London Again!

 Back in London we went again we had a lovely night out at the same pub as the last time, treating ourselves to Thai chicken curry and a burger respectively. It was a lovely welcome back to London.

We stayed in the YHA at St Pancras as it was very central to all the transport links, and it was clean and nice. The staff are always nice as well.

The next day we were adamant to make the best possible use of our time so we set off nice and early for Buckingham palace. 

The walk through the park in the morning was lovely as the air was brisk and it was full of autumn colors. There were a lot of runners and cyclists about and it made me feel sort of bad to be slowly meandering our way. It was quite enjoyable seeing Buckingham palace again as it was much quieter than when Shyla and I went. 

 On our wanders we stumbled across an M&M store which naturally became our next destination. 

There were so many different colours to choose from! Far more than anything in the normal stores. We had great fun making a small mix up for ourselves. I think we accidentally ended up with the French flag colours!

The store had so much merchandise it was crazy, everything from mugs to t-shirts, most of it was very tacky of course. I enjoyed these paintings the most.

We found Paddington Bear!!

The Last Day: York

Our second trip to York was nice as we went and saw completely different things, beginning with this beautiful ruined abbey - courtesy of course of King Henry VIII. 

What was left was just stunning.

We passed the Cathedral again and I managed to take a better picture this time. Unfortunately after this I forgot to take pictures as we were in a bit of a rush and therefore although we spent most of the afternoon walking through the city and - most importantly - wandering the Shambles (a beautiful medieval street in York) I didn't manage to get any photos except what was in my prior post on York which does showcase the Shambles a little. 

We also walked around the old wall that surrounded York which was beautiful.

Tash and I sitting on the old wall, above my head you can just see the old arrow slits. 

We had to get up crazy early the next morning to catch our bus back to London, but at least we saw a beautiful sunrise!

Tash saying goodbye to her Great-Aunt's dogs. They were very sweet.

Museum of Weaponry

The next morning Joan and Carl - Tash's relatives, treated us to a lovely breakfast. 

After our leisurely meal they kindly took us to the Museum of Weaponry in Leeds. Although we got a bit lost on the way we got there in the end, and it was brilliant!

It started off with medieval weaponry, and had full suits of armor for both men and horses, as well as many different types of weapons that were used. It also had an interesting section on jousting and apparently in the summer there are matches held! I would have loved to see that.

There was also an interesting section devoted to medieval hunting and the different weapons and techniques used. 

 A tiny section with some lovely old French flags.

And then of course the section on modern warfare. The figure on the left gave me a heart attack when I entered the dim room he looked so lifelike. There was also an interesting photography exhibition which can be seen on the right here, it photographs survivors of World War II and was beautifully done.

We amused ourselves entirely too much with the cut out figures.

Then we found the Lord of the Rings section!! On the left is, for some reason, Aragorn's sword, and on the right, Gandalf of course!

Leeds Christmas Market

There was a German Christmas market on in Leeds, so Tash's relatives took us to that one night. It was extremely fun, but very cold! 

Here you can see Tash looking happy but cold.

The Christmas market was a mix of many pretty wooden stalls selling all sorts of things, from German sausages, to chocolate, to Christmas decorations, to jewelry. There were also a tonne of fun rides as well. We were going to go on an extremely fun looking one but straight after eating we decided it might not be the smartest idea. 

This stall was giant flavored chocolate covered marshmallows. They were good but extremely sweet.

We also tried the hot mead, which was rather more potent than we expected but had a lovely honey taste and kept us nice and warm. I also felt extremely medieval. If you get the chance I would  certainly suggest trying this awesome beverage! 

The night ended with us scraping a thick layer of ice off the car before we could drive. 

York

Our next place of note was a quick afternoon trip to York, happily with the promise of returning and spending more time.  York itself was a brilliant city, still complete with it's medieval walls running around the city, and many many churches.

To reach the main old town we had to cross the river which offered beautiful views. Apparently it often flooded and the bottom floor of the houses seen here were sometimes flooded!

 There was a little Christmas market on as we wandered through so we stopped for a look at the many delectable delights.

This beautiful Tudor-style house caught my eye, with its sagging floors and warm pub like atmosphere. Beautiful!

We then wandered to the beautiful cathedral in the centre of York which was breathtaking. You had to pay some ridiculous amount to go in, so we just sneakily peaked in behind the barriers.

The shambles was my favourite part of York, and is indeed world famous as a stunning medieval street. Although we didn't have time to properly explore it this time, we certainly went back a few days later and took many more photos. This building in particular struck my eye, not only very old and beautiful, but it also looked exceedingly cosy, and had the lovely name of Mulberry Hall.

We just casually passed this sign on the side of the street which I thought was awesome. Also the pub in the right-hand side was called the Punch Bowl, and had been a pub since the 1600s. It was also supposedly haunted - but then so was every other old pub in York apparently. Funny that.