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’s bizarre that you can easily find a really authentic Indian restaurant in North, especially Bradford and Leeds. I found Bradford sometimes like London’s Brick Lane.
Mel and I did go to Aagrah underneath BBC in Leeds once. The restaurant has an impressive luxury decor, however food is a reasonable price. Food was full of spice and flavours with a generous portion. Overall it’s pretty good.
On last Saturday night, we forgot to book a tablet and couldn’t find a restaurant anyway in Leeds City Centre except waiting for an hour. Then we drove passed Aagrah In Bradford, then we decided to try it again.
The restaurant in Bradford was not as luxury decor as the BBC one, but it has 3 floors, and surprisingly the first floor was almost full. It’s the most gigantic indian restaurant I had seen so far. We ordered a lot, but because it’s quite late,(about 10pm) and with their generous portion, all of us couldn’t manage to finish them all. Over all, it’s 3.8 of 5.
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 decided to go to Manchester on Sunday, and just chilled out and ate food. Miwa and I didn’t do much research, and just booked the ticket to Manchester. Two little girls were in the big strange city, but we managed well. We went to Tai Hu Dimsum restaurant we went before with John, and we ordered 10 dishes dimsum and finished them all. The time when we finished lunch, all the shops were almost closed.
It’s nice of Miwa spending time with me because she will be back to Japan permanently and I won’t see her easily like she is in London now. I am so glad that I got Eileen, Miwa and Vicky as good friends in London.
Friends forever, no matter where they are!
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.
After a long discussion, we finally decided to pick Italian car – Alfa Romeo 147 model with 5 doors and 1.9 engines. It is a great car and we really enjoy driving and travelling around Leeds and Yorkshire. The weather is quite unpredictable at the moment. It comes rains and comes shine all the time. Hopefully hot summer will be arrived soon even though we are in June.
Having a car is having the freedom to discover all the places we wanted to visit. I am currently on my 11 driving lessons, and it needs 40 lessons to pass. It might take sometimes because I only can get 2 lessons per week because the coach is so busy. I am doing quite well on learning how to drive, and I really enjoy driving, although it might be a lot of practising ahead for me to do.
I really can wait to drive our own car and practice by myself.
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！
We went to visit Sheffield, Derbyshire, and Leeds last week and drove to see the famous Chatsworth house, owned by Duke and Duchess of Devonshire. This house is famous for appearing as Mr Darcy’s house in the 2005 Pride & Prejudice movie, as well as the upcoming calledThe Dutchess (featuring Keira Knightley).
Unfortunately when we were there they were holding a country fair so I didn’t get chance to visit it properly but I’m sure I will do so in the future.
We also drove to Bakewell in Derbyshire and the Peak District. It’s a small, peaceful, and very pretty market town. It reminds me of Europe a lot.
Another day we drove to North Yorkshire from Leeds to visit Harrogate . It is a very large and wealthy city, we enjoyed our time there.
Sheffield a city of many hills with views into the city centre or out to the countryside. There is a National Park next door and it was famous for producing steel. It’s quite a small city (could be like Shantou, not sure), but the hills remind me of Hong Kong.
Leeds is not bad, got a lot of young modern buildings and restaurants near the canal.
Here is some pictures I took.
The picture of the cover is from www.theage.com.au (Chatsworth House at sunset.)
我们上周去了谢菲尔德， 德比郡， 利兹，去看了很多周边的小镇，去参观了电视剧 /电影－达西先生住的房子（傲慢与偏见），还有9月5号即将上映的电影（女爵）也是在这个房子拍摄的，来头不小啊！听说那整片地区包裹房子都是属于一个公爵的，太富有了！但因为我们刚好碰见公园在举行活动，人山人海，没有仔细进入里面，以后再去罗！我们也去了利兹，利兹还好拉，蛮有小伦敦感觉的。谢菲尔德也不错，到处都是树木花园，国家公园也就在隔壁，居民的房子都建在山腰上，感觉象香港的半山腰。这是最新的照片和大家分享拉。
