Clara and I left London Tuesday morning and drove up to Leeds. Leeds is the city that my Mom grew up in, and her cousin David still lives up there with his wife Kate. This picture might capture our experience the best: rainy, sunny, stormy, all wrapped up in one. The drive was mostly uneventful, only got lost a little bit in downtown Leeds!
We didn't let the rain stop us from getting out for a walk before dinner. David & Kate took us on a walk through the University grounds. It was a bit wet and muddy, but nothing we can't handle being from Seattle!
The next day Clara and I drove to York, about 25 miles west of Leeds. Our first stop was the
Railway Museum, where we watched a fabulous play based on a well known and much loved English book called the
Railway Children. It was very well done, and included a couple of appearances from a REAL restored steam engine (seen above). Clara liked the play so much she bought the
book afterwards and is almost done with it a day and a half later!
From the Railway Museum we walked across the river and into the town centre of York, destined for the
York Minster. You can see the famous church here in the background behind Clara. We toured the church, and climbed all 275 narrow, steep steps to the top of the tower. The view of the city was quite impressive, and Clara used the vantage to photograph the gargoyles affixed to each corner of the tower.
After a full day in York we drove back to Leeds and went out with Kate and David from some great Thai food at their local fav,
Jino's. It was not fancy by any means, but the food was excellent!
Today Kate had the day off, so she joined us as we ventured out into Leeds. Our first stop was the
Abbey House Museum, where you can find a fully authentic, restored Victorian-era street. They have relocated real victorian era shops from around Leeds and rebuilt them in the Abbey House. So you're indoors, but you can walk through the cobble stone streets and into all the shops you'd have found in Leeds during the Victorian era. Clara really enjoyed herself. You can see her here in dress up clothes, which she wore for the rest of our tour.
After the Abbey House Kate took us clothes shopping (well, took Clara anyways...) and then we stopped at a bakery for some cheese and onion pastys, sausage rolls, and custard tarts. Yum!
Stomachs full, we jumped in the car, found the M1, and high-tailed back to London, where we had 7:15p dinner plans with Andrew, Katherine and our friend Colleen, a fellow Amazonian and all-around good person. During dinner I shared our plans for tomorrow: to take advantage of having the car and visiting
Windsor Castle,
Stonehenge, and
Bath. Google maps says it's ~ 5 hrs of driving, so I thought we could manage it in a 10 hour day. Colleen has $500 on us not being able to make it back into London before 8pm. Stay tuned to find out if we can make it! (and no, Mom, I will not break any rules...)
Cheers
First stop Monday morning was the London Eye, a huge ferris wheel that, on a clear day, gives you panoramic views of the city. We lucked out! The skies cleared up 30 minutes before we boarded, and clouded over again about 30 minutes after we disembarked! Clara took lots of photos of the boats below, and the buildings around us.
The view from the Eye
From the Eye we walked back across the Thames, past Big Ben and through St. James Park.
At the other end of the park is Buckingham Palace. We were too late to watch the changing of the guard, but we still had the chance to spend a few minutes watching the guards march back and forth. From there we tubed up to Picadilly Circus for lunch and gift shopping, then to the British Museum.
Clara and I explored Greek and Roman sculptures, American modern art, and Egyptian relics. Above is the famous Rosetta Stone. We also saw several incredible mummies (below)!
We ended the evening recovering at home. Ate dinner with A&K & Midnight.
