A walk to Kirkstall.

Haiku-a-day:

Mar 5^th

The Kirkstall Abbey

ruins were amazingly

beautiful to see.

Today I went with the usual group to the Kirkstall Abbey here in Leeds.  It's about a 3 mile walk, which means it takes about an hour to get there.  It was good exercise, fresh air, and we got to see parts of the city we had not come across yet.  The Abbey ruins are amazing.  The Cistercian Abbey was made in the 12th century in the shape of a cross.  It was constructed for a small community of about 30 monks.  Check out this link to get more information, see more pictures, and even take an audio tour of the Abbey.  It's actually a really cool website and I would highly recommend clicking around to learn more about the ruins.  

This Abbey is cool (not only because it is so close to where I live but also) because it is free and it was pretty quiet when we got there.  For most of the time we seemed to have the place to ourselves and were free to look around.  We were free to touch anything and go anywhere except for stairs.  You had to stay on the ground level.  

We poked around for a couple hours, read signage all over to learn more about it, then walked over to the small river that runs nearby and relaxed.  Afterwards, we stopped at a sandwich place and got something eat before heading back home.

It was a delightful day.  If you want to see more pictures of the ruins, check out facebook.  I took way more than I should have and I posted almost all of them there.

 Initials carved into the columns.

Looking down the main stretch.

 The left side of the cross's arm.

 Inside a "room" type of place.

 The library.

 In the chapter house.

 Cool rocks in the chapter house.

 Sarcophaguses in the chapter house.

 Stairs we were forbidden to go up.

Creepy looking courtyard.