Wednesday 17 September -York, Goddards Gardens

Breakfast today was at Bills where a lemon placed upon a table indicates that it is reserved.
Goddard's Gardens is a National Trust property near the racecourse. The house is the former home of the Terry family of chocolate fame.
The house looks severe from the outside but the rooms are very comfortable.

The garden is extensive and well maintained with views out on to the racecourse.

 

The garden was supervised by a guard sheep and a killer rabbit

The only chocolate now sold under the Terrys name is made in Poland.
We took a short cut across the racecourse and passed the old Terrys factory to the river.
Rowntree Gardens are a reminder of another York connection to chocolate. They are quite extensive but are overrun with geese.

Rowntree Park Dovecote

At Rowntree Park the Ice Cream vans have greater priority than invalid parking

On the river quay

Back at the Shambles I went for a glass of succor at the Blue Bell. This particular succor turned out to be Timothy Taylors Landlord.
A couple from Pontefract came in with a dog. The barmaid asked if they would like some water for the dog.
" Well he doesn't drink much water really, coffee, tea and beer but he rarely touches water."
And so the poor doggie had none.

The exterior of the Blue Bell is not pretentious. The can does dual duty.  It is hung out to indicate when the pub is open and it is for cigarette buts.  The window sill acts as a convenient shelf to place drinks.

The one bar has just two tables 

This is the Smoke Room, no smoking now, looking towards the back of the bar.

Tuesday 16 September - Bridlington

The original York station signal box has been turned into a coffee shop

We came to Bridlington by train changing at Seamer which has an island platform in the middle of nowhere. There was a flock of wagtails in the high hedges eating the large numbers of red berries. Some of them were performing acrobatic feats to get at the berries.

Station concourse

Bridlington station ticket window.

The station concourse

Bridlington station was quite a surprise. The booking hall area is covered in and contains a riot of flowers. The actual booking office is a well preserved old style one with metal separators topped by wooden shelves.

Bridlington has seen better days. It bills itself as an old time experience and possibly nothing has been altered in many years except prices. There are many vacant store fronts and most places could do with a good clean. A sign of the seaside resort is the number of large conveniently situated public conveniences.
Rags provided a good lunch, dressed Bridlington crab then steak pie/seafood plate.

The restaurant also provided a passable Wold Top Anglers Reward pale ale.

View of the harbour from close to the Rags restaurant.  The restaurant windows were in need of a good clean.

The sandpipers were very busy searching the weeds in the pots for food.

There was a fair bit of activity around the harbour with many seagulls, but also sandpipers and ducks. We had a soft ice cream and made our way through the amusement arcades and fairground rides towards the north beach. The sand is quite good but you have to go some way to get to the posher part with nice flower beds and a lack of stalls selling fast food. 

As at Whitby and Scarborough a pirate boat was giving rides

Anything to get people to part with their money

There seemed to be a lot of people with mobility chairs. Many women had coloured their hair occasionally at random. Is this a local fad or some charity stunt?
Click here to see all pictures taken at Bridlington
We caught the train back via Seamer but went through to Scarborough which is a more pleasant place to transfer. It was possible to see a little more than when we came in. The fog had turned into mist and the visibility had improved so that we could see all along the white chalk cliffs to the north.

Monday 15 September - Mary's Birthday

The view at The Star in the City overlooking the river Ouse and the museum gardens in York.

 

The Veuve Cliquot champagne.

Aaack, they ran out of New Zealand Sauvignon blanc! Nil desperandum, they had a lovely bottle of Sancerre.

Bread was served in a flat hat.

Seared sea scallops with Yorkshire pork cheek with cauliflower purée & Picallilli vinaigrette.

 

The mains. Risotto of local estate shot red legged partridge, braised chestnuts, wilted curly kale, Wensleydale cheese & truffle oil.

Duck with chip shop chips & wilted spinach.

 

A surprise birthday platter of mignardises.

Honeycomb ice cream & lemon thyme & honey ice cream. (Oops, started eating it before remembered to take picture).

Cheeseboard of local cheeses. (One piece already eaten).

Topped off with a decaf cappuccino.
Then we literally staggered home from this awesome meal