Robbie in Leeds - Us in York
Another interesting week. Renee had Friday off and I worked until 1pm. We met up and caught a train to Leeds arriving around 4pm. It arrived within a few minutes of Groms train arriving in Leeds so we were easily able to meet up with the bald fella. We went for a short walk and caught up with Fenners who was our transportation for the evening. He drove to close to the concert and we parked and walked the remainder of the way. Previously i mentioned we had Golden Circle tickets which turned out to be a really good thing. We arrived shortly after 6pm which was only just over 2 hours until Robbie was on stage. We went into the Golden Circle area was a couple of meters from the stage. We turned around and there was everybody else. There were a few thousand Golden Circle tickets and then the remainder of the 90,000 tickets were just general admission. Im guessing there were already about 70000 people in there as the place was absolutely packed then. Lucky we had them tickets or we would have been right at the very back, unable to really see anything. Instead we just walked right up to the front. Excellent.. This concert was a lot darker than in Dublin so really didn't take too many photos. One is below.
After the concert we headed back to Barnsley and stayed there the night. Early the next morning we caught a train to York. This train we didn't have booked and no one on the train checked for tickets so we get to York for free. A saving of around £16 ($40). I find it strange you can buy tickets on the train. Especially when they dont always check them.. Oh well.. Worked out well for us.
We arrived in York early morning and walked and found our hostel. From there we continued walked and went to York Minister. We went in and had a look around there and also climbed all 275 stairs to the top. Our legs weren't feeling the best from the concert the night before so by the time we got down it felt like our legs were made of jelly. Nothing an Ice Cream couldn't fix... A few photos below. Firstly York Minister from the Outside. Next 3 from inside, and lastly, a view from the top.
After York Minister we went for a walk and found the Treasurers House which Renee had seen in a brochure. It was Heritage Day or something similar which allowed free entry for that one day of the year. It was a house which was built in the 17th century and made to look as it would have back then. Normally £5 each but it being free was good. It was interesting, but not hand over money interesting. After that we grabbed some supermarket sandwiches for lunch and ate in the park. We continued walking and walked back to our hostel and checked in. This weekend in York was the York House Races so pretty much everywhere was booked out so we stayed in a cheap youth hostel. The room had a sink and bunks. Nice...
After checking in we went for a walk to Clifford Tower had a look around there. We continued walking along a river and then up and along the wall past York Minister, and down to St Marys Abbey which was an old ruin. Strangely as we went to walk up the stairs to the wall we saw a guy wearing a Geelong Football Team shirt. We had a chuckle to ourselves, but didn't say anything. After the Abbey it was getting towards tea time so we started to walk back to our hostel looking at the restaurants along the way. Just around the corner from our hostel was a nice looking Indian place. We decided to eat there which turned out to be a really good decision. The food was really tasty, and we saw the biggest Naan bread we have ever seen it. It came out not on a plate, but hanging vertically from a hook. The Naan we had was about 30cm but the family size looked about 50-60cm long. It was huge. We had a tasty meal and then headed back to our hostel. We had a fairly early night... Photos below. 1st - Treasurers House. 2nd - Hostel room. 3rd - Clifford Tower. 4th - A view along the wall. 5th - St Marys Abbey.
Sunday morning we got up and went walking around York. We had breakfast at a little cafe just around the corner which was nice. What was even more surprising was the breakfast didn't come with baked beans! For some reason baked beans are big here. KFC doesn't have potato and gravy... it has baked beans. Anyway... We walked a couple of kilometres out to where Graeme was playing his One Day Cup final. Earlier in the week they had won the League title which was the most important one. They batted to start with and ended up making 253 off their 50 overs. They were all out, which means Grom got a bat... well kinda. He faced two balls. The first one he missed, the second one he missed, and it hit the stumps. There is a photo of it below. Notice him looking forward, and ball already past him just about to hit the wickets.
Barnsley then bowled, and they picked up a wicket on the second ball of the match. A few overs later Grom bowled a guy. There are 2 photos of that below. The first photo of him bowling you can see the ball after hitting the stumps, the second shows the batsmen walking off and the celebrations beginning. We had a train to catch so we left when they were 5 out for 126 with 18 overs to go. We heard later that no more wickets were obtained and they lost the match. Bugger.
We arrived back in Manchester and then caught a bus from the city to where we live. Bus normally takes about 30 minutes but this was a particularly interesting bus ride. The bus ride itself reminded me of a serenaded Gondolla ride in Venice. Except that instead of the serenade being sung by an actual singer, on our bus it was the drunk 70 year old Irish guy with his renditions of Unchained Melody by the Righteous Brothers, and hits by Elvis. He really got into it too, using his water bottle as a microphone and playing the seat in front of him like the drums. Im also pretty sure when we were on the Gondolla in Venice that we didn't go past a fire in the trees on the side of the road. Fairly big fire too. Also dont remember at any stage the Gondolla having to slow down because some drunk teenagers were standing in the middle of the road mooning the bus. Maybe i just wasn't paying attention. Apart from these obvious differences, the similarities between our bus ride and a gondolla ride in Venice were remarkable....
After the concert we headed back to Barnsley and stayed there the night. Early the next morning we caught a train to York. This train we didn't have booked and no one on the train checked for tickets so we get to York for free. A saving of around £16 ($40). I find it strange you can buy tickets on the train. Especially when they dont always check them.. Oh well.. Worked out well for us.
We arrived in York early morning and walked and found our hostel. From there we continued walked and went to York Minister. We went in and had a look around there and also climbed all 275 stairs to the top. Our legs weren't feeling the best from the concert the night before so by the time we got down it felt like our legs were made of jelly. Nothing an Ice Cream couldn't fix... A few photos below. Firstly York Minister from the Outside. Next 3 from inside, and lastly, a view from the top.
After York Minister we went for a walk and found the Treasurers House which Renee had seen in a brochure. It was Heritage Day or something similar which allowed free entry for that one day of the year. It was a house which was built in the 17th century and made to look as it would have back then. Normally £5 each but it being free was good. It was interesting, but not hand over money interesting. After that we grabbed some supermarket sandwiches for lunch and ate in the park. We continued walking and walked back to our hostel and checked in. This weekend in York was the York House Races so pretty much everywhere was booked out so we stayed in a cheap youth hostel. The room had a sink and bunks. Nice...
After checking in we went for a walk to Clifford Tower had a look around there. We continued walking along a river and then up and along the wall past York Minister, and down to St Marys Abbey which was an old ruin. Strangely as we went to walk up the stairs to the wall we saw a guy wearing a Geelong Football Team shirt. We had a chuckle to ourselves, but didn't say anything. After the Abbey it was getting towards tea time so we started to walk back to our hostel looking at the restaurants along the way. Just around the corner from our hostel was a nice looking Indian place. We decided to eat there which turned out to be a really good decision. The food was really tasty, and we saw the biggest Naan bread we have ever seen it. It came out not on a plate, but hanging vertically from a hook. The Naan we had was about 30cm but the family size looked about 50-60cm long. It was huge. We had a tasty meal and then headed back to our hostel. We had a fairly early night... Photos below. 1st - Treasurers House. 2nd - Hostel room. 3rd - Clifford Tower. 4th - A view along the wall. 5th - St Marys Abbey.
Sunday morning we got up and went walking around York. We had breakfast at a little cafe just around the corner which was nice. What was even more surprising was the breakfast didn't come with baked beans! For some reason baked beans are big here. KFC doesn't have potato and gravy... it has baked beans. Anyway... We walked a couple of kilometres out to where Graeme was playing his One Day Cup final. Earlier in the week they had won the League title which was the most important one. They batted to start with and ended up making 253 off their 50 overs. They were all out, which means Grom got a bat... well kinda. He faced two balls. The first one he missed, the second one he missed, and it hit the stumps. There is a photo of it below. Notice him looking forward, and ball already past him just about to hit the wickets.
Barnsley then bowled, and they picked up a wicket on the second ball of the match. A few overs later Grom bowled a guy. There are 2 photos of that below. The first photo of him bowling you can see the ball after hitting the stumps, the second shows the batsmen walking off and the celebrations beginning. We had a train to catch so we left when they were 5 out for 126 with 18 overs to go. We heard later that no more wickets were obtained and they lost the match. Bugger.
We arrived back in Manchester and then caught a bus from the city to where we live. Bus normally takes about 30 minutes but this was a particularly interesting bus ride. The bus ride itself reminded me of a serenaded Gondolla ride in Venice. Except that instead of the serenade being sung by an actual singer, on our bus it was the drunk 70 year old Irish guy with his renditions of Unchained Melody by the Righteous Brothers, and hits by Elvis. He really got into it too, using his water bottle as a microphone and playing the seat in front of him like the drums. Im also pretty sure when we were on the Gondolla in Venice that we didn't go past a fire in the trees on the side of the road. Fairly big fire too. Also dont remember at any stage the Gondolla having to slow down because some drunk teenagers were standing in the middle of the road mooning the bus. Maybe i just wasn't paying attention. Apart from these obvious differences, the similarities between our bus ride and a gondolla ride in Venice were remarkable....
