We were going to York with Helen for a few days to visit Georgina (George) our friend from university and her partner Lech.

We travelled through many lovely towns.

Winslow in Buckinghamshire was very oldy worldly had many lovely cottages.

We had a halfway stop at National Trust property Hardwick Hall just off the M1. Our revived Scottish National Trust memberships are coming in very useful.

It was built in the 1500s by the very rich Bess of Hardwick who wanted to display her wealth with the number of windows. Elizabeth I was in power at the time so there was an uneasy competition between them.

We had a nice cafe lunch and then a wander around the gardens.

We didn’t go inside as we needed to get going again.

We arrived in York about 5pm and moved into the comfortable Airbnb very near the River Ouse. We checked it out – it is very high and the paths alongside are under water.

We walked the short 15 minutes to George’s where we had a lovely catch up and dinner. We made plans for our next few days in York including some National Trust properties.