Thank You PBS: Our Bags are Packed!

 I love PBS television shows—particularly when they come from the United Kingdom. Give me a Masterpiece Mystery from London, Glasgow or any small island off the coast of Scotland, where murder and mayhem seem to be an everyday occurrence and I’m thrilled to death—once the closed-captioned is turned on so that we can understand what is being said. Sometimes, it’s the only way we can follow the plot! There’s nothing like hunkering down on a cold Sunday night and watch the PBS line-up with the remains of my wine from dinner and an Oreo…or two.

And it’s because of those Sunday night shows that our bags are packed and we’re headed to the Dales of Yorkshire. 

For the last three Januaries, we (mostly me) have waited with bated-breath for the beginning of new season of “All Creatures Great and Small.” The program is based on the books of James Herriot, a Scotsman who came to the Yorkshire Dales, pre-World War II, as a young veterinarian to work with a somewhat quirky, older vet, in a somewhat  quirky rural town in Northern England. The show has everything: Humor, drama, poignant moments, and of course, a bit of romance. I think of it as a feel good hour before the work week begins. 

Besides the drama and humor, the show’s scenery is magnificent. As our vets, James and Siegfried travel around the countryside seeing to the animals, it’s hard not to want to join them through this beautiful part of the world—assuming you can accomplish that in an automobile built later than the 1930’s and that has heat. 

And so we decided that even without our vets as traveling companions, it is worth seeing the Dales. We are not however, the only “All Creatures” admirers, and we will again be traveling with our friends, who along with my husband and me, completed our traveling foursome, with whom we affectionately referred to ourselves as “The Clampetts,” during our trip last year to Greece. We will spend two days in London and then begin our journey to Northern England.  We are taking a train as we are assured there will be heat.

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