Yesterday I went on a nice, little day trip to the beautiful city of Leeds in the county of Yorkshire. I caught the National Express Coach at eight (that means that I had to get up at 6:30, an abnormal time for me on a Sunday...) and arrived there some two hours later. I was quite a bit unlucky with the weather and had the worst weather possible for sightseeing - fog. Why hadn't the forecast told me anything about that?! But as I'd planned mainly indoor activities it was okay.
So I made my way from the coach station to the city centre, that is, not in possession of a map of Leeds I got lost, asked for directions and was helped by two lovely people who didn't only walk me to the city centre but also outlined the general layout of the city to me. Because of their kind help I also didn't get lost later in the day, not one time.
The first sight I visited was the Town Hall in the area of which I walked around and also had a look at the surrounding buildings. You'll notice that the photo I've posted is actually from four in the afternoon, some five hours later, and there isn't the slightest hint of fog. So I was lucky with the weather in the end...
Next thing I did was walking out to the Royal Armouries Museum. Not so different from the Liverpool World Museum, only that the place of all the exhibits related to nature and science is taken by ancient armour and weaponry. Pretty interesting, all those old knight's armours, they even had one from Austria of the 16th century.
The next place on my list was Leeds Art Gallery which houses - not unlike Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool - many paintings of 19th century British Pre-Raphaelites, among them also
The Shadow of Death. And they also have modern paintings there, once again mainly by British artists.
After so much art enjoyment I finally had to leave the museum when they closed at five and then I walked around in the city looking for more interesting places to see, when a signpost saying 'University' caught my eye and I decided to go there. The University of Leeds is a quite huge complex that houses institutes of a great variety of fields of study and also a not too small language section. First I surrounded the university grounds, then I strolled around in the campus which actually felt a bit claustrophobic with all the buildings crammed into it but the beautiful flower beds and the nice benches to sit on made up for that.
I then visited the library where I was absolutely amazed by the huge assortment of German books but also Japanese and French ones. 'Someone please lock me in and throw away the key', were my thoughts...
I took up a copy of Patrick Süskind's
Das Parfum and started reading, I only had time for the first two chapters but it promises to be an interesting read and I can't wait until I have the book myself and can read it to the end.
At seven, I finally had to leave the library then and I killed time in the city centre until I went to the coach station from where I returned to Liverpool.
It was a great day, I love day trips like these! Next time I might go to York then.
Leeds Town Hall
Royal Armouries Museum - outside
...
and inside.
Victorian houses in Leeds
The Shadow of Death:
And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to death -
even death on a cross!
The university where the German language is still taken seriously
Colourful flower beds in the university campus
Sunset over Leeds
Leeds pedestrian area at night
I just finished watching 'La gloire de mon père' in the library. Our library's film collection is just great, credit where credit is due.
