A Chimney Sweep in our Taxi

 SONG - Chim-Chim-Cher-ee by Dick Van Dyke

Day 31 - Thur. May 30

Got up late as we both had a bad night on our last night in York. I think we are both missing home a bit. Relaxed in the morning and then went across the street to Paul’s & had sandwiches and a strawberry tart. 

Found a good old fashioned London taxi which took us to the Tate Britain to see the John Singer Sargent & Fashion show. Fabulous. They had the real dresses to match some of his paintings.

Sargent was an incredible artist.  So happy we made to this show!

A cold drink outside at the cafe there until it began to rain & then inside to see some of their other paintings including a David Hockney!

And here is the David Hockney “A Bigger Splash” 1967

Got a taxi ride home with a Cockney guy who shared stories the whole way home about seeing the Queen on several occasions, Prince Philip, King Charles, traveling around Europe for a year with his wife in a travel trailer. Fun stories. Then he said people think he talks like Dick Van Dyke as the Chimney Sweep in Mary Poppins. He did too! Told us that his parents said God Blimey often and that it really means God Blind Me. Google it and it’s true!

Came back to the hotels sitting room for a drink and met a guy & his girlfriend from NY. He had lived in London 20 years ago. He never stopped talking. They are going to a friend’s estate near Inverness that they are staying at for a week. He told us about places to see near London and the expensive places where they are dining. He also told Mr. B privately how he loves a good honor bar because he doesn’t have to write his name down for drinks. Jerk! We decided to dine at our hotel’s restaurant. We had dined there before in 2017 and it was not good but they have a new chef who has a Michelin Star and since it was supposed to rain soon we decided to give it a try. It was much better and our guy, Ondre from Slovakia wasn’t a singing Italian waiter but he did dance a few dishes to our table! 

Travelin’

 SONG -  A Foggy Day in London Town by Ella Fitzgerald 

Day 30 - Wed. May 29

On Wednesday we drove from York to London in about 5 hours. While we were mostly on the M1 we did see some beautiful countryside whizzing by.  After turning our car in (with them perking us for our empty gas tank in exchange for the flat tire we had to deal with in Stirling) we then had a nice Uber driver, Ishmael from Somalia who brought us to our South Kensington hotel, while delighting us with stories and laughter along the way.

Dinner tonight was in a courtyard full of fun restaurants and people just getting off the underground and it’s just across from our hotel……yum!

Upon settling down in our room for the night…

Jeanette “Do you hear that rumbling noise?”

Mr. B “No”

Jeanette “Listen - do you hear THAT rumbling noise?”

Mr. B “Yeah I think it’s our air conditioner.  I’ll turn it down”

Jeanette “But it rumbles every 15 seconds and then goes quiet”

Mr. B “Okay, I’ll turn it down lower”

It still rumbled all night long

The next morning I figured it out. Because of my knee’s dislike for stairs, we chose a ground floor room. The London Tube or Underground is going under our hotel every few seconds!

Last Day in York

 SONG - Time to Say Goodbye by Andrea Bocelli   

 https://youtu.be/4L_yCwFD6Jo?si=dNHDz5N8ZjiwwPwz

Day 29 - Tues. May 28

Late in the morning we went to our favorite little coffee shop over the bridge towards town. It’s raining but cozy inside of the shop. Mr. B had veggie quiche and I had a croissant sandwich with goat cheese, carmelized onions & fresh spinach-yummm- and we shared a lemon & blueberry muffin. Double yummmm!

I ordered us tickets to get into the cathedral at 1:45 and when we arrived we went straight in. A lot of beauty inside of the cathedral but at times it made me sad thinking about all of the money spent to glorify individuals who were buried there, when people were starving, homeless & sick all around.  

But the stained glass was incredible and the carvings impressive!  

I did love this one of the faithful dog at the foot of his human companion. 

The “Heart of York” was lovely too! 

Walking around the side of the cathedral there was a statue of Constantine who was proclaimed Roman Emperor in York in the year 306. 

Hard to believe this town was around in 306 AD

Since it wasn’t raining we walked around The Shambles again and found the Whip-Ma-Whop-Ma-Gate this time. The fire tosser was still there but this time he was tossing for from a very high unicycle!!!

Still very crowded so we had a cold drink in the market square and then went to the local grocery store to pick up a few things.  While I went back to our room, Mr. B headed to our car to try to consolidate things since we will be driving to London tomorrow and turning in the car. 

Tonight is Italian food at La Piazza Antica.  I think we had a few too many meat pies & pub food so we are in need of a break. 

And this was a good one - great food, the couple next to us were from St. Helena, beautiful timbered building and we had a singing Italian waiter! What more could one want?

Oh and wonderful wine too!  Mr. B was delighted……

Give Me the Country Life

 SONG - Intro to All Creatures Great & Small

Day 28 - May 27

Jump on in and take a ride with us to the Yorkshire Dales!

About a one and a half hour drive from York is the incredible Yorkshire Dales.  Neither of us had ever been there before but we had heard it was well worth seeing. Our first stop was Grassington. Unfortunately the parking lot looked like Disneyland filling field after field with cars and tour buses.  I had no idea that so many people enjoyed All Creatures Great & Small which (in case you haven’t seen it) is a TV series about a veterinarian from Glasgow that begins his practice in the Dales and falls in love with the countryside, the people and a local farm woman. I just couldn’t go there knowing it was going to be overly crowded so we went up to the next village on my list, Arncliff which was small and lovely. 

We had lunch at The Falcon Inn which was a cozy pub with friendly service. 

We drove back down to Grassington and I was hopeful that people would be leaving since it was a Monday on a Bank Holiday. Nope. Possibly more full now than earlier but by this time I was ready to brave the crowds. 

We walked from the car park into the lovely town of Grassington where they film parts of All creatures Great & Small.  

In the photo above, the building with the blue sign is a book store but is turned into a grocery store for the TV show and the plain building on the far right is the Veterinary Clinic & their lodgings. 

Most storefronts have photos of what their shop looks like on the show. It was fun to wander around and enjoy the sunny day. Mr. B bought me a glass of wine at The Devonshire Inn which is the local pub on the show. 

We sat at an outdoor table and watched the villagers trying to get on with their daily life when thousands of people arrive at their doorsteps daily. 

Mr. B kindly stood in line to purchase us ice cream cones for our walk back to the car park. 

I would go back to the Dales in a heartbeat because the scenery, stone buildings & walls, sheep and open skies were just incredible. Photos just don’t do it justice.  

Mr. B had made us reservations in town at Nola’s which is a Jazz bar & New Orleans style restaurant. No live Jazz tonight but the food & atmosphere were great. 

On our walk home, the sun was setting and it was a beautiful sunset on the River Ouse. In fact it was such a still evening we decided to walk for a bit on the Roman/Viking Walls surrounding the city. 

I was so proud of Mr. B driving on those tight little country roads in the Dales. 

Thanks for a great day!