Last Day in England (for now)

Our second day with Jeremy involved the obviously required trip to the Darlington Railroad Museum. Housed in the old North Street Station, it was a small-but-informative space. Truthfully, there was plenty to see in there, and our brains were full before we'd exhausted every panel.

Since we'd already toured Jeremy's worksite, we decided not to go back for the open house (ironic, since we'd scheduled our trip around said open house), but instead went for lunch. Then it was time for us to hit the road!

The locomotive that created Darlington's boom

A coal car

Within 80 years, they'd developed this version

The wood inlay is lovely, despite this space's utilitarian nature

This was a new one on me that I found adorable. See explanation below.

Outside of the station

Michael and I wanted to milk every bit of delight out of our visit, so we went back via the Yorkshire Moors. A different national park, it offered less-cultivated landscape. At one point, we just HAD to get out of the car to do a tiny bit of hiking, in search of the ever-elusive top of the hill. In any case, we enjoyed the view!

We also stopped in Helmsley. Clearly a touristy town, it was a real chocolate-box village. As it happened, they had the "steam rally" for which we'd been seeing signs and wondering what that entailed. On display were lots of old (gas-powered) tractors and a steam locomotive that operated on the street! There was also a steam tractor providing rides to willing guests.

 

We ended up at Stansted around 9 p.m. and spent the night in the airport hotel, taking the early flight out. We were greeted by sunflower fields in full bloom!

Love,

Alexandra