Just for the record... Afternoon tea in Betty's stretched for two hours: sundaes, berries and rose-petal tea, followed by smoked salmon sandwiches and vanilla slices. Mmmmmmm...
After that, we sampled the respective glories of York and Leeds: the minster, the corn-exchange, the angels playing bagpipes, the red-brick canal, and opera - 'A Midsummer Night's Dream', in the refurbished Leeds Grand Opera House.
I'd never walked so far along the canal before, but all these other places are dear to my heart - from music, from countless visits, from the people I've met there, from the things that have changed. Places like this don't disappear when you leave, you carry them with you, like some sort of silent, internal architecture. And - yep - it's nice to visit them with Mum too. Who told me, the first time I mentioned York - that's a good idea.
2 comments:
Tea in Betty's, a distant dream now. Did you know there are other Betty's cafes around Yorkshire - in Ilkley and there used to be one in Bradford when I was a child. I used to be taken there for tea and cakes. That wonderful canal that you walk along runs from Leeds to Liverpool and it passes through the village where I was brought up. Sunday afternoon walks when I was a child, anytime walks when I was a teenager. It used to be very polluted with waste from the woollen mills and dyeing mills when I was young, but I used to fish for sticklebacks and take them home in a jar. What a wonderful connection, you walk along the canal I used to walk along when I was a child. Cool.
hey we can have a walk down memory-canal when you're in leeds for the conference! if there's time, that is... there were people fishing, and sunbathing on the banks...
can't beat tea at betty's... (i've been to the one at harrogate. there isn't one in leeds, though. they don't quite have the demographic i suppose.)
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