York and surrounds

After a big sleep in this morning we headed out to wander the streets of York. We purchased our engagement ring here on our first trip in 2001, so thought it might be worth checking out the jewellery shop again! Unfortunately, they didn’t have anything we liked, that was within the price range… maybe next trip.

We headed out to Castle Howard, hoping it hadn’t been flooded out. It wasn’t, and we were able to spend quite a bit of time wandering around the castle grounds, because – amazingly, it wasn’t raining!!! It was cold, but not wet, so we were happy… The Castle has a lovely, manicured garden, with lots of statues, fountains etc to look at. The house tour was shorter than expected, as they are currently filming “Brideshead Revisited” – which was actually quite exciting.

From here, we wandered along to Harewood House, near Leeds. This was another large property, which was lovely to wander around. We spent lots of time at both properties today, I think because it was such fine weather. The house was very well presented, with the Earl of Harewood presenting the audio commentary, which gave it a personal touch. He was able to talk about the house and furnishings much more personally than other commentaries we have heard.

Following this, we headed to Otley, Shipley and Bradford, where Alison’s family is from. Alisons Great-Grandparents were from Otley, and spent time in Shipley, and Grandfather was born in Bradford. Quite an industrial area, the houses and streets looked comfortable and friendly.

We soon wandered back to York, to turn on the news and see more footage of the horrendous floods in Sheffield and surrounding areas. Roads have been cut, including the M1 motorway, and a reservoir wall is threatening to burst its banks – the surrounding town have been evacuated. Here in York, the waters are still rising, and driving around, there is water everywhere. Hopefully the next few days are clear, like today, so the water can wash out to sea before any more rain.