Breakfast this morning was no ordinary experience. We were served fried mushrooms, tomatoes, and spinach sitting on top of scrambled eggs with Baker Tom’s fresh herbal bread. We do not know who Baker Tom is but his name is on menus at all the best cafes.

We took a short haul flight from Newquay Airport, a small Cornish Airport, on Flybe. The flight to Leeds/Bradford Airport in Yorkshire took just under an hour. Our hotel, Studley Hotel is in the city center right near shops, museums, and gardens, Long ago this was a spa town with sulphur water and there’s evidence everywhere of the Victorian spa town days.

Just down the road from our hotel is Valley Gardens. Filled with colorful flowerbeds, hidden duck ponds, and old shade trees, it’s one of the most beautiful and peaceful parks I have seen. We noticed an old Victorian ice cream shop in the middle that serves homemade ice cream. We will check it out tomorrow. Toward the back of the park was a kids play area with a large splash pool called a paddle pool, zip lines, climbing structures, tennis, crazy golf, and pitch and putt. We played a round of crazy golf on the simplistic course and it was lots of fun.

Exploring the area around our hotel we noticed a restaurant called Lettuce and Slug. I love that name and we hope to stop in there tomorrow.

Tonight we ate dinner at the pan Asian restaurant in our hotel. The crispy lemon chicken and beef with noodles was excellent. We walked around town and discovered an old spa from the late 1800s that is now a fun place for an after dinner drink. Six business men kept ordering bottles of Budweiser at the bar. I was getting irritated they kept ordering while we were ignored so I moved. Finally It was my turn so I ordered two limoncellos. They did not know what I meant so I ordered two Irish coffees. I was thinking they would probably pile it high with canned whipped cream instead of the real thing which would be ok with me, but instead we got two diner style coffees mugs with a little Irish whiskey in them and were directed to a self serve coffee machine. We pressed the cappuccino button and it was ok, but not what we were expecting.

Harrogate looks like a really interesting town. We are hoping for good weather tomorrow.