A Few Hours In York With My Sister

It was the third day of meeting up with my sister and her husband, this time the location was York. Otherwise though the day was a bit disappointing, the weather wasn't very nice, cold and dark...terrible for photography; the Castle Museum, which we wanted to visit was closed and there was scaffolding covering the minster and several other buildings.

We went on a guided walking tour of York, going to some areas of the city I'd not seen before - the guide was very good, but the weather spoiled it - Della and Mitch live in subtropical Queensland in Australia and were struggling with the cold weather.

Della wanted to go for lunch to a pub with a real log fire and the guide was able to suggest somewhere - Mitch spent a lot of time standing right in front of the fire.

Because the Castle Museum was closed we decided to go to the Yorkshire Museum...and it was a boring, bland, patronising and uninspiring experience.

Della and Mitch had made plans for later so we said goodbye. I didn't fancy walking the streets of York for the rest of the day so I caught the next train to Doncaster.

Visiting My Sister And Her Husband In Liverpool - Day Two

Well, unlike yesterday, everything went according to plan today. It started with breakfast in the hotel at 0715 with Della and Mitch, and lingering until it got light outside. We said our goodbyes but we're planning to meet up again tomorrow in York.. 

I then immediately walked down to the River Mersey to take same photographs in the early morning sunshine; there was only myself and a few joggers. I was really impressed with this area of Liverpool and if it had been warmer I would have stayed for longer.

Unfortunately some areas were blocked off because of building work and the museums were closed. The Walker Art Gallery and the museums in the city centre were also closed, as many such establishments now are on Mondays.

The journey home on the train was much more pleasant today; I arrived back in Doncaster only twenty minutes late.

 

Visiting My Sister And Her Husband In Liverpool - Day One

I've already mentioned in an earlier post from a few days ago that my sister and her husband are visiting from Australia. This is a report from our first day together, at Liverpool.

My journey to Liverpool was the worst one I've ever experienced using public transport. With it being a Sunday I had to first catch the local train; it was ten minutes late but shouldn't have been a problem. There was definitely a problem at Sheffield though; all trains going across to Manchester and beyond had beed cancelled because of overrunning engineering work and so I had to wait over half an hour for a replacement coach to take us over the Woodhead Pass to Manchester Picaadilly Station.When I got there I was told that there were still no trains going to Liverpool from there and I'd have to make my way to Manchester Victoria Station where there was still a service operating. I used the free City Centre bus to get there and yet again, the first available train going to Liverpool was cancelled; I had to wait an hour for the next one and it was so crowded that many people were left on the platform. It was very uncomfortable and I felt quite ill.

A few weeks ago Della mentioned going on a boat trip on the River Mersey but that didn't happen - I was nearly three hours late arriving in Liverpool. We had enough time to walk down to the Riverside to board our doubledecker bus for our The Beatles themed tour of Liverpool.

The tour was very enjoyable and the guide was very knowledgable and funny.

We went to the hotal to get me checked in for the night, just as it was getting dark. We then went for a meal in the early evening; both myself and Mitch chose to have scouse, which we both thought was basically the same as a beef casserolle - it was delicious though. We then went to the Cavern Pub, which isn't the same as The Cavern Club; we enjoyed a singalong session with the other customers and the live singer.

We reyrned to the hotel quite early because Della was suffering from jet lag.