We're simultaneously happy to be heading back to our routine, and sad to leave, as this has been a wonderful vacation for us. We could be easily persuaded to start over and repeat the entire thing.

We had made arrangements to meet a couple from Leeds (about an hour and a half from Askrigg) for a meal during our stay. Kenny and Debra had stayed at Brewster House last October and we had hit it off well. They had offered a number of suggestions for our trip, and asked us to call them when we were in Yorkshire.

One of the popular activities in all parts of rural England is walking. Not just a walk up the street, you understand, but a real hike. England provides for hiking paths to cross private lands (so long as you keep to the paths and leave things as you found them), so you can walk all along the Yorkshire hill country, through sheep pens and around farm houses. Today we took a walk through the Dales above Askrigg.

This turned out to be castle day. Some were planned, some were surprises. We started down the east coast of Scotland, heading for Tantallon Castle. We found the ruined castle near the coast, and just off shore was a lighthouse built into the rock of an island. As we continued south we saw another castle just off the road. Then we went to the next planned castle, Holy Island, in northeast England.

A rather lazy day today. We enjoyed a leisurly breakfast at our B&B, then decided to solve a big problem - which requires some explaining. One of the endearing sights along the winding Scottish roads through the farm country is the shaggy-haired Highland cow (or, as pronounced here, Heeland coo). We finally had an opportunity to see some within photo range on the drive from Inverness to Edinburgh, but there was nowhere to stop. Ruth was determined that we had to have a picture of these beasts before we left Scotland.