A wet and windy day greeted us this morning - and we certainly now know cold ☺ We are staying near The Britannia, so a bus ride into town is our transportation. We wished we had timed our wait at the bus stop a little better so that we didn't have to wait in the cold. The bus wasn't too far away but it was long enough. A bus ride is good as you get to see places you wouldn't normally see - nothing exciting but still interesting. We got off near Scott's Monum...

Today is the Lord's day and a great opportunity to spend it in worship at the York Minster. Bruce and I attended Choral Matins - sung prayers. The choir was from St James' Church, Bushey and combine that with the pipe organ was an experience that was amazing. 4 part harmonies, full pipe organ sound - a very high church worship service. The message was based on Isaiah 12 and 1 Thessalonians 2:1-8 and about worship being about God, and that sometimes we lean towa...

Apparently, York is the chocolate city - never knew that, but this morning we visited the Rowntree shop and learnt all about the history of chocolate in York. From about 1860, when Rowntree took over a cocoa import business, they have been making chocolates in York (as has Frys (Bristol) and Cadbury (Birmingham). Whilst we listened and watched a very clever presentation, we got to taste cocoa water (seasoned with chilli), cocoa nibs (crushed cocoa beans), as w...

Happy New Year! What a way to celebrate the New Year than a walk around the walls of York - which is what we did. But first, we visited the National Rail Musesm, and if you like trains, then this is the place to go. Two massive warehouses of trains, miniature trains, train displays, trains you can walk through, plus information about rail history of Britain plus across the world. We even got to see a train turntable in action - not a balance one but an electric...

Today we took a train trip (only £9.80 for two of us return) to Bath (about 20 minutes from Bristol). Two things to look at particularly - the Roman Baths and all things Jane Austen. The Roman Baths were amazing - the Romans were a very clever bunch of people to create such as complex arrangement of rooms that utilise naturally warmed water. There were saunas, bathing rooms, a plunge room (cold water plunge bath to close the pores after their sauna) - all thes...