Day 13: Richmond (Therese's 60th Birthday)

Richmond was the perfect place to have a day of rest and to celebrate Therese's birthday, as it is a bona fide city in North Yorkshire.

With about 100,000 inhabitants, the city has a war museum (see below, right) dedicated to information about the local regiment that fought in both World Wars, two pharmacies (where we picked up necessary foot care supplies), a theatre, a castle from the Middle Ages (see below, left), several coffee shops, and a Saturday market on the green (which we shopped at for provisions on our way out of town the next day).

Our B&B was a hub of activity because their daughter was getting married -- at the B&B -- the next morning. Paul, our host, was a card -- and a Yorkshire card to boot. He kept correcting our accent: "It's not yo-gert. It's yow-gut."

We worried that we were in the way as they were preparing for the wedding, but he and his wife could not have been more hospitable. She did two loads of our disgusting laundry; we paid her for her work, but still, the day before your daughter's wedding you are doing someone else's laundry?

Peter spent most of the day catching up on the blog, as he had not made any entries for four days. Therese wandered off to explore the town, which is quite a pretty little medieval city.

Therese visited one of Richmond's coffee shops for a latte and shortbread (since she wasn't going to have birthday cake).

We had Therese's birthday dinner on our host's recommendation at an Italian restaurant, and while we were thrilled not to be eating at a pub, it was not a particularly good restaurant (in contrast to the Indian restaurant where we ate the night before, which was excellent). Peter liked his chicken and eggplant with spicy red sauce, but Therese was disappointed with her linguine (which was spaghetti) con vongole, which seemed to have been made without garlic.

After dinner we met some of our fellow travelers at a nearby hotel, where we bought drinks to celebrate Therese's birthday. And then home to bed.