A Yorkin We Will Do

Wednesday 23^rd August 2017

Another early morning.  I think we are falling into a pattern of early nights and early mornings.  We breakfasted and watched morning television again and then, at about 8.30am we set off south to Kensington Gardens for an hour’s walk around the park.  Lots of people walking their dogs and lots of joggers at this hour of the day.  We walked across to Kensington Palace and looked through the gates.  There were at least half a dozen floral tributes to Princess Diana attached to them – not sure if that’s just always the case of whether because it’s coming up to the 20^th anniversary of her death.  Headed along the south side of the gardens along the Princess Diana Memorial Walk (which probably goes between the Princess Diana Memorial Playground and the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain (!!).  

Walked past the Royal Albert Hall and it is currently surrounded by BBC vans and equipment as the Proms are on and being televised.

Headed back to the hotel and a last little relax before packing up, checking out and making our way up to Paddington Underground station.  Caught the Circle line to Kings Cross and cashed in our Oyster Cards – got most of our money back – think it got confused by refunding for two cards so a bit of a bonus there!  About an hour before our train to York was due to leave so we had an early lunch and cleverly logged into the cafe’s Wifi (clever because you needed an English postcode and I managed to make one up that worked).  No problems finding and getting on the train and we sat opposite a nice girl from Canada who was very chatty and shared her grapes with us.  She has sold her house and is off for a year travelling but other than London, York and Edinburgh she hasn’t planned anything.  Certainly not my way of doing things!!

Arrived in York around 3.30pm and decided to catch a taxi to our pub/hotel.   A very quick trip around the city walls in the car but it would have been a bit of a slog with the cases.  The barman at the Masons Arms warmly welcomed us and helped carry my bag up the stairs but he was a bit frazzled as there had been a burst water main in the street that morning and they had had a bit of a mini flood to deal with.  Not much sign of any damage though, other than the dirt between the pavers out the front had washed away.  We thought we should get a bit of laundry done so asked for directions to the nearest Laundromat.  The simple directions of “Through the arch in the wall, up the street for 10 minutes, you can’t miss it” meant of course we did and we walked up to a junction and then guessed left instead of right.  Eventually when we did go right the laundrette was closed so we kept walking in case there was another one.  Eventually there was and the nice owner let us in even though we could only just get the wash done before closing time.  He then even more nicely directed us to a nearby pub to have a drink whilst he minded the washing. 

Had a feeling we were in the ‘not so touristy’ part of York here and the local we went to gave us the feeling of walking into someone’s house that happened to have a bar in it.  It was basically just a family group and their friends and everyone that walked in knew them and they passed the baby around and talked in loud, Yorkshire accents and it really was very entertaining albeit we felt a bit self conscious being so clearly out of place.  Still they were very nice and we were on their good side because we complimented their dog which had cute floppy ears.  Eventually the washing was done and the nice (gee, he was nice) laundrette man rang us a taxi to get back because we had actually walked a bloody long way from the hotel.  Dumped our laundry in our room and then headed straight to the bar for a well deserved drink.  I had the Masons Gin – came in normal, tea infused or lavender infused – I tried the tea – very nice indeed.  We stayed on and had dinner – the obligatory roast beef and Yorkshire pudding.  My god, possibly the biggest meal I have ever had put in front of me – probably would have fed a family of four.   The Yorkshire pudding alone was the size of a soup bowl.   I did my best by the 2 cups worth of cabbage defeated me and I only managed 3 of the 6 new potatoes. 

We thought we should go for an evening stroll to help digest and did a short circuit into the centre of York and then home via Cliffords Tower but bursting bladders and tired legs drove us home.

 We staggered up to bed and despite my poking to try and keep him awake, Larry was asleep before 9pm and so, of course, I wasn’t far behind.  No doubt we’ll be awake at the crack of dawn again!!