(I’ll do this day by day since it’s turning long, so expect 3 reports for Thursday, Friday and Saturday…)
THURSDAY
started rather ominously. We arrived at Budapest’s Ferihegy Airport in the predawn Thursday morning for our 6 am Wizzair flight, sat down for a smoke, and glanced at the plane reservations, which I hadn’t done since I printed them the week before. A mistake. Turned out I’d reserved a Wednesday 6 am flight, not Thursday. We were 24 hours late for our plane.
So, not the best way to start a trip to Harrogate, but with remarkable speed and a now-crippled credit card, we got hold of another couple tickets and took a Malev 6 am to Gatwick. Then by train to Kings Cross, then to Leeds, then to Harrogate and its supremely under-marked streets, trying to find our hotel. As others have mentioned—it was probably the most frequent topic of conversation—it was warm and muggy there, and it seems the town hasn’t yet learned the benefits of artificially chilled air. But that aside, Harrogate’s really very lovely, known mostly for its antiques, none of which we bothered with.
It’s also a small town, so that first evening, too tired to make the opening festivities, we wandered until we found an open fish restaurant, and stumbled into my US editor, Kelley Ragland, and her husband and son. A nice way to start things, we sat around and drank beer while the child dozed and we all faded slowly into unconsciousness.
(Originally posted at the Contemporary Nomad)