Catching up
May. 26th, 2011 09:07 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tvordljI know, i know, i've not updated in over a week! I'm back on Canadian soil, back at work, and busy beavering away at my photos, editing, sorting, uploading...Eventually that will be done and i can start typing up my travelogue notes for my website and the other travel websites i post on. (Virtual Tourist, IgoUgo, Travelzine)
We got back on a Saturday and went out for fish and chips since G's Dad had asked for some. Went out to Cheshire to a pub near Knutsford to meet some friends on the Sunday and drove back through the area where Graham used to work quite some time back. He was shocked to find out the building where he worked was completely gone and new houses were there instead!
Monday was a low key day but we did go into town to do a bit of shopping and pick up some groceries. I actually had to buy a new camera, too! Mine got knocked over straight into a hot cup of tea! Yes, the cup was quite big! The camera didn't survive! And you know i can't be without one! I ended up with the same one, just one model newer, the Canon SX130 (i had the 120, which replaced the 110 which had got stolen... maybe Canon isn't lucky for me!) I didn't u se the opportunity to upgrade to a fancier camera because i'd still have to carry it around. This one has a few different features that may be useful, and it's got a wider angle which i really enjoyed when taking photos of tall things! There's another feature that lets you take "select colour" photos right in the camera, i.e. one thing in y our photo is in colour and the rest in black and white. I do that sometimes with photos in photoshop because the effect is kind of neat.
Anyway, since we'd been back, the weather has been dull with some rain and for the most part, the rest of the week was the same.
But Tuesday would prove to be sunny and we headed over to north Wales to take advantage of the day. The destination was Beaumaris Castle on the Isle of Anglesey and although isn't a complete castle, it's got most of it's main walls. It's a moated castle as well which makes for pretty pictures. It's right on the end of the town and not up on a hill. Beaumaris is one of the last ones Edward I built to subjugate the Welsh. We explored around the castle and then walked into the town. We had lunch in a very old pub called St. George and the Dragon or something like that. Food was ok, but it always annoys me being in a nice old pub with the shiny gambling machines in the corners. It takes away from the atmosphere of these lovely old places. I suppose it helps supplement their income but it's a shame.
We walked back along the water front, got an ice cream before leaving. We drove through some more very narrow lanes to that town with the very long name that starts with Llanfairpwll. I only wanted to take a photo of a sign with the whole thing on it. I did, we got some gas and headed on to Caernafon. Here again, i didn't want to take the time to go through the castle, just wanted to take a few photos from the outside which i did. Another of Edward's castles, this one is huge, with very high walls. Very intimidating, i should think.
We had a GPS (SatNav they call it there) that often led us into some odd routes! But eventually it would get us where we wanted to go and you can always change the route, too, if you don't want to go the shortest way. With that in mind, more narrow lanes to get to Llanberis which is one of the main towns in the Snowdonia National Park where Mount Snowdon is. We thought we might have time to go up to the top on the steam train they have, if it didn't take too long. It's getting past mid afternoon by the time we got there. Llanberis is on a lake and surrounded by the mountains. The town is pretty and many of the businesses on the main street are painted very bright colours. It's also a stop for people that go hiking and walking in the hills so there are a number of stores that sell supplies and sporting goods.
We parked at a parking lot on the edge of the town, didn't realize if we'd gone a bit further we'd have seen the lot that was at the steam train. They also have another train that goes along the lake, by the way. It's not too expensive. We got to the other one, though, and discovered the cost was £25 per person!!! Eek! That was a bit much, we thought. No doubt it might have been worth it for the trip up and back and the views but by now we figured the views would be getting a tad cloudy and didn't want to pay that much. I could see doing it if it was about 15 each.
We drove north through the area through windy roads, with the mountains rising around us. Very dramatic! Hard to take photos out of the car window though, and not a lot of places to stop. It seemed to take a long time to get out of the area, for some reason. I think the GPS wanted to take the very scenic route! We finally came out of Wales and zipped up the motorway back to cloudy Manchester!
Wednesday was another quieter day. We were going to record a radio show together and did that in the afternoon. We also thought we could open up a joint bank account because we thought we were told last time that we could. We went in the morning, had to come back in the afternoon only to be told because i wasn't a resident, we couldn't. Wasted time! Anyway we did the radio show and later, Graham's mate Malc came for supper and a nice evening visit. I made maple curry pasta (vegetarian, not with the usual chicken as Malc is a veggie...I made it for him before and he specifically requested it again).
Thursday the weather wasn't really great but seemed like it might be dry where we were going and we headed east on the M62, destination, the spa city of Harrogate. Hot springs were discovered there in the 17th century and grew to be a popular destination for it's healing waters and spa treatments. It has a lot of really nice 18th and 19th century archtecture and some old pubs. We visited the Pump Room Museum to see artifacts and items on display from the city's history. It was lovely and not a huge museum to get through. We also went into the Mercer Art Gallery which had an exhibition on a local 19th century artist, Atkinson Grimshaw who was noted for paintings of night scenes with moonlight. Unfortunately, most of them as a result were dark and gloomy. We weren't overly impressed. I thought the gallery would have more to see than the current exhibit but other than a room of photos in another exhibit, that was it. Oh well, it was free.
We had lunch in Hales Bar, the oldest bar in Harrogate and they still have gaslights on the bar. It was nice, with red leather booth seats and the dark wood round tables. Food was good, too. We walked around some more, into a little mews that had a lot of little craft and antique shops but we didn't go into any, just window shopped. We decided to find Bettys Tea Room, a Yorkshire tradition. Apparently the one here is the original one but there's also two in York and a couple others as well in the northern area. It was established in 1919. They are known for the exquisite cakes and sweets and you can also get high tea or a light lunch there. It's not cheap, though i think everyone should go once for a treat! For a cake each and a hot drink (served in silver teapots!) each, the cost was as much as our lunch was!
A bit more walking around but it was starting to shower a bit so we thought we'd get back to the car and head home. We set a course for a secondary highway across the south of the North Yorkshire moors so the scenery was again really nice with the dramatic green hills covered in sheep and cattle with the low cloud overhead. Tonight was a dvd and dvr night. Tomorrow we're off to London which will prove to be busy and a bit more expensive than usual as the things we chose to do this time were all higher cost things.
But i'll continue on that in another post.....
We got back on a Saturday and went out for fish and chips since G's Dad had asked for some. Went out to Cheshire to a pub near Knutsford to meet some friends on the Sunday and drove back through the area where Graham used to work quite some time back. He was shocked to find out the building where he worked was completely gone and new houses were there instead!
Monday was a low key day but we did go into town to do a bit of shopping and pick up some groceries. I actually had to buy a new camera, too! Mine got knocked over straight into a hot cup of tea! Yes, the cup was quite big! The camera didn't survive! And you know i can't be without one! I ended up with the same one, just one model newer, the Canon SX130 (i had the 120, which replaced the 110 which had got stolen... maybe Canon isn't lucky for me!) I didn't u se the opportunity to upgrade to a fancier camera because i'd still have to carry it around. This one has a few different features that may be useful, and it's got a wider angle which i really enjoyed when taking photos of tall things! There's another feature that lets you take "select colour" photos right in the camera, i.e. one thing in y our photo is in colour and the rest in black and white. I do that sometimes with photos in photoshop because the effect is kind of neat.
Anyway, since we'd been back, the weather has been dull with some rain and for the most part, the rest of the week was the same.
But Tuesday would prove to be sunny and we headed over to north Wales to take advantage of the day. The destination was Beaumaris Castle on the Isle of Anglesey and although isn't a complete castle, it's got most of it's main walls. It's a moated castle as well which makes for pretty pictures. It's right on the end of the town and not up on a hill. Beaumaris is one of the last ones Edward I built to subjugate the Welsh. We explored around the castle and then walked into the town. We had lunch in a very old pub called St. George and the Dragon or something like that. Food was ok, but it always annoys me being in a nice old pub with the shiny gambling machines in the corners. It takes away from the atmosphere of these lovely old places. I suppose it helps supplement their income but it's a shame.
We walked back along the water front, got an ice cream before leaving. We drove through some more very narrow lanes to that town with the very long name that starts with Llanfairpwll. I only wanted to take a photo of a sign with the whole thing on it. I did, we got some gas and headed on to Caernafon. Here again, i didn't want to take the time to go through the castle, just wanted to take a few photos from the outside which i did. Another of Edward's castles, this one is huge, with very high walls. Very intimidating, i should think.
We had a GPS (SatNav they call it there) that often led us into some odd routes! But eventually it would get us where we wanted to go and you can always change the route, too, if you don't want to go the shortest way. With that in mind, more narrow lanes to get to Llanberis which is one of the main towns in the Snowdonia National Park where Mount Snowdon is. We thought we might have time to go up to the top on the steam train they have, if it didn't take too long. It's getting past mid afternoon by the time we got there. Llanberis is on a lake and surrounded by the mountains. The town is pretty and many of the businesses on the main street are painted very bright colours. It's also a stop for people that go hiking and walking in the hills so there are a number of stores that sell supplies and sporting goods.
We parked at a parking lot on the edge of the town, didn't realize if we'd gone a bit further we'd have seen the lot that was at the steam train. They also have another train that goes along the lake, by the way. It's not too expensive. We got to the other one, though, and discovered the cost was £25 per person!!! Eek! That was a bit much, we thought. No doubt it might have been worth it for the trip up and back and the views but by now we figured the views would be getting a tad cloudy and didn't want to pay that much. I could see doing it if it was about 15 each.
We drove north through the area through windy roads, with the mountains rising around us. Very dramatic! Hard to take photos out of the car window though, and not a lot of places to stop. It seemed to take a long time to get out of the area, for some reason. I think the GPS wanted to take the very scenic route! We finally came out of Wales and zipped up the motorway back to cloudy Manchester!
Wednesday was another quieter day. We were going to record a radio show together and did that in the afternoon. We also thought we could open up a joint bank account because we thought we were told last time that we could. We went in the morning, had to come back in the afternoon only to be told because i wasn't a resident, we couldn't. Wasted time! Anyway we did the radio show and later, Graham's mate Malc came for supper and a nice evening visit. I made maple curry pasta (vegetarian, not with the usual chicken as Malc is a veggie...I made it for him before and he specifically requested it again).
Thursday the weather wasn't really great but seemed like it might be dry where we were going and we headed east on the M62, destination, the spa city of Harrogate. Hot springs were discovered there in the 17th century and grew to be a popular destination for it's healing waters and spa treatments. It has a lot of really nice 18th and 19th century archtecture and some old pubs. We visited the Pump Room Museum to see artifacts and items on display from the city's history. It was lovely and not a huge museum to get through. We also went into the Mercer Art Gallery which had an exhibition on a local 19th century artist, Atkinson Grimshaw who was noted for paintings of night scenes with moonlight. Unfortunately, most of them as a result were dark and gloomy. We weren't overly impressed. I thought the gallery would have more to see than the current exhibit but other than a room of photos in another exhibit, that was it. Oh well, it was free.
We had lunch in Hales Bar, the oldest bar in Harrogate and they still have gaslights on the bar. It was nice, with red leather booth seats and the dark wood round tables. Food was good, too. We walked around some more, into a little mews that had a lot of little craft and antique shops but we didn't go into any, just window shopped. We decided to find Bettys Tea Room, a Yorkshire tradition. Apparently the one here is the original one but there's also two in York and a couple others as well in the northern area. It was established in 1919. They are known for the exquisite cakes and sweets and you can also get high tea or a light lunch there. It's not cheap, though i think everyone should go once for a treat! For a cake each and a hot drink (served in silver teapots!) each, the cost was as much as our lunch was!
A bit more walking around but it was starting to shower a bit so we thought we'd get back to the car and head home. We set a course for a secondary highway across the south of the North Yorkshire moors so the scenery was again really nice with the dramatic green hills covered in sheep and cattle with the low cloud overhead. Tonight was a dvd and dvr night. Tomorrow we're off to London which will prove to be busy and a bit more expensive than usual as the things we chose to do this time were all higher cost things.
But i'll continue on that in another post.....
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Date: 2011-05-27 03:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-05-27 09:37 am (UTC)