Out and about in York and at home. Temperamental weather. Flooding!

Yesterday my daughter and I set off mid-morning, with the two small people, to visit Granddaughter Number Two at university in York. The idea was to drive to her hall of residence, collect her and go into the centre of York for a spot of lunch and probably a look at the Christmas Markets there. 

As we left Saddleworth behind and headed up the road towards the motorway access road we were surprised to see loads of cars parked at the roadside. What was going on? Was someone organising an event we had not been invited to? As we got further up the hill we saw crowds of people standing at the roadside, clearly waiting for something to happen. Then we remembered: local rugby player Kevin Sinfield was on the last leg of his Ultra 7 in 7, running seven super marathons in seven days to raise money to help out motor neurone disease charities. He’s raised over a million pounds in donations apparently. We thought we might see him run past us, in the opposite direction to us, but he hadn’t appeared by the time we turned off onto the motorway. So it goes.

The day was forecast to be reasonably fine but we drove through misty rain. Fortunately it had mostly cleared by the time we were closer to York. We stopped and had a chat and a toilet stop at Granddaughter Number Two’s place before heading into the centre of the city. And once in the centre we spent a good hour (no, a really bad hour!), maybe more, looking for a parking place. Really we should have parked on the edge of the university campus and walked the rest of the way. We should have known! It was Saturday. There were Christmas markets. Of course parking was at a premium. Eventually, after doing several circuits of the carpark, we found a place on the railway station carpark. Heaven help any poor soul who was trying to park a car and then catch a train!

We walked into a glittering city centre and spent another ridiculously long period of time looking for somewhere to have some lunch, some late lunch. Everywhere had lengthy queues. At one point we thought we had struck lucky and found a street food stall without a clue but the young lady serving warned us before taking our order that we would have a 45 minute wait. At least she warned us! We moved on. Fortunately the small people has snoozed as we hunted for a parking place. Their only problem now was empty stomachs. 

 

Finally we found a Cornish pasty-selling place with at least one empty table. This may have been because they had run out of pasties. But they had sausage rolls, freshly cooked, and very good scones. All was well. 

We did a bit of shopping - fancy shoes for Granddaughter Number Two who is going to a university ball next weekend - and oohed and aahed at the sparkly city. 

 

And then we did a bit of orienteering to find our way back to the railway station carpark. We parked Granddaughter Number Two in her student accommodation, put the small people in their pyjamas and headed for home. A mostly successful day but with rather more driving in circles than planned! 

I almost forgot to mention that the River Ouse has burst its banks. We spotted flooded fields at various places on our way to York but in the centre we saw that places where we had walked alongside the river in the summer were now under water! Goodness!

 

This morning dawned fine and quite sunny here. In the late morning Phil and I walked up the hill to Dobcross, down the other side and back along the Donkey Line, which was rather wet and muddy. 

 

Some time after we returned home, the dark clouds moved in and now it is pouring with rain once again. We are rather grateful to be just high enough not to risk flooding.

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!