After my trip to Ireland over the February break, I spent one day back home in Edinburgh and then took the train down to visit my friend in Leeds. I took the train into York, and we spent a few hours exploring there before driving to her house in Leeds. Our first stop was Betty's tea shop, which she has been to before and said was a must. After eating there, I agree. We ordered an afternoon tea to split. It was raining hard outside and very cold, and inside the tea room it was warm and busy. We were seated next the fireplace, and were served tea in little cups with saucers and a proper tea tower of sandwiches and cakes. It was a fairly stereotypical English scene, and it was wonderful.
The tea tower
rainy arrival
After tea, we walked around York for a while. York is, in my eyes, the epitome of an English town. It is tiny, with winding, curving streets and a rather confusing lay out - we ended up walking in a huge circle around the town twice (utterly lost) before finding our way back to the train station and the car so we could drive back to Emma's house. We walked around for a few hours, looking in shops, admiring the buildings, and being kind of touristy, then drove back to her house. I don't really have too much to say about Leeds because I wasn't there for long and we didn't venture too far out of her house - we were recovering from a week of intense essay writing and deadlines and so just hung out for most of the trip. The parts I saw were beautiful - mostly country side, green hills and fields dotted with sheep, the occasional tree, a few horses... Basically, I took a few days to live in the English countryside.
York Minster
Not a great picture because the fields are black instead of green, but here is the countryside
All in all, it was another great trip.
On the streets of York
English looking buildings
By the train station