Allie Goes Global

The title of this post isn’t exactly honest, because things fell apart the day before. However, this is the day where my itinerary begins to mean nothing, because I was leaving town. Never mind all of the things that I had pre-booked and paid for. I just had to leave that money on the table, since I could no longer stay in York.

Checking out of the hotel was a bit of a faff, since I had to figure out how to leave my key. The pub doesn’t serve breakfast, so it was closed, and in an attempt to find some kind of key drop box, I ended up locking myself outside. All of my attempts to just slink away unnoticed were now out the window. I ended up having to email the hotel, telling them where I had hidden my key outside. Really, no other option.

Now, there was one thing I really wanted to do before I left town. I had a reservation for breakfast and I didn’t intend to miss it. In doing my research on the best breakfast in York, Partisan kept popping up. So, like a weirdo, I made a reservation six month in advance, and showed up promptly at 9am. This decision was well worth it. Partisan was incredible. I had Huevos Divorciados, and it is absolutely one of the best things I ate on my whole trip. They also have a full bakery in front, and I still regret not buying something to eat later. It looked incredible.

Breakfast now handled, I made my hasty retreat from York and drove the hour or so to Conisbrough Castle. Somehow, in all my planning, I managed to allot itinerary space for about six churches and zero castles. While the departure from York was not planned, this did give me the opportunity to rectify that situation.

Conisbrough Castle is sort of half ruins, half not. No one lives there, there’s no furniture, but as someone with a deep love of history, this was absolutely perfect for me. I paid the modest entry fee and went outside to try to take a picture of the castle. The man working in the office saw this, came outside, and told me exactly where to stand to take the best photos. It’s the little things, sometimes, that we appreciate the most.

There is one tower that is still maintained (the big one on the right in the photo above), and each floor has a looping video presentation about what might have happened on that floor. Weirdly, I think they have tried to make the whole place appealing to children, given that most of the signs are laid out like comic book pages. Doesn’t seem like a place kids would enjoy to me, but maybe they get a lot of school trips.

As someone fairly recently recovered from a broken ankle and now much less steady on my feet, the stairs in this place were kind of a death trap. I ended up descending sideways, holding onto the handrail with both hands. Given that I am now typing this, you might guess that I did not in fact die.

The best part, by far, is the view from the top. You can see the entire area for miles around, which makes it very easy to understand why this castle would have been built in this location. No one can sneak up on you if you can see them five miles away.

From here, I headed to my hotel. Upon check-in, I mentioned the live music debacle from the previous few nights, and the desk clerk just said, “Oh, you deserve something nice after all that!” and immediately upgraded my room. Again, it’s the little things. I don’t know why anyone would find themselves here, but just in case: I can highly recommend the Holiday Inn Doncaster in Warmsworth. As I said, it’s basically in the middle of nowhere, but it was a very nice stop for the night.

I enjoyed a late lunch/early dinner in the hotel restaurant of their pie of the day and a pint of cider, with banoffee pie for dessert. The banoffee pie was another thing on my British foods list, and this one was an absolute winner.

I’ll be honest, I did nothing for the rest of the day. I pulled the duvet off the bed, snuggled up on the couch, and took an excessively long nap. When I woke up, I took a bath and then went to bed. You can only have so many nights of bad sleep at my age, and I wanted to be fresh for the rest of my trip.