More abbeys, more alcohol...

Abbeys, priories, monasteries feature significantly in this blog. Religious history is writ large on the landscape. However some days ago I drove up to Ampleforth Abbey (close to the little village of Ampleforth) which is emphatically not a ruin but a thriving (and I would say quite wealthy) Benedictine community set in amazing rolling countryside bordering the North York Moors.

The visitors' centre...

The Abbey church...

Next to the Abbey is a stunningly situated college http://www.college.ampleforth.org.uk/ with views like this...

I went into the visitors' centre - beautiful arts and crafts style building, very peaceful - and had a pot of tea and the most delicious slice of cider apple cake - truly the most delicious cake I have ever tasted!!  The cider is made at the Abbey  :-)  Not sure what possessed me to come away with two litres!!!!

Maybe I missed my calling. I stayed at St John's Abbey in Minnesota, US in 1989 - also Benedictine and set in similarly beautiful surroundings - and loved the peace and serenity.