L E O N I E . W I S E

a day trip to york by train: just because….

york streets… beautiful old buildings everywhere.

york city walls; the main reason for our visit

more of the walls…

…

…

pieces and responses, york minster

york minster. ridiculously opulent, and impossible to photograph, even with a 10-22mm wide-angle lens

york minster

el piano, grape lane. awesome vegetarian/vegan/gluten-free restaurant where we stuffed ourselves silly

the pasty: quintessentially english. a hot meal in pastry.

next stop, NEW york, usa (end of feb). postcards from there too, i promise
xxx

dear friends,

those of you who follow me on twitter know exactly where i was this weekend. for those who don’t, nic and i headed for bristol to take a hot air balloon ride as part of the bristol balloon fiesta. we took the train over from london on friday night as we had an early start on saturday morning… we needed to be at the site, ready to go by 6am which meant a 4.30 am start!

nice day for a balloon ride

oh, it was most definitely worth it. according to our pilot (who has been doing this for 20 years), we couldn’t have picked a more perfect morning for it. there were no clouds as far as the eye could see, cool still air and the warm sun beaming at us over the horizon.

we were all giving instructions on how to get into the basket, and a safety briefing, then we were off. floating up into the gorgeous bristol morning with the rest of the balloons.

we flew for about 75 minutes, commanding a spectacular view over bristol and the clifton suspension bridge

after a stunning flight and some very welcome bucks fizz, we headed into to town center for some lunch before heading back to our b&b for a quick nap… then, we headed back out to the ashton court estate to see the red arrows.

ak, i was thinking of you as we saw these guys… it’s like the ultimate in drag racing being up there i expect

then we watched the balloons go up for the evening flight. there was definitely more of a crowd around this time and finding a good spot was tricky.

after the launch we decided we needed to be closer to the arena, so headed for one of the beer/pimms tents, where we managed to grab a table & chairs right on the fenceline for the finale of the evening, the night glow. set to music & beautifully choreographed, the night glow had the ballooons lighting up for us in an amazing display.

by the time this was done, neither of us could bear the thought of queueing for hours to get on a bus, so waved down a cab and headed straight back for bed. a most amazing day from start to finish.

nic and i both have hundreds of photos to sort through… these are just a few of the highlights.

love,
-leonie

#617 in the 1000 things to do in britain book

#814 in the 1000 things to do in britain book – join the cloud appreciation society

(yes ~t,  i can hear you laughing at me from here)

dear friends

not so long ago, (7 years to be exact) i married a man, on a beach, in the sunshine.

the beach is very dear to me. i grew up so close to the beach that it was the sound of the ocean that sung me to sleep. i miss it now we are living in london.

so, nic and i have promised each other that, for as many of our anniversaries we can, no matter where we are in the world, we’ll spend our anniversary weekend by the sea.

this year it was st ives, in cornwall. about 6.5 hours from london by train.

we stayed in a gorgeous b&b on the top of a hill, with a stunning view over the bay and down into st. ives

as soon as we’d dropped off our bags, we headed straight for the beach to greet the ocean

we walked here

and there

visited the museum and sculpture gardens of barbara hepworth

and had cream teas in the top of the tate, stopping a while to take in the magical view

a perfect way to celebrate my life with a wonderful guy

happy anniversary nic.
i love you more and more

monmouth coffee at borough market, where we stop every friday morning for freshly roasted organic beans, a shot of espresso and a pastry.

dear friend,

after departing from our beautiful accommodations, we head for the south coast of england

(via a stop in arundel to marvel at the castle).

after a walk along the beach,

we stopped for lunch at the east beach cafe.
(#504 in 1000 things to do in britain)

then it was off to visit the roman palace in fishbourne

before heading homeward feeling rested and relaxed.

my guy. who brings happiness, fun and laughter to my life every day.