Fountains Abbey, Ripon

Fountains Abbey 

was on our way home to Chester so we packed up and followed the rainbows to this beautiful and stunning Abbey. All it needed was a Brownlee brother to run past us and HIGH-FIVE us ...but that had already happened in September, as the Pixen delighted in telling us ... several times.

The sky was a perfect Coventry City Sky Blue and although there had been a lot of rain earlier, we were able to see the Abbey in full glory, bathed in sunlight,

which created lovely, arty shadows,

and a colourful "perspective" photograph.

Even the puddle forms a pleasing squiggle.

The older I get, the more I like architecture. These arches are stunning.

and I blended in very well in my green and purple.

The grounds were manicured to perfection. This board is explaining how some of the large trees had been cut back to show the Octagon Tower- an eyecatcher erected in the 18th century.

Octagon Tower

Although this looks like the rainbow falls behind the trees, we were actually excited to see that it did, in fact, end in the water (there isn't a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow after all), but the camera hasn't really picked that up. It was quite beautiful at the time.

Everyone  in Chester was apparently getting soaked in horrendous rain, but we, on the other hand, were taking selfies with sunbeams.

Then this little chappie strolled past. Quite a magnificent beast. I'm glad he walked in that direction though and didn't turn to approach us. 

Fountains Abbey is one of the Pixen's favourite places and I can see why. Yes Jonny Brownlee high-fived her here back in September at the

 BROWNLEE TRIATHLON 

and later that day she would be stood in a tent with both Jonny AND Alistair....

(once again she was chief photographer-this time for Mr Leeds Abbey Dash)

 (Mr Leeds Abbey Dash's son won the Twitter competition to do the swim for Alistair

The brothers were on hand during the day to cheer on the competitors, speak to all visitors – signing autographs and taking pictures and to take part in their own exhibition race, the Brownlee Challenge. With Alistair only able to compete in the bike leg due to an injury sustained at the ITU Grand Final in London, a Twitter campaign was run to find two members of the public to run and swim with the Olympic Champion in a relay format. On the day, Jonny emerged victorious over Alistair’s team but for the competition winners it was the experience of a lifetime.

...but the grounds, the coffee shop, the gardens, the gift shops, the whole complex were all lovely and well worth a visit.

We are still laughing at this brilliant card in the gift shop.

 It is going to be framed and kept for life!

(We don't like garlic)