On the road toward York

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Geo: 53.9436, -1.27358

Dejo & I strolled about the area around The Brownlow a bit, first thing in the morning. We enjoyed a full cooked English Breakfast (the first for Jerome & Andrew), and then we had to get on the road. We headed north, toward the general vicinity of York, stopping for sandwiches (and a yummy box of strawberries) at a rest station along the way. We found a small town with a nice park, and enjoyed our lunch on a bench.

We decided to stop in a city that was large enough to be named on highway signs, but not a huge city: Wetherby. The folks at the tourist info centre in the library were nice enough to ring a couple of places for us, and we ended up at a pub inn - The Chequers Inn, in a tiny village called Bilton-in-Ainsty. I thought Andrew would enjoy staying in a pub, and indeed, we all did. Turns out that the new owners had only finished renovations on the rooms the Friday before, so we were the 2nd set of guests. Once we got checked in, we were convinced that it would be worth heading over to York, to see the Olympic torch being brought into the local racetrack. Traffic came to a halt a few blocks from our destination, and I hustled the guys out of the car to try to see the torch being run down the street nearby. They missed it (just), while I tried to figure out where I could park (nowhere, as it turns out). I picked them up again, and we parked at the racetrack. It was an event that required (free) tickets, but we were content to grab a spot along the rail, at the beginning of where a former jockey would ride it into the arena. Turned out to be an interesting spot, as we got to see him drop it (the horse wasn't interested in having fire nearby, it seems -- especially not in the hands of some bloke he's never met before).

We headed back to the Chequers Inn for dinner (fish & chips, as it was meant to be their quiz night). No quiz, but we did watch the England-Ukraine game with some of the local lads. Dejo & I took a walk through the village of Bilton-in-Ainsty – still light at 11 pm!

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Photos

The torch, being passed to the rider
This was right before it got dropped