our last visitors

Unless any of you are sitting on airline tickets you haven't told us about, Lauren and Jeff are our last visitors in England. As I mentioned in an earlier post, we also visited them in their fancy digs down south in Kent.

Their place was a nice, modern stand alone villa on the estate of Broome Park. An old manor house, Broome Park is part country club, part hotel, part restaurant/pub, and part check-in center for the place Lauren and Jeff stayed. It was quite impressive. We spent one night in front of the fire inside the "pub"/drawing room which was welcome after the chilly, rainy day.

(the back of Broome Park)




(reception room/lobby with a stalactite ceiling)



When they came up to York, we did the usual gauntlet of sites, frequented a pub or two, and had some great Indian food.




We also managed to get a quick trip in to Masham for the Theakston brewery tour (see the archived post for background). After going on both Masham brewery tours, I'd have to say that the Black Sheep tour was better, but the Theakston ambiance and pub for the post-tour pint was superior. You'll have to ask Pat about the beers, but I haven't seen any disappointment in any of them :)






The night before we left for Paris, we went on one of York's ghost tours with Lauren and Jeff. According to the web, York was "named the most haunted city in the world by the Ghost Research Foundation International (GRFI)." Who knew there was such a thing?


I think one of the best stories is the guy who saw Roman ghosts in the basement of the Treasurer's House (see the archived post for a summary of the story). Another story concerns George Villiers, the second Duke of Buckingham who is suppose to haunt the Cock & Bottle pub.

"It is believed the ghost of George Villiers, the second Duke of Buckingham, haunts this pub because his house once stood at that location. He lived during the reign of Charles II and was known to have many affairs with women. In fact, the nursery rhyme “Georgie Porgie” was all about George."

Georgie Porgie pudding and pie,
Kissed the girls and made them cry
When the boys came out to play,
Georgie Porgie ran away.

"...His ghost is described as a man with long black wavy hair, large nose and wearing an embroidered outfit. He seems to be spotted by women only and has been known to fondle them."

It was a very entertaining tour and presented well, although, I have to confess, I was expecting more gore and really creepy stuff. I was happy that it wasn't too cheesy.

Last, but certainly not least, I have to give Lauren and Jeff a big "Thank You" for bringing a replacement camera with them. The new advanced technology (including higher mega pixels and image stabilization) almost made the old one worth dropping, but if I had known about the best unadvertised feature, the cinching wrist strap, I would have been sold immediately :)