July 5, 2016. Visiting ancient York

LOCATION:  House-sitting in Sheffield, England

WEATHER:  Another sunny day. Highs low 70s

We set off on a day trip to York, first taking the tram downtown, and then a 1-hour train ride to York.

The York  railway station itself was our first introduction to beautiful architecture...

These flowers on the train station hotel greeted us.

Not really knowing where to go, we decided to take the hop-on, hop-off bus to familiarize ourselves with the city.

The huge cathedral, one of Europe's largest, was our first sight from the top of the bus.  

 

We soon saw remnants of the wall around the city.

See next post for more photos...

July 4, 2016. The Old Vicarage

While the sun was out today, I took these pictures of our housesitting assignment called "The Old Vicarage".  It was built in the mid-1800s.  It has been beautifully restored.  The gardens are lush, too.

Front of the house...

Precisely-trimmed hedges in front...

Side garden...

July 4, 2016. Visiting country villages

LOCATION:  House-sitting in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England

WEATHER:  Another "un-English" day....Sunny, warm, highs in 70s

At this beautiful house-sit, we are responsible for the care of 3 cats.  This one, Miss Skippy, is the most gregarious, following me around the yard.

We also feed 3 chubby chickens.  Here they are enjoying an outing away from their pen....

And, we feed fish in this lovely pond...

After feeding them all, we headed out for a few hours.  This is the gate to cut through our cemetery to the bus stop...

Our destination today was to some country villages.  We watch the BBC show "Last of the Summer Wine" which is filmed in this area.  With the bus pass, we just hopped on and off at several of these towns, generally when we saw a cute pub!

I just love these pub signs...

We bought a delicious sausage roll at a butcher's shop.  They are inexpensive.  This one was very flaky.  There are usually many savory pies, rolls, and pasties from which to choose.

Back home, I was in heaven catching up on  "Call the Midwife" shows which the homeowner had recorded.

DINNER:  Traditional hamburgers and fries (called chips here) to celebrate the 4th of July!

July 3, 2016. Sunny bliss in England

LOCATION:  House-sitting in Sheffield, England

WEATHER:  Beautifully sunny all day. Highs in 70s

After morning chores for chickens, cats and fish, we headed downtown.  We are staying in "The Old Vicarage" built around 1850.  The church's cemetery is our backyard.  I can see gravestones from our bedroom window.

We took the shortcut between the vicarage and the church to the bus stop, through the cemetery.  This is our path....

This is the front view from the bus stop.  Just incredible!

Once downtown, we strolled around the heart of the city.  There are many pedestrian malls, with sidewalk musicians.  I checked out the food stalls at the famous Marks &Spencer department store.  Very fancy.

The sun was shining, and lots of people were out.  We stumbled upon this little plaza where a band was playing Frank Sinatra-type songs.  

Then, we slowly made our way home.  We stopped at this pub, as I used to work with a Tomlinson so wanted to take a photo for him...

Back home, the sun continued to shine, so we had a glass of wine on the patio next to the fish pond.  Lovely!

DINNER:  Final night of paella leftovers.  Added lots of veg. 

July 2, 2016. First explorations of Sheffield

LOCATION:  Sheffield, South Yorkshire in northern England

WEATHER:  Typical English weather.  Sun, then rain, sun again. Highs in 60s

After doing last-minute tasks, our homeowners hit the road for their week's  holiday.  We officially started this assignment.  We fed the cats, fish and chickens.  

Railway trips are a fraction of the cost if one books ahead, so I started checking our routes to our other destinations.  We found a deal that gives a 1/3 discount when 2 travelers who  travel together.  Since we are NEVER apart, we thought this would be a good deal.  It requires buying a discount card, so we decided to go to the train station to buy it.

This was a good exercise to get to know the city layout a bit.  Sheffield has a lot of steep hills.  We walked downhill and caught the tram into the city.  We bought a week's pass good for tram and bus travel here.  That gives us flexibility.  Once downtown, we found the train station, bought our discount cards, then looked for a pub with a bathroom -:).  Happily, the train station pub was excellent.

It has lots of beers on tap, including IPAs.  It also has hundreds of imports from all over the world.  This is quite different from the options in pubs when we were here ages ago.  This pub also brews its own beer, and George chatted with the brewmaster.

Our strategy for our return trip was to catch a bus that would drop us off close to our house, avoiding the uphill climb.  We caught a double-decker bus, sat up-top to watch the scenery, and found our stop, thanks to the driver's kindness.  

Conveniently, the bus stop just happens to be next to a friendly neighborhood pub.  So, of course, we had to check it out.

We sat next to a friendly couple and had a conversation that (unusually) didn't involve discussions about Brexit or Trump.  They invited us to meet up with them one evening next week.  Nice!

DINNER:  Grilled Yorkshire trout, with leftover paella.  We will treat our cats with the fish skin tomorrow. Should make them happy!

July 1, 2016. On to our first house-sit in England

LOCATION:  Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England

WEATHER:  Highs in 60s.  On and off rain, with periods of sun

We started the day in London, where we had crashed after our long flight.  With jet lag, we woke up at 5:00 AM.  Since it was already light, we decided to get up and stroll around.  Our cute hotel was near King's Cross Station.  

King's Cross Station is huge, and it is next to St. Pancras Station, equally big.  

Since we would be leaving later in the morning from St. Pancras, we walked to the station to familiarize ourselves with the layout and to pick up our tickets,  I love seeing the London icons like the red double-decker buses, the red telephone boxes, and unique London taxis.

We sneaked a peak inside the posh St. Pancras Hotel next to the station.

We ducked into a coffee shop when it started to rain, and watched commuters rush to and from the train stations.  With about 2 hours to kill, we walked around the residential areas nearby.  

Then, a speedy train took us to Sheffield, about 150 miles north from London.

Our homeowner picked us up, and took us home.  Sheffield is one of England's largest cities, with a population of about 500,000.  

We spent the afternoon getting oriented to our house-sitting duties.  Here, we have 3 cats and 3 chickens to care for.  Later, we and walked around the neighborhood to familiarize ourselves with the area.  The homeowners live in a beautifully-restored 1800s vicarage.  

We had a beautiful paella dinner with the homeowners and mother with lively conversation about Brexit and Trump.  The sentiment is that many voters didn't know what they were voting for when they voted to leave the European Union, and others didn't bother to vote.  Most mistakenly thought the "remain" vote would win.  Now, there are scary parallels with the USA election.  Will a potential Trump victory occur if/when people don't know what they are voting for and/or will people other than crazy Trump supporters even vote?  Interesting dialogue! 

June 30, 2016. Traveling half-way around the world!

Today was about 34 hours long..... 

We boarded our Malayasia Air flight at 12:05 AM in Melbourne.  After an 8-hour flight, we landed in Kuala Lampur.  What an exotic airport!  It was chock-full of duty-free shops.  Lots of people with middle-eastern clothing.   Quite interesting to see Muslim-dressed women clerks selling duty free luquor.   I was intrigued with all the exciting-sounding cities listed on the departure board.  I haven't heard of many of these locations...

After 3 hours, as we were getting ready to board a Sri Lankan flight to Colombo, our names were called.  Was something amiss?  No.....we were bumped to business class!  

After 3 hours of being pampered in business class (unfortunately too early to take advantage of free drinks), we landed in Colombo.  This airport was even more foreign-feeling.  Not many Caucasians.  Many prayer rooms, a big platform area of rest and pray, special bathrooms for feet-washing, and LOTS of security.  

Military guys walked around in full uniform, saluting each other, and asking everyone to show boarding passes as we walked around.  George took a little rest after seeing many middle-eastern men doing it....

Then a 10-hour flight to London.  Nice and uneventful.  We would highly recommend Sri Lankan Airlines. Great service and the least expensive flight we found.

We arrived at Heathrow at 8:00 PM.  Since it is summer here, it was still day-light. We caught the "tube" to downtown, King's Cross Station.  On the trip, we overheard Brits talking about Brexit.  It will be interesting being here during this time.

We arrived at our hotel about 10:00 PM near King's Cross and hit the bed.