Week 52

Leeds, Bridlington and Stoke, a finale to a year of travels.

This is the final week of this journal; it marks the end of our first year of travels in retirement. It was the week we went visiting up north and set off again on.
Here we cover three one day trips each were memorable and great fun.

A) Saturday 23rd Feb. We drove to Leeds to meet up with Debbie and Andy. Their son Craig has just put an offer in on a house there

and we decided to spend the day together in Leeds. We spent the afternoon sightseeing and having a few drinks. Quite remarkable I brought a pint of Sam Smiths bitter in a city pub for £2 in 2019 can you believe it? We toured the corn exchange and city centre before finishing up with an Indian with Craig in the evening. So nice to see a young man setting out in life who to us was only a boy just a few years ago playing alongside our own kids, where does time go. We stopped over in a grand Victorian hotel before meeting Molly, Craig’s partner, on the Sunday morning – quick meet and greet before we were off again.

B) Sunday 24th Feb. We took the scenic drive from Leeds to

Bridlington. Here we had arranged to meet Nico’s parents Tony and Carol. Always a little nervous before meeting your daughters partners parents we were absolutely delighted to enjoy such a warm (in terms of both the weather and nature) greeting to the East Riding. We were given a whistle stop tour of the lighthouse, Sewerby Hall and gardens and the beach, preceded by the legendary fish and chips from No 159, who include Prince Charles and Camilla amongst its patrons. Neither disappointed, the fish and chips were epic and the tour of Bridlington beautiful including a lengthy walk in the sunlit February afternoon to walk off that big lunch. It was a real pleasure getting to know Carol and Tony.

C) Monday 25th Feb. We overnighted in a Holiday inn on the beach and took another walk on the splendid Brid (feeling like a local now!) beach before setting off to Stoke on Trent to catch up with some friends we met in Thailand in October. Shelly and John Brennan. Time was an issue for Shelly and John as they are still working but we hooked up at 4pm and swiftly downed a bottle of wine before setting off for a remarkable Chinese meal. The whole evening was spent chatting like we had known each other forever despite this being a holiday friendship. What we do know is that we will definitely meet up again with them and hope to take a safari in Africa in the near future together. They rounded off a wonderful evening with a trip to the Gordon Banks memorial at the Stoke ground as he had sadly just passed away.

Thanks to all above for a spectacular few days away hope to be

seeing you all again soon.

There we have it one year on the road.
So much has happened in this past year travelling, we have made many acquaintances and some friends that I am sure we will see many times again. Above all we have learned a lot about ourselves for example what we like and how to enjoy our lives together without the concern of work. We have plotted and planned our lives looking forward or at least we think we have an outline plan. We have also not finished travelling yet, but simply decided to finish the travel journal at this point.
As this year, 2019, unfolds we will be returning to Gold Coast to

house sit for Karen and Kev who are off on another round the world trip for three months and after that we will visit Laura and Nico in Hong Kong. That takes us through to June, when we return to the UK for ten days before we set off with Anthony and Alexa to join her family at Lens Cove Canada for a week fishing and camping in log cabins. So the excitement continues!

The End!