An Unexpected Trip to York

In all my arrangements for our stay in Yorkshire I had made huge efforts to keep one day free just for the two of us, because I knew that ten days of constant socialising would do nothing for my stress levels, except send them up. Happily the OH discovered that the North York Moors railway was having a celebratory weekend. Fifty years of volunteering or something. Great I said. We'll do our best to fit in Mount Grace sometime or other and we can go to the NYM celebrations on the Sunday. 

I am not, dear reader, a fan of narrow gauge railways or indeed of steam trains, but I am a great believer in doing things that make my husband happy, so although I was guaranteed a day of boredom I was perfectly prepared to make the sacrifice. In the end it was not needed, as the OH, who is very fond of recalling every time I have muddled up a date or a time, had not focussed properly and he had got the dates of the NYM celebration a week wrong. Pots and kettles come to mind. 

This meant we were at a loose end on our first day, and given that we were in North Yorkshire the default answer to the where shall we go on a Sunday? question was York. And so to York we went. 

I have still not been to the Quilt Museum in York because every time I go to the city the quilt museum is closed. Including on this occasion. We did however go to York's Chocolate Story, something I have often wanted to try but have generally not been near at a time when my stomach could thole the idea of smelling chocolate. I have to say that this attraction is Not Cheap, but imo, it's good value for money. Very well presented, done with imagination and flair, I learned things, got lots of samples and we even got to make our own chocolate lollies. These were not,an unqualified success. 

Mine is the one on the left. It was supposed to look like an apple tree and it did, before the stick fell out and half the apples fell off. The one on the right is the OH's. It broke in the bag but looked a bit of dog's dinner even before that. I don't think he was trying to make it look like anything in particular but it resembled a meat feast pizza more than anything else. 

After the Chocolate Story we wandered around for a bit but the place was rammed so we didn't stay all that long. I did take a random photo of an interesting  place in York  I don't think I already have a picture of. I'm unclear what it is, apart from a ruined church, but I think it's been preserved as a sort of monument to peace. I do not mean this to sound flippant; I wish I could remember more about it, but it was hot, and there were lots of people about and it's behind a fence so I was taking the picture thorough that. I'm amazed the photo came out at all under those circumstances. 

When we returned to the car we discovered that not only is York ouch!ouch! expensive for parking, but that some people in the city don't actually know how to do it. I give you -

our car is on the right as you look at the picture and we were there first. The only way we managed to get out of the car park was by dint of the OH getting into the car on the passenger side and climbing over to the driver's seat. This is no mean feat a) in our car and b) at our age. Kudos to him. 

I think my overwhelming take away from the day was that it will be a very long time before I darken the (metaphorical) door of York again,.