Settle

Day 2

After Skipton and a slight detour we got to Settle. We managed to get parked on a side street and walked into the town.

The place was busy with walkers, cyclists and motor bikers. Whilst there were less shops open here than in Skipton, if you are looking for something to eat there were plenty of places from the Ye Olde Naked Man cafe and bakery, The Fisherman Chippy (which was doing brisk trade too) and the local pubs were doing Sunday lunches. Neil sampled a sweet chili chicken slice from the Ye Olde Naked Man. Whilst he said the chicken was nice, the sweet chili sauce was not as spicy as he would have liked. They did seem to have nice cakes there too, but I was still too stuffed from breakfast to indulge.  If I came back again I'd definitely pop in for lunch, as they had a little cafe too.

The quite a few of the shops were closed, but there were a few open enticing the passing tourist including an Age UK charity shop, a gift shop and a secondhand bookshop. Outside the secondhand bookshop was a gorgeous chocolate and white sheep dog. He was doing a fine job of guarding the bookshop and you almost had to step over him to get in and out of the shop. I didn't mind as he was lovely. The charity shop wasn't exciting, but at least it was open and had a few people browsing its wares. I noticed one gift shop that was closed had that yellow transparent blind over the window to prevent the sun from fading the stock. This gave me flashbacks to the 70s and Cheetham Hill where it was practically the law to have all shop windows shielded in the stuff.

The weather was a constant drizzle so we decided not to hang around. Before we left I did go to the local public toilet, which was a vandal proof affair in industrial steel. By God the designers went hell for leather on the soviet cold war steel look. Every surface was steel, even the celling if I recollect correctly. The doors weighed a ton and some of the lights were out that made the look even grimmer. It was the most oppressive public toilets I've ever been in.  If anyone from the council reads this - please replace the lights.

Settle is a nice traditional Yorkshire town, with plenty of places to get refreshments.  Although for shopping purposes, Saturday is probably a better day to go.