Saturday 16th
September 2017
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| Harby All Saints Church - next door! |
53 degrees 10.420N
00 degrees 29.109W
Back in Harby
(Newark, Notts.)
Today is the 70th birthday party.
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| Carel (USA) Marguerite (Australia) Liesbeth (UK) |
We have come all the way from the Antipodes and have
travelled many miles, seen many cities, countryside, people. And now we are back in Harby, ready for an afternoon
garden party. The weather isn’t actually
delightful but everything else will be!
I have been reunited not only with Liesbeth but also
now with Carel, the other half of the twinship, celebrating 70 years over two
continents. (Carel and his wife Inge
have come from Reading, Pennsylvania.)
I hadn’t met Inge of course – they have only been
married 40 years…
But she is – once again of course – wonderful. And
we have almost identical reading glasses!
We had long chats and much laughing and then walked
along to the village pub for dinner. (I
had cheese soufflé followed by grilled sea bass with delicate green veg –
English pubfood can be just wonderful.)
Yesterday we went in to Lincoln to see the fabulous
cathedral.
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| Liesbeth Marguerite Carel Philip Inge Pete |
Yes yet another fabulous English cathedral!
Pippa met us there (brrrr!!)
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| Lovely symmetrical pillars at the doorway |
and we found a quaint ancient tearoom where the seven
of us could squeeze in for sandwiches and scones.
Pete and I stayed on to look at the castle and to walk
(or rather, trot, briskly!) around the castle walls. We also looked at the prison – same era as
Port Arthur, nicely reconstructed, but not as grim as our ghastly penal colony
incarceration system.
And in a dimly lit vault we were able to look at the original
Magna Carta documents. There was a fairly
long and informative film to watch in the little cinema but…no time, off we
went!
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| Google image - no photography allowed in the vault |
Back to Harby for drinks and a wonderful dinner –
Philip, amongst his many skills, is a master smoker of ham!
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| Pete and Carel before dinner |
Our last dash through the English countryside from
Whitby involved a drive to look at Robin Hood Bay – cute!
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| A Google photo - I was too cold to focus! |
And Scarborough, where we walked along the promenade
in the icy wind to look at the colourful beach chalets. (My carefully taken photo has vanished!!)
We were mightily impressed with the Grand Hotel which,
in its day, was the tallest brick building in all of Europe.
I wanted to see a typical quaint Yorkshire village, so
Google directed is to Thornton le Dale, where Beck Cottage is the most photographed
house in the entire British Isles. (Not
sure how anyone knows this but I believe Google of course!)
We could have stayed here but York beckoned…and York was
worth it! What a fabulous city!
Yet another amazing cathedral – this one took, I think
240 years to complete…
We went on a walking tour with an excellent guide –
nice loud voice, lots of information but not TOO MUCH information…
We only had one evening in York, so what better way to
spend it than going to the Grand Opera House to see a local production of Priscilla
Queen of the Desert!! This was great
fun. The crowd went wild, the cast and orchestra (and costume designers!!!) put in heart and soul, and we had a great time.
One one of our walks to and from the city centre we
wandered along the River Ouse. Beautiful
ancient trees, a lovely pathway.
And a sign which bemused Pete. “WHY do I have to reduce my food risk??” On closer inspection…
And a sign which bemused Pete. “WHY do I have to reduce my food risk??” On closer inspection…
well yes the Ouse is prone to bursting out of its
confines to flood the countryside…
I am still wearing Liesbeth’s apron and need to go and
wash the fishy smells off my fingers – I have been carefully boning smoked trout
in between bursts on my computer…guests will be arriving!
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