Category: photography

Trying to catch up! Hang on now, this is going to be a long one.

Monday morning (May 9) I said goodbye to my gracious host Elizabeth, took a quick trip to the post office to mail some stuff home, and then went back to the flat to pack up the rest of my stuff. Walked over to the train station with my pack, bought a ticket to Leeds, and got one with perfect timing. Ah, rail travel is nice. I arrived at Leeds station an hour later, took a cab to the hotel (Ibis; nice room for pretty cheap) and was able to check in. I dumped my stuff and headed out to explore!

The hotel is a bit outside the city centre, outside the ring road. Although the walk into the city centre isn’t terribly interesting, it isn’t very long or taxing either. The buildings were quite pretty. It did get gloomy and then super duper rainy, I managed to get stuck without my umbrella so I had to buy another one!

Leeds, like Manchester, has quite a compact city centre and it’s easy to walk around. I got a nice map from the hotel and that helped a lot. Most of the shopping is in a pedestrian area and various covered arcades. Really beautiful inside, with lots of high end shops.

Pretty much just walked all around that day. I hadn’t been planning on it, but I did end up walking along the river to the Royal Armoury and had about 15 minutes inside before they closed for the day. After that I took a bus back into the city centre (I had been doing so much walking!), had dinner at Wagamama and then went to the cinema to watch a film – Hanna. (I enjoyed it, though there are a few things that I had problems with.)

On Tuesday I had a meetup with a knitter who lives just outside Leeds, Kate! We were hooked up via the knitter’s network (aka ibecks in Manchester). Kate took me to lots of places I probably wouldn’t have ventured to on my own. First up was Baa Ram Ewe! Cute shop that sells British yarns and products. I just picked up some Harris Tweed covered buttons.

Then we headed back down to the train station and hopped a train to Ilkley, about half an hour away. The main attraction? Bettys tea room! We were definitely the youngest ladies in there (aside from some babies); the food was posh and absolutely delicious. We split a frittata and fried pea and mint risotto cakes. Yum! I even finished up with a puff pastry with whipped cream and strawberries, because why not do it up right?

We wandered around a bit to the local yarn shop and button shop before catching yet another train to Saltaire, a world heritage village near Shipley. It consists of a gigantic textile mill and village that were built by Titus Salt. Nowadays the mill has been refashioned with spaces for galleries, shops and cafes. It’s really quite lovely to walk around in, and the textile history is everywhere. There was even a small Yorkshire fashion exhibit on.

Doesn’t this dress look perfectly contemporary?

After saying goodbye to Kate (and thanking her for showing me such a lovely time) I headed back to Leeds, grabbed some dinner from M&S and spent the evening in my room, stressing out about booking places to stay in Ireland. It’s all sorted now, including the flights, and though my trip isn’t quite halfway over I’m starting to feel like it’s going by quickly!

(I’m a bit homesick though so I kind of wish it was going faster.)

I’m trying to keep up the blogging, I really am! Really must try not to let it get away from me or it’ll be so hard to catch up – as it is, 2 days’ worth of photos is a fair amount to sort through.

Yesterday (Wednesday) I managed to get up a whole 2 hours earlier than the day before, had some breakfast in the flat and then caught a bus out to Holyrood Park. My first stop was the Palace at Holyroodhouse – the official Scottish residence of the Queen. No photography allowed inside, sadly, so you’ll have to take my word for it! It was interesting enough, a bit stuffy but still pretty cool. The plasterwork ceilings and original furniture are pretty.

My favourite bit was the Abbey, which is a ruin. The nave is the only part still standing.

Then I headed up Arthur’s Seat, the tallest hill in Edinburgh. Unfortunately due to the lack of maps and/or trail markers, I ended up taking a Very Tricky Route up involving very steep stone “steps” (sorta). Got a bit discouraged and ended up calling it quits most of the way to the top. Yeah, I’m sort of disappointed in myself too. Maybe another time, with someone who knows an easier way!

Still a pretty great view from the ledge where I stopped though.

Also I didn’t have any food with me, which was a bad plan. So it was sort of bad all around. At least it was sunny! I headed back down and then had lunch at Fruitmarket Gallery. Another day, another shot of my knitting on my skirt!

I wanted to see the exhibit, but then I rushed over to the Camera Obscura to catch the last show of the day. It’s pretty cheesy, but super fun. The camera is really cool. The rest of the attraction is different floors with “world of illusion” stuff – magic eye, optical illusions, lights and the like. I had some fun taking photos.

Today I took a longish bus ride out to Leith, the port which was only integrated into the city of Edinburgh in the 20th century. I got off the bus a little early and walked to Ocean Terminal, which was interesting but as it was raining a little, it was a bit bleak.

With some time to go before meeting up with a friend, I decided to take the tour of the Royal Yacht Britannia. It was a fun way to pass some time.

State dining room – it was huge. All around the room were presents to the Queen, displayed on various walls, and on one end of the room was a narwhal tusk! What?!

Firth of Forth. (That’s more of Scotland over there)

Phones on the bridge.

Rolls-Royce in the Garage. Obviously.

Then this evening I headed out to knit night with the Tea Tree Tea knitters which was lovely! Tomorrow I’m leaving Edinburgh in the afternoon to head down to Manchester, where I’ll be doing an appearance and trunk show at Purl City Yarns on Sunday the 8th of May. Won’t you come by and see me?