Jubilee Holiday: Wednesday

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The weather was looking as unpredictable as ever, so we played it safe and headed for the city of York by way of the park-and-ride and the Shopping Outlet. Roger navigated – and we ended up taking the slightly more (ahem!) scenic route! Eventually, we arrived and we soon parked-up at the Park-and-Ride, then grabbed the bus for the journey into the centre of the City. The bus was packed and we stood all the way – so much for our theory of missing the rush!

Midday: First stop, somewhere for a coffee – we spotted Georgina’s Cafe and on powering-up the netbook I discovered the added benefit of free wi-fi, but nothing to confirm how to access it anywhere in the cafe, and further complicated by the waitress not being sure of the password – Doh! Fortunately, the table next to us was ahead of us and passed it on.

With emails checked, blogs published, and everyone fed and watered, we switched into full tourist-mode and headed for York Minster, only to find that inside, the whole of the interior was recovering from some big event from the night before. The result was that most of the walls and floors were covered with some sort of ‘protection’ – so there wasn’t much to see.

Still, the exterior was a stunning as ever!

York Minster

Next stop, we headed for the short walk to The Treasurers’ House. A stunning property given to the National Trust by Frank Green in 1930 (he bought it in 1897). Green, who lived into his 90s was a real eccentric; one of his eccentricities was that he hated noise at any volume – insisting that coal for the house was wrapped in paper to keep it quiet! But, if it hadn’t been for him and his passion for the renovation, the building wouldn’t be here today!

The Treasurers’ House

3.15pm: Our final stop of the day was back to the Designer Outlet. Plenty of shops, but nothing really special that stood out. Unusually for an outlet, it had an O2 shop that was selling discounted accessories. Nothing of interest for me there either,  but I did notice that the shop was broadcasting the recently announced FREE ‘O2 Wireless’ service.

5.00pm: Time to call it a day and head back to the Cottage. The return journey only took around an hour (much quicker than going!) and once indoors we were soon debating tonight’s menu. It didn’t take us long to realise that if we were ever going to empty the fridge before we leave, it was going to have to be one of those ‘Love-your-Leftovers’ concoctions. An hour later, it was mission accomplished and the back of the fridge was now visible!

Uncertain weather again tomorrow, so we’re going to head for Ripon.