Europe

We slept quite well last night, and were up and organised by about 8:30 am. We were going to skip breakfast but, since we were going to be spending a few hours on the road, we decided to grab some breakfast in the hotel before we left. The breakfast was, for an airport hotel, surprisingly not too bad.

We picked up a Volvo XC90 hybrid from the Sixt car rental office at Heathrow’s T5, and set off at about 9:30 am for Grantley Hall in Yorkshire, a drive of just under 400 km.

We arrived at Grantley Hall around 2:30 pm. We enjoyed a drink while checking in, and then headed to our room.

After settling into our room, we decided to go for a walk around the beautiful grounds of Grantley Hall. Grantley Hall was built around 1710. It is situated near Grantley, about 8 km to the west of Ripon, on the banks of the River Skell. The house is listed on the National Heritage List, and the Japanese garden in the grounds is listed on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens. The property and house are quite spectacular.

Mid-afternoon we caught up with our friends, Earl and Sue, who had flown in from Chicago. We were delighted that we could coordinate our respective holiday plans so that we could spend a few days together at Grantley Hall in the beautiful north-east of England. We headed to Fletcher’s, one of the hotel’s restaurants, to enjoy an afternoon snack and catch up after not having seen each other since we were in Chicago in 2023.

After enjoying a bite to eat, and a cocktail, we decided to explore the grounds.

After a lovely walk, we went back to our rooms for a little while, and then met for dinner at about 7:30 pm. We decided to dine at Eighty Eight, Grantley Hall’s Asian restaurant, where we had a wonderful meal and enjoyed catching up on what had been going in our lives over the last couple of years.

We got back to our rooms around 11:00 pm, after a lovely day. Tomorrow, we plan on going for a drive around the Yorkshire countryside.