A Great Weekend!

We had a lovely time away!

I didn't enjoy the Model Engineering Show too much but that was for Mark. Also it took us well over 4 hours to get there as the A1 was closed and we had to take a detour.

However, we didn't stay there too long. Mark is one of these people who doesn't like shopping and once he had seen everything he wanted to and bought the bits he wanted (including an A2 sized cutting mat for me), we left.

It didn't take up long to get to York. The B&B was easy to find as well. However we had a bit of a shock when we walked in the room!

I have never seen decor quite like it. I thought my taste was a bit eclectic, but this was amazing! Some walls Lilac, others Lavender. Blue blinds on the window and deep purple curtains.

There was a bright purple canopy over the bed, burgundy velvet covers with hot pink cushions and even bright pink sheets.

The Landlady called it the "Indian Room" and it was decorated with Indian style pictures and sequined elephants!!!

The bathroom was even bright!

It had a "Primrose" bathroom suite. Mark manages a plumbers merchants and I am surprised he didn't leave her a business card.

However, it was clean and smelled nice. The Landlady and the brekkie was lovely and, if you can cope with the decor, I would recommend it.

We had a rest for an hour or so as we were really tired after getting up at 5am that morning. Then we contacted our friends. After a snack, we went for a stroll around York.

That city is amazing! It is a glorious combination of new and old, with the Minster appearing from above the other buildings keeping an eye on things.

And the Minster itself is stunning.

I was lucky enough to get this picture as the sun was going down and the building reflected the colour.

We went for a meal in a place called "Kennedys". You can always tell how posh a place is by the size of the meal. Just as well we had had a snack before we went out!

They had a meal deal on which included a bottle of wine with two meals. So, as Mark and Steve were drinking beer, I had a bottle of red amd Sue had a bottle of white.

Just as well the camera was on auto focus because I would have never been able to take this one otherwise!

We went on a bit of a pub crawl after that. I was good and stuck to soft drinks after all that wine.

In one of the pubs we saw this charater who kindly posed for us.

He is one of the "Ghost Walkers". They take people on walks around York telling them all the ghost stories.

The next day we spent the morning with Sue and Steve before leaving for home about 1pm.

The drive back was pretty quick and we called in to see some friends on the way as Mark wanted to borrow his enormous sledge hammer.

After a relaxing evening and early night, we got up and demolished the pond.

It was sad to see it go but at least the hard bit is done now. Luckily all the walls that were above ground have fitted into the hole in the ground.

Mark still needs to knock down a little more below ground level so that we can pave over the top to the same level as the rest. I told him not to bother with the path that ran along the other side and is a little higher. My flowers will look nice on the raised bit!