The travel log of Vic and Steve

This two weeks has flown by yet we are happy to have seen so many people and Steve enjoyed a great first visit to my former home town.  Our last morning was pissing down. We packed, chatted with Paul who kindly worked from home so we could spend some time with him and headed into town to meet Karen for lunch  Our last selfie at stop P Isle of Dogs and one last photo at Canary Wharf DLR station.  Our big plan for the last day was going up the Walkie-Talkie building to the SkyGarden. As you can see from this before and after pic series when we headed to our long awaited booking time we couldn't even see the building for the cloud.  So sadly we cancelled our booking. Impossible to get another the same day that has gone into the list for next time.  Another of the things on the list was lunch at Caravan which we did achieve. Great coffee as promised Sophie.  We escorted Karen back to work so we could delay the goodbye. So last photo on the tube.  She works...

After our shorter than ideal sleep we headed off to York, a short train ride from Leeds.  York is a walled town with Roman ruins, a cathedral and a castle too. We had yummy breakfast and set off on the wall walk, it's about 3km but we stepped off and on walking 13km in our short day there.  We found the walk lovely but curious watching normal life go on in homes alongside it. Here are a few pics that sum York up really.  Part of the walk had no wall section as it had formerly been a lake and moat section of the castle protection. Now it's a megacentre and housing. We saw baby geese and swans though.  Around midday we spotted a gorgeous pub so just had to stop and sit in their courtyard. Lovely day for it.  That's the wall behind Steve.  The cathedral is massive and ornate. Great windows and gargoyle display.  Hard to photograph up close so these don't do it justice.  The castle cost £5 EACH! To walk up but oh what a view.  The pedestrian stre...

We started our day as everyone at home ended it - watching the rugby. We liked the commentary here loads more than home!  Breakfast in the hotel restaurant then Lawrence picked us up in his new A7 and took us on a scenic tour of Leeds and its surrounds ending up at Saltaire a model town where we spent much of our day.  Lawrence loves this place so was a fantastic tour guide. In a nutshell Titus Salt owned a massive Mill primarily producing Alpaca cloth. In an effort to create a more reliable workforce he built a town around the mill offering benefits for those who moved to work there in return for them giving up the drink. His town included a laundry so they had clean clothes, a bath house so the workers were clean, an infirmary and a church. Successive events like wars, the depression, changes of ownership of the Mill left the place abandoned and purchased by Jonathan Silver in the late 80's who set about on a 50 year restoration programme. His friend and local famous artist ...