Harrogate and York Day Trip

Lovely sunny day today (still freezing though!). We headed off early to Harrogate - my Dad's home town. We went past where he grew up and then went into the town to have tea at Betty's. Felt very posh and thoroughly enjoyed it. We also wandered through the Valley Gardens and past the smelly Royal Pump Room where they pump the sulphur water that my dad and his friends used to dare each other to drink. We were not game this time. It really does smell. But apart from that smell it really is a lovely town.

Next we tripped over to York - another beautiful Yorkshire city. We started with a walk around the old wall. It gets a bit overwhelming at times all these amazing places and the history that surrounds them all. It is hard to describe them. I really do love York. We wandered through the Shambles where the building appear to be on a lean, but they are only built like that because the taxes were based on the ground covered at the base of the building so they built them small at the bottom and then out at the top. Clever.
While in York we visited the Jorvik Viking centre. The history of York can be dated back to the vikings - 800 or something AD! Amazing. So they have built this touristy kind of place to show what their lifestyle was like. It is very clever and interesting. The kids bought a game called Kings Keeper - perhaps an early version of chess? It is quite tricky to play - look it up - you can play in online!
The York Minster is another amazingly impressive building in York but we had run out of time to go up the tower so we just looked inside the entry at the beautiful windows and ceilings.
As you can tell - I really like York.
M&S for dinner - again!