

i wanted to include this pic of keighley station for this post, but the next post will include the rest of the day in newcastle.