Last Day
We woke up late, as usual, so took our time catching the train to historic and beautiful York. Of course, every place in England is historic, but not every place is beautiful, so York was an all-around treat. Even the station is nice, and you're greeted, as soon as you cross the bridge into town, with very old streets and towering churches, with tons of shops squeezed in between that sort of blur the line between ancient and modern (case in point: the pub with Roman ruins in the basement).
We spend a good deal of time in the Castle Museum (the museum by the castle, not a museum about castles), chasing pigeons, eating fudge (my favorite was a clotted cream flavor), walking (again, very few complaints from Z.), admiring the sites, getting lunch at Betty's famous tea room (Z. had already eaten her PBJ, which earned her a brownie; Bethany and I ate more traditional lunches though, oddly, did not have tea), walked some more, killed time waiting for Bethany's friend to sneak out of a meeting, went out to dinner at an Italian place (Z. had little gnocchi in meat sauce, I had rissotto ai funghi - she and I split profiteroles for dessert), then hustled to catch a train back to Leeds.
By the time Z. was bathed, dressed and brushed, it was close to 9pm, a reminder that as well as she's been faring, she's clearly not totally adjusted. We'll see how tough things are when we get back tomorrow (Thursday). We have to leave Bethany's home pretty early, before 7am, the catch a train to the central Leeds station and then another train back to Manchester, where we then must walk to get to the right terminal, where we then must wait before boarding our 8+ hour flight back to Chicago. And this time, the flight will be all daylight, which may make occupying Z. tougher, but we'll see. Our reward, upon returning tired to likely chilly Chicago will be a 90-minute train ride from O'Hare to Oak Park, door to door, and needless to say, the El does not remotely compare to British rail when it comes to comfort or convenience. The trains in Britain have snack carts and drinks, clean cloth seats, tables and even (gosh) bathrooms. In Chicago, you're lucky if the heat works and someone has hosed off the urine. Chalk one up for the British.
We spend a good deal of time in the Castle Museum (the museum by the castle, not a museum about castles), chasing pigeons, eating fudge (my favorite was a clotted cream flavor), walking (again, very few complaints from Z.), admiring the sites, getting lunch at Betty's famous tea room (Z. had already eaten her PBJ, which earned her a brownie; Bethany and I ate more traditional lunches though, oddly, did not have tea), walked some more, killed time waiting for Bethany's friend to sneak out of a meeting, went out to dinner at an Italian place (Z. had little gnocchi in meat sauce, I had rissotto ai funghi - she and I split profiteroles for dessert), then hustled to catch a train back to Leeds.
By the time Z. was bathed, dressed and brushed, it was close to 9pm, a reminder that as well as she's been faring, she's clearly not totally adjusted. We'll see how tough things are when we get back tomorrow (Thursday). We have to leave Bethany's home pretty early, before 7am, the catch a train to the central Leeds station and then another train back to Manchester, where we then must walk to get to the right terminal, where we then must wait before boarding our 8+ hour flight back to Chicago. And this time, the flight will be all daylight, which may make occupying Z. tougher, but we'll see. Our reward, upon returning tired to likely chilly Chicago will be a 90-minute train ride from O'Hare to Oak Park, door to door, and needless to say, the El does not remotely compare to British rail when it comes to comfort or convenience. The trains in Britain have snack carts and drinks, clean cloth seats, tables and even (gosh) bathrooms. In Chicago, you're lucky if the heat works and someone has hosed off the urine. Chalk one up for the British.
posted by Josh at 3:16 PM
1 Comments:
Just the sort of journey to prepare you for your flight to Sydney! Sounds like you've had a lovely trip visiting Zoe's Aunt Bethany. Can't wait to see her & Ada (and you & Alma) in November. We don't have nearly as much history but I can promise better weather!
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