Friday in York

Earlier this year, my niece and her boyfriend moved to York. When she knew we were going to be in Ripon, she suggested we come to see them at their new place. As her mother (my sister-in-law) had Friday off, this was going to be our York Day.

The drive from Ripon to York is mostly through beautiful countryside speckled with pretty villages and handsome farm houses along the way. The city itself was pretty busy, as big cities usually are. But we were lucky to find a parking space very near B and M‘s flat and arrived almost on the dot for 1:00 pm.

We had last seen B in 2019, of course, and had met her boyfriend M only briefly. Now we had the chance to get to know him better, and over steaming mugs of tea and B‘s delicious carrot cake with icing the five of us had a good long chat.

Their flat is very nice, and beautifully decorated and furnished; fit for a young couple (they will both be 30 next year).

Eventually, we (my sister, sister-in-law and myself) set off into the city. By the time we reached the car park near the castle museum and worked out the tariff at the parking ticket machines (don‘t ask!), it was too late to do any major sightseeing or museum visit, and so we simply walked around the streets and enjoyed to look at the beautiful and sometimes quirky buildings.

Clifford‘s Tower, as seen from the car park:

This one is for O.K.:

And this one is for Monica:

This house does not look tilted due to perspective, it really has a sloping front wall:

And here is one for all you cat lovers out there:

What follows are random snaps taken along the way while we walked. Of course it was not always possible to avoid having people in the pictures, but that was what it was like. There were a few drops of rain, but we were fine - and we will be back this coming Friday for an earlier start, to visit the Jorvik (Viking center) and possibly the Castle Museum, which we love very much.

Let me end this post with a picture of me that morning, sporting new beads that were part of the Christmas presents I received last week from one of my aunts. She knows I love yellow, and the beads match the yellow stripe in my jumper perfectly. I asked my sister to take the picture so that I could email my aunt to say thank you. Unfortunately, we won‘t be seeing them this year.