Mel, Paul and us decided to go to hiking on Grassington of north yorkshire at last weekend we were in Leeds. It’s my first properly hiking since we went to Haworth last time. It was really peaceful and enjoyable to explore in nature with wild animals and beautiful scenery.
I know living in such a country is John and a lot of people’s dream. I do like it in the future, but not now. I guess I am still a city girl.
It is a really pretty town with a magnificent view with rivers, mountains and a lot of parks. It is a very nature countryside town like Bakewell town. However, if let me choose to buy a house, I think I still prefer Harrogate and Ilkley.
Eileen and Rok came to visit us before Christmas. I am glad that the early snow didn’t affect our schedule. Living in London, they get used to being in a city and it’s time to show them famous Yorkshire countrysides and some pretty villages.
We took them to Derbyshire Bakewell first, then went to Chatsworth house, because day time was quite short in winter, we had to make sure that we caught the best day light before the sunset. Then drove back to Leeds, and ate in Thai Edge for dinner, then went to the pub.
On the last day of their visit, we decided to take them to North Yorkshire to visit Haworth, and had a big lunch with beef yorkshire pudding and went to hiking a little bit before it went dark.
The weather was so cold, most of days were -4 degree to -10 degree. We spent most of time chatting and enjoyed the scenery. I did enjoy the trips with Eileen and Rok, and they were great accompanies. Moreover, It’s such a wonderful experience to see all the places covered snow.Everything looked like a picture, and I felt like I was living in fairy tale story.
Britain is truly pretty in every season.
We stayed in a Vintage Design Hotel called Hotel Sax, and it was a fantastic hotel. We booked a super deluxe room with two bathrooms and a little balcony and a long corridor. It had including breakfast and five o’clock afternoon tea as well. It was a really funky hotel, modern, clean and so stylish; beside, the location was next to all the embassies, so it was very quite and near to town. In order to spoil ourselves as well, we booked a private spa including Jacuzzi and sona with really reasonable price, it made our trip more romantic and enjoyable.
John took me to eat a lot of homely Czech food (including some Radost FX vegetarian, and the Pivovarský dům microbrewery, they were fantastic and high recommended if anyone travels to Prague). Prague is famous for their own beer, and it was cheaper to drink a beer in the cafe than ordering a soft drink.
Prague centre was quite small and normal took 20-30 minutes to walk and you properly could see everything. Before I went there, I thought Prague properly would be more outdated because its past history. However, some areas and some people were, but overall, Prague’s cafe or restaurants were quite stylish and modern. Prague was really pretty and sometimes I did imagine what life will be if I were living there. I really want to return when it’s winter snow time, and I can be a snow princess in the fairy tale story.
Sally from Guangzhou came to visit us for a week, and stayed with us in Leeds. Unfornately I had to work most of the time. We drove together to visit York in a morning, and Sally seems like York quite a lot. I took a friday off and we returned to London for three days to show Sally London.
I do miss London so much, and it’s so excited to return back to London. Everything seemed the same, and I felt like I have never left it. I know people living in North or outside London, they don’t really like London’s busy, the tubes, the tourists, and the rush. For me personally, London makes me feel alive. I absolutely love the vibrate movement, the cool trendy people, the arts, the varieties choices, and multicultural environment, thousands of shops, cafés, restaurants. It has too many to offer, that’s why I love about London, except one thing I don’t want to admit about London that living costs are very expensive.
It’s good experience to live in a different city rather and meet new people. I enjoy our life in Leeds, and certainly, we love living in London very much as well. Someday we shall retune to the most exciting city again!
It’s a beautiful sunny weekend, so we both decided to travel somewhere. Haworth is one of the famous pretty town in the Yorkshire because of the The Brontës Sisters. After 30 minutes driving, we arrived the town. It was small, but pretty and peaceful. The sisters, Charlotte (born 21 April 1816), Emily (born 30 July 1818), and Anne (born 17 January 1820), are well known as a trio of sibling poets and novelists. I remembered that when we were in the University, we used to read Bronte sister’s book in our literature classes.
It was nice to visit Haworth and we certainly will go back for hiking there. We picked a cafe where was home-baked bread and produced local meat for lunch. John ordered a really big roast beef with Yorkshire pudding, and I ordered a big breakfast with tea. It was reasonable price with big portion and quality tasty food. I do wish all the tourist places should be like that, not over-priced horrible normal food.
I really enjoy little trip like this.
The best way to enjoy the summer is to go to beach and enjoy the sun. UK actually has a lot of beaches and sea-side towns, because it is a big island surrounding the sea. Since we are living in Yorkshire, Scarborough in North Yorkshire is the best holiday beach destination.
We drove 2 hours to reach Scarborough. My first impression of it was ” wow, my god, it was so stunning pretty”. We walked alone the beach, and saw that people were sunbathing, kids were making castles in the beach. It was an amazing to relax and be with your family.
You can easily buy any sea food such as lobster or big crabs for under £5. I forgot to buy one when we were back home. We ate really fresh cod fish and chip for lunch. The fish meat was so tasty and fresh, and I who was grown up by the coastal city girl, could tell the difference from sea fish and normal fish.
John said while we were in Scarborough, we could also visit Robin Hood Bay and Whitby. Robin Hood Bay is even smaller than Scarborough, just a small coastal village. Luckily we saw some dance performances of old village tradition. It was amazing and fun to experience.
Whitby like Scarborough is so pretty and felt like you were living in fairy Tale story. All the houses and colourful roofs, boats and yachts did look like Scandinavia style, don’t you think? I did feel like I was in another country rather than in the UK. It was very different of architectures and atmosphere. I did enjoy North Yorkshire so much – peaceful, quite, good quality of life. However, it properly might be a little bit bored for young people.
We drove back home from Whitby through North Yorkshire Moors, and it was so pretty inside the moors. It felt like we were in some forests and so stunning beautiful. The weather was hot with blue sky all day long, that’s why we got some amazing pictures.
You should see all the pictures we took in Scarborough beach and Whitby, and I am sure you will fall in love with them.
Eileen and Miwa came up to Leeds this week and stayed with us for 3 days. I miss them so much and all the good time we spent in London, and I haven’t seen them for 3 months since we moved to Leeds. Sadly the weather was terrible – raining and cold while they were here.
I showed them a little bit Leeds City Centre, and went to Jamie Oliver Italian Restaurant in the evening, and had a such a wonderful dinner, then went to the Sky Lounge in City Inn for more wine and chatting. It did feel like we usually see each other and catch up in trying good food in London.
In second day, Melanie joined our group too, so we drove them to York. Unfortunately it was raining so we saw the raining side of York. The positive side of raining is that all the trees and garden were so green and we had the fresh air. York is always lovely to visit. The only downside of York is too expensive on food because it is a tourist town, and everything is over-price.
After touring around York, we drove back to visit Temple Newsam. It was such a historical house and full of histories. I love big old house like that, such as Henry VIII’s Hampton Court in London, and Chatsworth House in Derbyshire. It always make me think what if I were living in that era and what I would be, or doing what things? I am always fascinated about 14th -19th Centuries histories and culture.
Friends were back to London on Weds, and I felt like we are not being apart that long, just doing our normal life in London, rather than in Leeds. I miss them and doing girls things while we were in London.
First picture was in Jamie Oliver Italian Restaurant, and second one was that I made Gong Fu Tea for them while they were playing the Ipad.
You can see more pictures in York and Leeds here.
It is incredible sunny and hot (about 25 degrees) in these two days, and it feels like properly summer with the hot heat. We decided to walk down to the canal and had a picnic in Kirkstall Abbey museum at the weekend. The Abbey was built in 12th century, and sadly was destroyed by Henry VIII when he reformed all the Catholic churches in 14th century.
You can see that the church was enormous, but only half left behind and preserved it, so I needed to touch the stones and felt I touched something so old and valuable. It was really nice to imagine how did normal people live in that era?
It was so peaceful and natural surrounding by the canal and parks. People were sunbathing, and enjoyed the great day of summer with their friends. What a wonderful weather and a fantastic day!
Since we moved to Leeds, we haven’t got time to explore North Yorkshire yet. It was warm and sunny yesterday, so we decided to travel to York for a day, and to enjoy the Spring weather.
York was founded by the Romans in 71 AD, so is famous of its nature beauty and historical heritage. It is a wealthy small city with a lot of historical churches, buildings, and houses in every little corner. The picture I took in the front cover was one of the churches properly had knocked down by Henry VIII in 16th century.
We also went to see the famous Jórvík Viking Centre and experienced how the Vikings’ lives were in 866 AD. It was really authentic experience and they said you supposed to smell of the Vikings’ cooking too. It was indeed a really fun experience. At lunch, I ordered a famous ‘a taste of York’ roast belly pork sandwich and was incredible delicious. After lunch and few cup of tea, we went to see the Railway Museum and to see how Britain was so powerful and rich when it had discovered the steam engines and the world was changed after it.
York is really a nice place to visit and I am sure we will return it next time to discover more castles or scenery nearby York as well. Here are some pictures we took.
从搬来利兹之后，忙于各种各样的东西，都没有时间去旅游。昨天太阳高照，我们决定去出了名历史悠久的约克城市观光下。约克大概有1千9百年历史，果然是历史悠久的城市，所以你到处可以看到很多15－16世纪的教堂啊，18世纪的房子。象伦敦一样，路上的每个砖头都有历史味道，当然，以年龄来说，约克比伦敦老很多。约克曾被称为当时的英国首都。约克是一个蛮富裕的城市，可以感觉到以前或现在都是蛮有钱人住的城市。一个蛮小休闲的城市，居然很多名牌都部落在街头，感觉游客们个个都穿得富贵华丽，街头也有很多名贵的豪华车，不愧是以前的首都。
封面的照片应该是16世纪亨利八世反对天主教然后毁灭掉的教堂。我还走过去摸了摸1千多年的教堂石头，教堂的毁灭真的蛮可惜的。我们还去体验了北欧海盗侵入约克的时期，地学研究家把海盗们在约克的生活点滴都用假人雕磨出来，假人还会动也会和你说话，虽然有点毛骨悚然，不过还是蛮真实的体验。
中午时候我点了约克最老最有名的烤肉店，我点了烤乳猪肉三文治，超正超多肉 － 真的吃肥死我了。喝了星巴克Latte充实精力后，我们去参观了英国铁路博物馆，看了许多旧的火车和汽车展览，体验了英国蒸汽时代英国的繁荣和如何成为不落日帝国。蛮有趣经历的。
我相信下次我们还回去约克玩，开车去约克周边的城堡啊，坐下小船之类的。等大家来，带你们去约克玩。点击这里我们照了有些约克的照片！