Travel With Me Tuesday: Afternoon in Harrogate

As I was looking through my England layouts to see where I was with the intention of starting again, I saw that I had missed an afternoon up in Harrogate. Not sure why or how that happened but I set to it and got these layouts done by using a large photo of my husband on the left and then a set of photos that rather cover the rest of the day on the right. These two went pretty quickly as the paper on the left had a good bit of brick work and other designs on the top. I was glad there was a transfer of the bit on the far right of this paper which more or less duplicated the part in the very center - the tanned the hazy purple.

With that transfer on the right, it does look a bit like a Rorschach test image in the center. I'm fine with that! 

Now I can continue with my layouts of London and then Bath. I really would like to see this trip in print - soon. 

Travel With Me Tuesday: All Around Harrogate

After our long walk through the Valley Gardens we were in 'downtown' Harrogate. Lunch ensued. And lunch at Bettys is a real delight. Excellent tea and good fresh food. Perfect on a December day.

Travel With Me Tuesday; That Night in Harrogate

The first evening was a great evening with settling in and then going out to dinner with the woman who was my first neighbor back in 1968. It turned out that we had been in high school together even earlier in the US. Amazing. We each had different husbands than we had as neighbors but that made no difference. Some times, the years just don't matter.

Travel With Me Tuesday: London and Harrogate

A couple more of last years trip finished. Once I start the pages, I really enjoy them but it's the starting that seems to be my stumbling block. I also know that I've gotten the days and pages mixed in the past when doing albums so there is that bit of fear. However, this trip was clearly broken into three segments - Harrogate, London and Bath. I think that will help a lot and also by having the images in Lightroom by date is really a great organizing tool.

Wordless Wednesday: English Winter Twilight

Harrogate Bus Station

Travel With Me Tuesday: Fish and Chips!

I wanted fish and chips the way it was in the old days. Ok, they no longer sell fish and chips wrapped in newspaper and the vinegar is not automatic but still. We had walked past this shop on our way home from out day out in Harrogate and this it was. Lovely fat chips and lashings of tea. Tea with sugar and milk for me. Black tea for him. We both got the fish - haddock? - and I got pickled onions also but not shown. Oh it was good! Admittedly we were sitting in a cafe not walking back to our place with a bundle of dinner in our arms but it filled the need of memory.

After chomping away for a good bit  we noticed there was an occasion noise from the booth behind Dick. However I couldn't see anyone and even went to the bathroom to have a look at what might be in that booth. Finally he tried to take as subtle a selfie kind of photo as possible. We decided, because of the white purse on the table, it was a small woman or child, hopefully just asleep. Some things just have to remain mysteries it seems.

I was happily stuffed and ready to walk back to our flat with a full tummy and a happy heart.

Travel With Me Tuesday: Exploring Harrogate

After a good night's sleep via Ambien for me, we awoke to an overcast damp day in Harrogate. That was fine with me as it was more or less the kind of weather I remembered. Dick was up and out earlier than I was but as my tea was made, I was content. One of the first things I did was put all my travel stickers and labels into a ziplock bag. I try to keep all my various receipts and ephemera in there so little bits don't make clutter in my purse or get forgotten.

After eating at our own pace we went out to walk down into town, and the walk took us through the Valley Gardens which was across from our front door - if we had had access to our front door. This airbnb was entered at the back, as the once single family home had been converted into flats.

The Pinewoods, known to us back then as the Piney Woods, was UP the hill and while we never went in that direction on this trip, I often took that walk back in the day. I had time, an under 1yr old baby  and a then-husband working shift work and often asleep in the daytime. 

No school children about and the mums and pre-schoolers must have been home with Christmas prep.

The gardens are so peaceful in the winter, full of various shades of green and lots of benches for sitting and quietly thinking.

The sound of the waterfall was always a treat.

Then once down and out of the Valley Gardens and back up into town, we explored. Not a lot came back to me but once in a while a memory flashed back and it seemed familiar. 40 years is a long time!

Everything stops for tea...and more so for lunch. This gave me a good laugh and I wondered what project they were working on as they were sitting inside a building being renovated. n.b. the man on the far right with his flask of tea or coffee. So so typical. This reminded us it was time for our lunch. Dick agreed with me that Betty's sounded just right.

He had sausages and mash with red cabbage. 

I had bacon rosti with red cabbage.

And we both had a pot of tea. Decaf for me and Lapsong Souchang for him. Sadly no pastries for either of us. We did try to be good  - on occasion!

Wordless Wednesday: The Gift I Forgot To Give

Travel With Me Tuesday: We Settle Into Harrogate

Well after the slog up the hill to our flat, I wasn't sure I could make the last block or two up the alleyway/street and the steps up the back entrance. Naturally, the # didn't seem very obvious to either of us, so I just stood, considering that I might just croak there and then. But finally Dick found the right building, found the key in the lockbox and in we went.  A lovely view out towards the Valley Gardens. It was a calm and peaceful feeling flat.

And as night settled in the sky was all pinky purple. I've forgotten what time the sun set then, but we were quite a bit more north than we are home in Maryland. The days in England were short and the nights were long.

I turned the little Christmas tree on since it probably would be our only one in 2016.

Soon, it was time for us to put our coats on and head back down Cold Bath Road to dinner with my former neighbor in Knaresborough. It had been 30 years since we'd seen each other and marriages had ended, new marriages had happened, children were grown themselves and there was a large flock of grandchildren from our many combined children. Lots to catch up on AND eat. Thank you Ruth and John for taking the time - the night before YOUR trip - to meet up with us.

But eventually all things end and it had been a long long day for us and the final packing for them. We went our separate ways out into the night hoping it won't be another 30 years!

Travel With Me Tuesday: Hello and Goodbye London - Hello Harrogate

Waking up in London is always nice. Then there's airplane brekkie. It was pretty good though we both passed on the granola bar. Dry as sand but then granola often is.

 

I wish I had kept the little box but for some foolish reason I trashed it. Silly me. At least I have the photo!




Once we had our bags and whisked though passport and customs, we each got more money though we had £70 which was a good start. An exhale and a sit down for some coffee. There he is going back for a spoon or napkin or sweetener. Giraffe coffee was good enough for me but not him. Nothing new about that as it's rarely strong enough for 'the man'.



After a train ride INTO London, we found our train at Kings Cross up to Leeds. Getting from Heathrow to Harrogate involved a few more changes than it had 'back in the day.' London to Leeds was done in sunny weather which was nice as it had been a long time since I'd seen the countryside or citywide as it is below.



He read and I looked out the window on my side of the car. I was also facing the correct way. I really don't like looking backwards. Do you?



Once in Leeds we changed to a train to Harrogate.





Now Headingly might not mean much to you unless you're a cricket fan. My 2nd son was born in Yorkshire so he is the only one in the family who 'could' qualify to play for Yorkshire and if your family are cricket fanatics...er fans...then that is a Big Deal. We're not.

Finally we arrived in Harrogate and after dragging our suitcases up a couple of stairs from the actual train platform we made it to flat ground. Yay! Then it was  off to our AirBnB.  Funny the things that memory erases...



We walked through town from the station across a bit of the Stray and reached Cold Bath Road. When I used to walk up and down Cold Bath in the summer of 1968, I was considerably younger. Uh, almost 50 years younger. I had no recollection of the hill it was!! With the trouble I was having breathing and coughing, let's just say the climb was a challenge. We had to stop a couple of times for me to catch my breath and finally we saw a coffee shop and blessedly were able to have cappuccinos and a sit down. I was seriously worried about my shortness of breath but it plagued me the entire trip. Fortunately, as long as I stopped when I could I could get it back.







Yes, here we were in northern England having coffees not tea. Let me tell you they were a blessing. We still had a couple of blocks to climb and then cut across to the Valley Gardens to find our home for three days.

Onward and upward...groan.

Treavel with Me Tuesday - Down Memory Lane

While 'talking with' a woman I've 'met' online, I was reminiscing about my days in Yorkshire England back in the late 1960s.  Our little family of three moved to England in July 1968.  Our firstborn was turning 1 year old the end of August.  There was a house assigned to us but it hadn't been completed as they had thought. So for a couple of months, my then husband and I and our son lived in one large room in a Bed and Breakfast.

house on the left, 2nd floor room with bay window

Our landlady was Mrs. Ellsworth, and a true gem she was. She took in mostly long term boarders like us. I can only recall one other tenant, a young man our age, David,  whose parents were working were out in Bahrain. Little did I know that I would also end up in Bahrain one day. My husband was working rotating shift work so there were days that I had to stay out of the room while he slept. My son and I wandered through the town of Harrogate, but mainly enjoyed our time in the Valley Gardens. As I recall it was a fairly sunny summer, or maybe I had already learned as we were taught..If the sun was out, take advantage of it. 

Mrs. Ellsworth was wonderful to us and oh did she feed us. The English Breakfast was in all its glory then with eggs, bacon, sausage, fried tomatoes and mushrooms, fried bread and a good pot of tea.  While it sounds a lot, the weather wasn't terribly warm to us and with all that walking, at my young age I burned those calories off. As regular tenants, we also had dinner with Mrs. E. I don't recall those meals in detail but I know they were good. Real, fresh food was a given in our years in England. Simple and hearty and delicious. British food had no bad reputation for us! After our meal, we usually sat around and talked, and once in a while Mrs. E. would ask my husband to 'bath the dog.' Old Blackie would reluctantly be led out to that driveway next to the house and get hose downed, soaped up, and rinsed.  He smelled much sweeter and endured these episodes with a British upper lip.  I wish I had a picture of it all.

It wasn't an easy few months but even then we knew it was a good time.