To York!

 8/30: We had our last breakfast at the Sander’s house, started the laundry, and packed up to head to the St. Pancras train station. Our bags were a bit too stuffed as I came back from the States with a few more items than I needed. Yikes. Fortunately we weren’t traveling by plane, and we could leave some items behind at the Sander’s house to pick up when we come back to Richmond in a few weeks.

The rearranging of our excess stuff took some extra time, and so we left our place a bit later than originally planned. As we were entering the tube station, we rushed onto the train that had just pulled into the station. We actually delayed the doors from closing to get all ourselves and our bags onto the train. We caught our breath, looked around, and discovered that we were on the wrong train. No! Bob said for all the times we’ve taken that train, this was the first time it wasn’t the train we needed!

We apologized to those around us, and a kind woman helped us figure out that we needed to get on the next train back to where we came from. We turned around, moved our bags up and down 2 flights of stairs to the other side of the platform, and got on the correct train. We changed trains at Victoria station, and Bob and I each took 1 duffel roller in each hand down the steps. Uuff. I heard the guy on the loudspeaker reminding people to use the lifts to move large luggage…sounded like he was speaking directly to us! Well, we didn’t have time to find them!

We got to St. Pancras, found the Kings Cross station (we waved at Platform 9 3/4 as we ran by!) and made it to our train 10 minutes before it left! Another whoosh of a journey!

We made it! :-)

Our place was a super short walk from the train station. The weather was beautiful, and we took a short walk around the town.

York Minster

We walked by a gallery that turns your eye into art. How cool! We took a look at Simone’s eye and it was awesome. We decided to think it over and return tomorrow to possibly buy a print for all of us.

We had a pizza dinner at a place with great reviews. We sat at the bar and watched them make the pies - the food and scene were perfect.

Mom wins again with the restaurant pick! I wonder when my luck will run out? :-)

8/31: We were greeted by a sunny morning, and Bob and I started the day with a walk on the wall that almost surrounds the city. We came home for breakfast, and packed up our backpacks to head out for a day of exploring York.

Clifford’s Tower

York Minster - SO beautiful! Reminds us of how much we loved the Cathedral in Bayeux.

We did the tower climb to the top.

Dinner at the Fat Badger outdoor patio.

Bob loves the name of this place!

We sat at a table with a couple from York. We enjoyed chatting with them, and they asked us if we were having trouble understanding the accent (they were a bit tough to understand!). They told us we would keep having more trouble as we traveled north to Scotland the next day. They also thanked us for bringing a day of sunshine as they said the summer had been horrible with so much cold and rain. Thankful we lucked out for our one day in York!

We headed back to the Eye Art gallery and decided to buy the prints of each of our eyes to hang at home. They are super unique, and we’re excited to find a great spot for them at home!