Em woke up feeling really rough. She's had a bit of a cold for a few days, but she has powered through it. Today, not so much. She didn't wake up when the alarm went off for us to go get breakfast, so we just brought her up some toast and tea.
Since we had done today's plans yesterday, we were on the lookout for something new. We looked through brochures and settled on Bolton Castle. It was only about an hour away, so we thought we'd be good. But, I looked at the website and saw that it was closed yesterday because of flooding. We'd have to wait until 10 (their regular opening time) to see if they'd be open today. They were, but Em didn't feel up to going. So, it was a hang out in the hotel day for us.
Em was still feeling nasty at lunch, so I walked down to Boots to get some meds and food. Boots is a big drug store, but they also have cold lunch stuff. So, I grabbed us each a meal deal. We spent the rest of the day watching TV and playing on the computer. I did have to return the rental car, but that was easy.
When Max came home, he wanted some little scissors to trim his beard. So, we headed back out to Boots. True to form, though, Boots was closed. They closed at 5:45. What store closes at 5:45? Anyway, it was 5:52, so we were too late. We wandered around downtown a bit, then we found a Tesco Express and picked up cold dinner. It was pretty good, actually. I like cold lunch and cold dinner. I'm usually pretty darn happy with a sandwich and some chips.
On Thursday, Em woke up feeling quite a bit better, but still not great. She had breakfast, and then we went back to the room. The plan had been to take the bus to York, but the River Ouse has broken free and has been enjoying downtown York for a couple of days. Plus, a lot of the roads were still closed, so I didn't even know if we'd be able to get there. So, another relaxing day.
Our hotel is gorgeous. This is another of those trips when Max is on a business trip, and we're tagging along. The government usually puts us up in pretty nice hotels, because those are the ones they feel secure putting their people in. No booking.com for them! Of course, nice hotel usually equals paying a lot for both parking and internet, but they were both free here. We're at the Crown in Harrogate.Unfortunately, there's no AC, and the window only goes up 6 inches. And Max's & my bed is horrid. Our phone doesn't ring, either (which is rather a pain, since I've been trying to arrange to meet up with friends) Still worth it, though. It's right in the middle of town, and it's lovely.
When the owner took us around on Monday, he told us lots of stories. He bought the place 8 years ago, and has done a lot of renovation since then. But, the hotel itself dates back to the 1600s.The hotel has been almost entirely rebuilt since then, but it's still cool.
Lord Byron Stayed here, and liked this room, according to the owner
The Bronte sisters hung out here
And one of the Kings Charles liked to sit in this room.
But, he wanted to look out on London, so the bathhouse was made to look like St. Paul's Cathedral.
When doing renovations, they broke down a wall in the basement, and found a treasure trove. A lot of the chandeliers were down there, as well as this clock. The clock had a note on it that said it was jinxed. But, they took it to a clock guy and had it cleaned up anyway (to the tune of £4,500!). There's a face on the front that is supposedly the devil. I thought it looked like a Green Man. But, he has it on display in the lobby.
He also told us about the mirror. This one only cost £80, but it looked too new when he bought it. So, he rubbed it with cow manure and dirt, and let it sit for a few weeks. Then, they cleaned it off and polished parts of it, so that it looked old. Neat, huh?
Now, I obviously don't know how many of his stories are true, but it was fun, anyway.
I thought this was funny. I know it means that the machinery for the elevator is behind the panel, but it still sounds like something the Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer would say.
At lunch, Em & I needed to get out a bit, so we walked to downtown Harrogate, which was only about 5 minutes away.
We looked in lots of shops, and Em had a hard time deciding what she wanted to buy. We wandered around for a while, but Em wasn't hungry for any of the hot lunch things, so we just went back to Boots and grabbed something to take back to the hotel. We walked past Wagamama on the way home, and Em was disappointed we hadn't gotten lunch there. When we got back, the room hadn't been cleaned yet, which was rather disappointing. We had the "Do Not Disturb" sign up all of yesterday, so the room was bad today. Our trashcan was overflowing, our tea cups were dirty, and we were just about out of toilet paper, since Em had used so much to blow her nose. Ah, well. If they didn't come relatively soon, I'd go downstairs and ask for more TP.
I also discovered that we had three messages on the phone, one of which was from the night before, but that had just come through. It was my friend, Derek. Derek and I went to DLI together back in '96, and I've seen him occasionally since then. I met his wife at another friend's wedding a few years ago. Anyway, they're stationed up there right now, and we were trying to get together. They had left me a message the night before giving me their phone numbers and asking me to call. They also called from work (at lunch time) to see if we could work something out. I called and left a message on their cells that our phone wasn't ringing, and that I'd love to get together. But, since the phone wasn't ringing, it would be hard to plan. So, just leave a message with a time and place, and I'd be there.
While we had lunch, I flipped channels and found Come Dine With Me, a show about 5 strangers who cook dinner for each other and then judge. Whomever gets the highest number of points wins £1000. Each person's dinner is a half an hour show, and they were showing all 5 of them in a row. We missed the first one, but I watched the next two completely, and most of the 4th one. So, almost an hour and a half. Then, housekeeping knocked on the door. Ack! I was going to miss the end! Em & I went downstairs and hung out in the lobby for half an hour, at which point I really hoped they'd be done, so that I could catch the tail end and see who won. But, no. Not done. So, we wandered some more on the upper floors. We had only explored the lower floors with the owner. We checked back occasionally to see if housekeeping was done. By the time they left, I had missed the end of the show. Damn. I went online and registered at the website so I could watch it, but the internet connection was too slow.
I got a message from Derek that they would meet me at the hotel at 6:30, and we'd go get some dinner. Excellent. Max has a business dinner that night, so I just needed to get Em something. Since she had been sad about missing out on Wagamama earlier, we ran and got her some take out.
At a wee bit before 6:30, I went downstairs to meet Derek & Carolyn. When they got there, they asked what kind of food I liked, and I said I liked anything but seafood. They asked if I had eaten tapas lately, and I said I had never had tapas at all, so we went to La Tasca, a tapas restaurant. It was really yummy! I was so excited to see Derek & Carolyn. I didn't know Carolyn very well, but after tonight, I think she's somebody I would be friends with even without her being married to one of my friends. We talked about the pros and cons of living overseas, and how living in England and Germany have both a lot of similarities and a lot of differences. We made a date to go see their house tomorrow. I'm looking forward to it. :)
Emma says - These two days weren't very eventful. We walked around, and that was fun, because we got to see Claire's and the mall. I got really good Wagamama, and I'm so glad I got to stay in, or I would have really irritated my illness.
Since we had done today's plans yesterday, we were on the lookout for something new. We looked through brochures and settled on Bolton Castle. It was only about an hour away, so we thought we'd be good. But, I looked at the website and saw that it was closed yesterday because of flooding. We'd have to wait until 10 (their regular opening time) to see if they'd be open today. They were, but Em didn't feel up to going. So, it was a hang out in the hotel day for us.
Em was still feeling nasty at lunch, so I walked down to Boots to get some meds and food. Boots is a big drug store, but they also have cold lunch stuff. So, I grabbed us each a meal deal. We spent the rest of the day watching TV and playing on the computer. I did have to return the rental car, but that was easy.
When Max came home, he wanted some little scissors to trim his beard. So, we headed back out to Boots. True to form, though, Boots was closed. They closed at 5:45. What store closes at 5:45? Anyway, it was 5:52, so we were too late. We wandered around downtown a bit, then we found a Tesco Express and picked up cold dinner. It was pretty good, actually. I like cold lunch and cold dinner. I'm usually pretty darn happy with a sandwich and some chips.
On Thursday, Em woke up feeling quite a bit better, but still not great. She had breakfast, and then we went back to the room. The plan had been to take the bus to York, but the River Ouse has broken free and has been enjoying downtown York for a couple of days. Plus, a lot of the roads were still closed, so I didn't even know if we'd be able to get there. So, another relaxing day.
Our hotel is gorgeous. This is another of those trips when Max is on a business trip, and we're tagging along. The government usually puts us up in pretty nice hotels, because those are the ones they feel secure putting their people in. No booking.com for them! Of course, nice hotel usually equals paying a lot for both parking and internet, but they were both free here. We're at the Crown in Harrogate.Unfortunately, there's no AC, and the window only goes up 6 inches. And Max's & my bed is horrid. Our phone doesn't ring, either (which is rather a pain, since I've been trying to arrange to meet up with friends) Still worth it, though. It's right in the middle of town, and it's lovely.
When the owner took us around on Monday, he told us lots of stories. He bought the place 8 years ago, and has done a lot of renovation since then. But, the hotel itself dates back to the 1600s.The hotel has been almost entirely rebuilt since then, but it's still cool.
Lord Byron Stayed here, and liked this room, according to the owner
The Bronte sisters hung out here
And one of the Kings Charles liked to sit in this room.
When doing renovations, they broke down a wall in the basement, and found a treasure trove. A lot of the chandeliers were down there, as well as this clock. The clock had a note on it that said it was jinxed. But, they took it to a clock guy and had it cleaned up anyway (to the tune of £4,500!). There's a face on the front that is supposedly the devil. I thought it looked like a Green Man. But, he has it on display in the lobby.
He also told us about the mirror. This one only cost £80, but it looked too new when he bought it. So, he rubbed it with cow manure and dirt, and let it sit for a few weeks. Then, they cleaned it off and polished parts of it, so that it looked old. Neat, huh?
Now, I obviously don't know how many of his stories are true, but it was fun, anyway.
I thought this was funny. I know it means that the machinery for the elevator is behind the panel, but it still sounds like something the Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer would say.
At lunch, Em & I needed to get out a bit, so we walked to downtown Harrogate, which was only about 5 minutes away.
 |
| A church |
 |
| I had Sylvanian Families as a kid. I had no idea they still existed. |
 |
| Look at them all! |
 |
| Awesome! |
 |
| Statue on the mall |
I also discovered that we had three messages on the phone, one of which was from the night before, but that had just come through. It was my friend, Derek. Derek and I went to DLI together back in '96, and I've seen him occasionally since then. I met his wife at another friend's wedding a few years ago. Anyway, they're stationed up there right now, and we were trying to get together. They had left me a message the night before giving me their phone numbers and asking me to call. They also called from work (at lunch time) to see if we could work something out. I called and left a message on their cells that our phone wasn't ringing, and that I'd love to get together. But, since the phone wasn't ringing, it would be hard to plan. So, just leave a message with a time and place, and I'd be there.
While we had lunch, I flipped channels and found Come Dine With Me, a show about 5 strangers who cook dinner for each other and then judge. Whomever gets the highest number of points wins £1000. Each person's dinner is a half an hour show, and they were showing all 5 of them in a row. We missed the first one, but I watched the next two completely, and most of the 4th one. So, almost an hour and a half. Then, housekeeping knocked on the door. Ack! I was going to miss the end! Em & I went downstairs and hung out in the lobby for half an hour, at which point I really hoped they'd be done, so that I could catch the tail end and see who won. But, no. Not done. So, we wandered some more on the upper floors. We had only explored the lower floors with the owner. We checked back occasionally to see if housekeeping was done. By the time they left, I had missed the end of the show. Damn. I went online and registered at the website so I could watch it, but the internet connection was too slow.
I got a message from Derek that they would meet me at the hotel at 6:30, and we'd go get some dinner. Excellent. Max has a business dinner that night, so I just needed to get Em something. Since she had been sad about missing out on Wagamama earlier, we ran and got her some take out.
At a wee bit before 6:30, I went downstairs to meet Derek & Carolyn. When they got there, they asked what kind of food I liked, and I said I liked anything but seafood. They asked if I had eaten tapas lately, and I said I had never had tapas at all, so we went to La Tasca, a tapas restaurant. It was really yummy! I was so excited to see Derek & Carolyn. I didn't know Carolyn very well, but after tonight, I think she's somebody I would be friends with even without her being married to one of my friends. We talked about the pros and cons of living overseas, and how living in England and Germany have both a lot of similarities and a lot of differences. We made a date to go see their house tomorrow. I'm looking forward to it. :)
Emma says - These two days weren't very eventful. We walked around, and that was fun, because we got to see Claire's and the mall. I got really good Wagamama, and I'm so glad I got to stay in, or I would have really irritated my illness.
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