we got into york late into the evening, maybe around nine at night and found an italian restaurant, either just off of, or perhaps on shambles, bustling with people but nevertheless still found room for us to eat because, like they said, “we couldn’t very well send you home hungry now could we?” (if only i could have taken the sweet hospitality of the u.k. home with me … if only). after dinner walking up and down the streets and along the river, when what had to be at least half past ten, there was still just enough day light to guide us around the city of york. i’m not sure what time it actually got dark but all i know is that it was long after we had gone to bed.

oh york, how everything just seems better in york. the people, the flowers, the tea, the streets the, architecture, even the urban outfitters … yes, even that is better in york. speaking of tea … the largest and biggest thank you to all who recommend betty’s. nothing will ever compare and that’s all i have to say about that … except for that when we were through eating and sipping, we got a box of the most decadent macaroons to snack on later and by later i mean they were gone by the end of the night. other things we did included: seeing the minster, a bit of shopping and lots and lots of wandering. hats off to you york …. thank you for showing us a good time.

it took us two day’s to drive up to york since we stopped to see family along the way. the first day we spent time touring burton constable, probably my favorite house of all. the grounds had a “secret garden” feel equipped with its own giant chess board and everything (because who doesn’t need one of those?) and the house had furniture i wanted to take for my own (because we could fit more furniture in this already full and tiny apartment).

and on the second day, before going into the city of york itself, we stopped at the harewood house, fed the penguins and the ducks, and saw the flamingos, which, may i add, is my next order of business, to put flamingos in our back yard i mean. the house had it’s own “quaint” chapel around back, or front (because it gets hard to tell) and had a giant playground, which, let’s admit, isn’t saying much considering that’s the hit thing with these houses these days …. 

after london we drove west to salisbury for the next four days. the first day we spent time in the quaint historic town of salisbury and mainly inside the beautiful salisbury cathedral (shown in the first eleven photographs above) which was surprisingly probably my favorite cathedral off all that we saw. i especially fell in love with all the beautiful embroidered cushions placed so carefully on all the seats, benches and chairs. the second day we took a day trip and drove to the city of bath … (below)





















the city of bath was my all-time favorite city, the architecture was amazingly beautiful. it felt like we were wandering up and down the streets of some sort of ancient italian city or what i imagine that might feel like anyway. rows and rows of gorgeous stone buildings all in the same color but with various colored doors … it was fabulous. while in bath, we saw the roman baths, toured the abbey church of saint peter or bath abbey, and spent time eating and walking up and down the streets admiring all of the ancient homes and so forth, lining every street and every alleyway. we hope to go back eventually and spend more than just a day really exploring the time-honered city of bath.