West Yorkshire

[Sundae]

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[Sundae]

Re the second photo, we sat outside the Pitcher and Piano (a chain, but a nice one) for about an hour and a half and watched Harrogate roll by. It was the right weather and the right setting and we laughed a lot.

Debated having something to eat, but decided we were better off saving ourselves for Bettys. See next and next and next posts!

[Sundae]

Bettys Tearoom is a national treasure.
Harrogate is the original, but there are a few scattered about. Mostly in t'North.
It turns out this was the sole reason Mum wanted to come to Harrogate. I moaned about it earlier in the thread, but really it's less than 30 minutes away on a reliable bus service, so I'm so glad she twisted my arm.

The whole town is lovely and Bettys...
Well.
I can't tell you what we (and by we I mean Mum) spent. Is not cheap. But it was an occasion, and we both enjoyed it enormously. Mum says she needs new knickers and can't afford to buy them. We had a Pink Champagne Afternoon Tea. I am my mother's daughter.

She also said she probably couldn't do this with anyone else. And even if she could there is no way she would enjoy it so much. She said I'm so self-assured she can relax anywhere she goes with me because I carry it all off so well (hahaha, me! a bundle of neurosis!) and I have the spend-it-now-worry-later attitude that makes a luxury a pleasure.
Okay she did follow it up saying that attitude also caused me a lot of problems
Yes I accept it's true

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Ma with menu, waiting in the queue.
We already knew what we were having thanks to a handy little thing called the internet, but as they were polite enough to hand out menus Mum was polite enough to read it.

Not me.
I skipped about taking photos.

It was about a ten minute wait.
On a Monday. On a schoolday.

[Sundae]

Here we are!
4 x tiny sandwiches. Very plain.

But sweet FSM they were good.
The ham was just ham. No mustard, no tomato, nothing. But it was the best tiny expensive ham sandwich I have ever had. It didn't need anything else, and it knew it.
Ditto chicken. Chicken to the power of ten. Stuffing is for chickens that aren't chickeny enough.
Egg mayo (well okay, but sliced egg doesn't really work) that was eggy and creamy.
Salmon that would make a bear weep.

My only minor disappointment was the scone.
It was good.
But only good.
In that I have had better.
Maybe nothing could ever live up to those sandwiches.
Cream and jam of course.

Then the top tier had three little cakes.
A cappucino one, a mini fruit tart and something choux. How awful to have forgotten!

Oh, these are our individual portions, not for us to share.
Photo shows only chicken sandwich left - fallen apart because of my greedy fingers.
Second shows a good strong cup of tea (poured by me to my taste) and little cakie from the top tier.

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Looking down into the tearoom where we sat - the table behind the lady in the apron.
And the upper seating area, which we didn't think was as nice

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Shop and take-home counters.

[glatt]

I never understood the going to tea thing, but looking at Betty's, I get it. I'd like to eat there.

[Clodfobble]

I don't mind the art itself, it's when people try to keep using them as a functional vehicle that they get annoying. They're a road distraction, and you never know when some piece is going to come unglued at high speeds and fly back at you. Plus they inevitably get tattered and gross from being out in the elements, so they're not respecting it as a car OR as real art.

I'm probably just bitter because we have a ton of those things in this hippie, free-expression, prove-your-uniqueness-quick-before-it's-too-late city.

[Sundae]

Originally Posted by glatt

I never understood the going to tea thing, but looking at Betty's, I get it. I'd like to eat there.

Do take the time to win the Lottery first...
It's not like having tea at Claridges or the Savoy, but it isn't cheap.
As I say though, what it does it does exceptionally. Everything except the scone was the best example of its type I've ever had.

Originally Posted by Clodfobble

I don't mind the art itself, it's when people try to keep using them as a functional vehicle that they get annoying.

Good point well made. I saw it parked and was just and and by it.

Sorry, I am still going.
Off to Leeds to say bye-bye to Mum.
I waited at the barrier to wave her off. She saw me when her carriage went by and waved back. I should've mooned her. Instead I cried when I knew she was properly out of sight. How stupid at my age.

Then I wandered around Leeds looking for a bus. Because Leeds is shit bus-wise.
The only nice things I found were Tour related.
Got a free Miffy keyring from a lovely Dutch lady who was part of a team promoting Utrecht, where the Tour starts next year.
The Black Prince looking less severe than usual in his cosy new jumper.

[Sundae]

There are many worthies in City Square.
Statues of worthies I mean.
All male. All clothed.

Is only ladies who get their titties out.
Because they're water-nymphs and it's art, okay.
I don't mind a bit of nekkidness, don't get me wrong. It's just every now and then it's one of those things that make you go hmmm...
Oh, I signed up for a life drawing class on Mondays. No word yet but they said they will call me when I am needed. Yeah, I'm not actually doing the drawing.

[Sundae]

From when I went to pick Mum up.
The chap played the fiddle very well, but the dancing devil was what swung it for me.
Had to have a photo, but he'd have had some change put in his hat regardless.

[Carruthers]

Originally Posted by Sundae

There are many worthies in City Square.
Statues of worthies I mean.
All male. All clothed.

Is only ladies who get their titties out.
Because they're water-nymphs and it's art, okay.
I don't mind a bit of nekkidness, don't get me wrong. It's just every now and then it's one of those things that make you go hmmm...
Oh, I signed up for a life drawing class on Mondays. No word yet but they said they will call me when I am needed. Yeah, I'm not actually doing the drawing.

Ladies when déshabillé, in statue form or otherwise, are generally more aesthetically pleasing than the male form.

Apart from anything else, the lack of naked male statues probably has something to do with the Great Fig Leaf Famine of the 1870s.

[Sundae]

Don't you bring the Iron Duke into it, or I'ma have to come back down to Bucks and give you a paddling!

I very nearly went to Apsley House just to have a gander at Napoleon's cock.

[Carruthers]

Originally Posted by Sundae

Don't you bring the Iron Duke into it, or I'ma have to come back down to Bucks and give you a paddling!

I very nearly went to Apsley House just to have a gander at Napoleon's cock.

Thanks for the photo tour, Sundae. I always enjoy your great picture threads.

Harrogate seems to be a similar place to Southport if somewhat grander.
That sentence alone is probably enough to have me declared persona non grata in that small corner of Merseyside that is forever Lancashire.

I believe that Southport was the home of wealthy industrialists, merchants and shipping owners who made their money in Liverpool.
Just guesswork, but in the case of Harrogate I suspect that mill owner wealth was behind the development of the town.
It certainly looks a prosperous place but, as we all know, where there's muck there's brass.