Last weekend our daughter and family who live in Bedfordshire came to visit for a few days. They were looking forward to some good family days out. It was unfortunate that the weather decided to change just at that point from warm sunny days to cooler, cloudy conditions, so as we thought about where we would like to go we had to think about somewhere to go if it rained. After much discussion and changes of destination, we finally decided on Skipton. There's something for everyone in Skipton--shops, market, castle, walks and the Leeds and Liverpool Canal. We decided to have a canal boat ride in the morning whilst the weather was fine and then if it rained later we could visit the castle or look at the shops.
As we queued up for the 30 minute canal boat trip, our son-in-law had a better idea and disappeared for a while returning with a booking for a 2hour boat hire. Both he and my daughter have driven a canal boat before so we hoped they knew what to do, although he did get some instructions from the boat hire man.
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We just had enough time to whizz round the shops to buy food and drink for a picnic to take on board with us. We had a lovely 2 hours sailing slowly along this lovely, picturesque canal, relaxing, eating, watching the other boats, looking out for wildlife.
Later back on dry land we walked along the canal towpath towards the castle. The path then took us along the bank of the river and through Skipton Castle woods. We've been to Skipton many times but never done this walk before. It's an easy walk and very scenic. We didn't complete the walk as we had to get back home, but it was very enjoyable and a place we will return to soon, I'm sure.
