Leeds… Warning…this was probably our least favorite place we visited but still moments of awesomeness. There will definitely be objectionable assumptions ahead.
We did follow the suggestion to get the car at the airport. It then took us an hour to figure out how to get out of the city but once we did, the countryside was magical.
I did not get any pictures of the countryside because I was extremely ill…self-induced by McEwan’s.
Still, it was astoundingly gorgeous country. You know it will be but are still unprepared until you see it in person. And the sheep…so many happy sheep.
Driving in the UK is insane. Sorry, that’s my opinion. Curvy roads and everyone going as fast as possible and not very happy with poor American tourists who are still concentrating on staying in the correct lane. When we got to Wales, the stress of hedge-lined, one lane roads was added :eek:.This was only bad day on the trip - again, self-induced. My friend was learning to drive (I was not so brave) and I was the navigator with a poor sense of direction and we had a mutual mental breakdown trying to find our Leeds B & B.
Finally, we stopped and asked (lesson learned, get as close as possible, then ask someone).
Our B & B also had a pub and we were happy because it was very horse racing oriented (my friend and I being particularly horse-y ourselves). We looked forward to watching the English racing and hurdling and meeting like-minded locals. Well, the racing was fun, the staff friendly but the pub patrons were very reserved. Most men would not look us in the eye and the room showing the racing feed was decidedly segregated (we were the only women). We had a rough day so we just chalked it up to us being very haggard and probably not attractive and looked forward to the next day sans hangover.
Apologies from anyone from Leeds but will say we saw a disproportionate number of bald men.
The next day, we visited the Royal Armouries. That was a fun tour for the price (FREE!). We did find it ironic that gun control friendly UK had such a hall of weaponry (and a few suggestions that we Americans are gun-crazy could be found within the same location) but overall, very interesting stuff.
We took a cheap river tour through part of downtown Leeds. Weather was gorgeous and we were only sorry that the boat was glass sided instead of open.
We then set off for the English country estate experience at Temple Newsam House. Modest entrance fee and beautiful grounds. The house was the best part - we spent hours there looking at great paintings,statues and lovely rooms. After the house, we visited the heritage farm and met our first friend in Leeds.
We returned back to our pub/hotel for a second try…still a stony reserved crowd. So we walked a few blocks down the street and found another pub. It was almost empty at first but we took a chance and struck up a conversation with the bartender and his wife (they owned the pub). They were lovely people and again, we closed the pub down but this time with half-pints and less drunken shenanigans. My friend and another patron took turns at the juke box playing Morrissey, Bob Dylan or Johnny Cash or something like that. We discussed music in general, the bartender (from Glasgow) informing us that Kenny Rogers was an awesome American import. They were the first among many to express disbelief that we would drive 4 hours to get somewhere, especially in one day. We come from a place where it is 4 hours to get any other place but we met several folks that didn’t seem to see the logic in venturing far from home. Especially when we live somewhere so cool as Vegas :rolleyes:.
We did leave Leeds with a good English breakfast and on a high note, especially considering how bad off we were at the beginning. I would visit again to see more of the countryside and go back to the Old Masons.
