England 2011: Last Days - York - and Farewell

Friday morning was a frenetic packing fest, and we all managed to leave the house by around 10am.  Carole and Maurice headed back to their house, laden with all the toys, books, foods, dry goods, and toiletries that they'd stocked the house with to make our visit so comfortable and fun (thank you!!!), and we set off for our bonus two nights in York.  Lovely York!  We parked outside the city and took a bus in, knowng that parking in the city can be rough.  We went straight to York Minster, the famous cathedral, where the kids were generally good but didn't seem nearly as impressed with it as Andy and I were.

They were entranced with the rows of little candles that were standing about, so we put a pound into the tin and lit a candle for Greenie and Granddaddy.  I was pretty sure they would like that a lot.  We walked around town a bit after that, then made our way back to the B&B that we'd booked.... which turned out to be a big letdown after our lovely accomodations in Hayfield (and also turned out just to be a "B," as breakfast wasn't included!).  Not to worry, we tried not to whine too much.  Steve and Al came by with the girls, along with Tom, Joanne and Steve, and after a nice chat we decided to go back to Al's parents' house for a pizza dinner and lots of playtime.  The kids had SO much fun together. 

On Saturday we had crumpets in our little kitchen, then stopped at the sweetest little cafe right on the river in York for delicious bacon buttys and coffee and cocoa.  We walked along river and to a big playpark where we met Alison and the girls, and the kids played for ages, especially loving the trampolines and bouncey slide. 

Then we all walked back to town for a Chinese buffet lunch and strolled around town for a bit more.  We were all quite entranced with the "Purple Man," a human statue of a man on a bike, coattails flying behind him.  Cool!  We stopped on the way home at Waitrose's to get some easy dinners to cook at home - curries for Andy and me, mac and cheese for the kids. 

On Sunday we had bacon buttys in our little kitchen, final (horrible) showers, then off to the National Railway Museum! Ollie was just a little bit excited.  :-)  And the rest of us, too!  We met Ian there,

and had a great time seeing the sites.  Nice drive back (poor Ian wedged into the back seat between the two kids, though he was quite charmed when Ollie fell asleep on his shoulder).  We had a quick coffee with Ian and Anne, then back home to Carole and Maurice and a lovely dinner with Steve, Al, and the girls, big farewells, bed!! 

On Monday, after lots of goodbye hugs and kisses for Grandma Carole, we headed to the airport with Granddad Maurice.  We dropped off our rental car, and after the final and (always) tearful goodbyes, we were off to catch our 9:40am flight.  Whereas everything seemed in our favor on the way over, just the opposite was true on the way back.  Not only did we not have individual tv screens on the seatbacks, we were actually sitting in the ONLY row on the whole plane that didn't have a WINDOW!  Wonderful.  For the next 7 or 8 hours we sat in this virtual box of nothingness, trying our best to keep the kids from going bonkers (and us, of course).  We survived to tell the story!  Another trip we will never forget, filled with 20 Trees, sweet shops, grandparents, cousins, friends, steam trains and castles, curries, stacks of crumpets, and of course - millionaire's shortbread.  Till next time, beautiful England!