Started out on the 3rd of Sept./11 and arrived in Manchester on the 4th. Took a train from Manchester airport to Leeds where Bill and Val's daughter Abi met us and drove us to the house in Baildon. All the way there, we kept thinking, how will we ever find our way back! Abi very kindly provided us with dinner for the evening - we managed to stay up till about 7:30 and then crashed. I think we slept till 10:30 am! Light breakfast and then decided we had better make our way to the Co-op and get a few supplies. Such a windy, curvy road to the coop and people park half on the sidewalk and half on the road, therefore you must swing out into the oncoming lane in order to get around them - yike! The neighbors came over to welcome us and tell us that her mother had just passed away so they would be tied up with funeral arrangements for the next few days. She suggested that the next day we should follow her and she would show us how to get to Salts Mill. It was lovely - had a nice tour around and lunch and then used the gps to get us back home. The next day we were feeling adventurous, and it was rainy, so we found the postal code for the Costco and Marks and Spencer in Leeds and headed out. The neighbor was very surprised I think that we would travel all that way to Costco but we found out later that they had never been there! We find the grocery stores in other countries to be very interesting - must be our age! The gps makes it fairly easy to get around with the odd turnoff at the wrong time on the roundabouts but as long as you don't panic its not so bad. One thing you can't do is visit while you are driving - seems like every time I try to talk to Doral while he is driving he wants to get in the wrong lane!
Thursday we took a cab to the Leeds Bradford airport and caught a flight to Dublin. We took the aircoach from the airport to our hotel which was in downtown Dublin (Premier Inns and Suites) - very nice hotel and very helpful staff. Took off that evening to try and find a pub, which we did but got lost going back. Just when we were beginning to think we would have to call 911 and young lady rescued us and showed us the way back! By then we had been walking in circles for a good hour and were very tired. The next day we bought tickets for the "hop on hop off" tour bus and that was such a great deal. We had a two day pass and there were about 24 sites we could visit. Loved the House of Guiness, Dublin Castle, Museum of Modern Art, some heritage pubs, and Jamieson whiskey! Developed a serious taste for guiness so not sure how the wine industry will cope! Returned to Baildon on Tuesday. Wednesday some friends of Bill and Vals took us to the market at Skipton. Lovely little town - very quaint - very English! Narrow cobbled streets, lots of little shops. We had lunch at "Bizzy Bettys", fish and chips and it was great! Then on to Boundary Mill for some serious shopping. It was like a Winners store on steroids! I have never been surrounded by so many pairs of Clark shoes in my life! We had only an hour to peruse which didn't even make a dent so we will definitely go back - maybe with Brian and Cheryl! Thursday was laundry day and then the next door neighbors invited us over for coffee in the afternoon. That was very nice and interesting to see their house as it was very different from Bill and Vals! Earlier in the day we walked up to where there is access to the moors. We found ourselves in a farmers field with a very friendly pony so didn't venture any farther as we felt we might be trespassing. According to the neighbor though, we should have kept on going so another day! Today is raining but we have to go into Leeds to pick up Brian and Cheryl. May leave early and wander around Costco again...........we have to allow ourselves lots of time to find parking!
No comments:
Post a Comment