Moving day and a visit with special friends

Yesterday morning we said goodbye and thanks to our couchsurfing host Isabel. Our friends Glen and Steve are currently living in the town of Keighley and we definitely wanted to visit them so we decided to move to their place for two nights before we head to Bristol.

Our time here has been going by far too quickly and we haven't seen nearly what we wanted to. I guess we'll just have to return! Here's a better idea of where we are...

We are currently at the "A", the town of Keighley.

And a little closer view of the area. Leeds and Bradford are two distinct separate cities, yet there is only about 15 kms (9 miles) between them.

Thanks Isabel!

We took the train from Burley Park to Leeds, and then another train from Leeds to Keighley. Problem was, when we got on the Keighley train the conductor came by to check tickets. We showed him our West Yorkshire Metro DayRover passes, but he said they weren't valid! Turns out you can only use them after 9:30am. And sure enough that's exactly what it says in the fine print on the back. We just assumed that they were day passes, so they were valid for 24 hours. We explained the situation, and he let us away with it, but now that we know we'll have to try and exchange one on Wednesday morning because we have to be at our bus to Bristol for 8:10am.

Made it to Keighley, and Glen was going to meet us at the grocery store parking lot across the road. But when the car arrived, it was a younger version of Glen! Turned out to be her daughter Claire! 

Glen and Steve were the ones who got us into this style of travel almost five years ago. We toured Mexico with them in our motorhomes for a few months at a time during a couple of winters, but we haven't seen them in a couple of years. This winter, Steve was diagnosed with an aggressive form of leukemia while they were in Spain, and now they are in Keighley while he undergoes treatment. He's going through a bit of a bad spell right now due to the chemo, and is unfortunately in hospital while we're here. So that's where we went to visit.

Claire dropped us at Glen and Steve's place and left us a key. We made something to eat and then followed Glen's instructions to take the bus to the hospital. It was so good to see them, but obviously not under the best of circumstances. After visiting, we left with Glen. She has borrowed her Mum's car, so she gave us a tour of the area and took us into the city of Bradford. One thing we noticed immediately about Bradford is the number of Muslim people. And quite a few hard core Muslims, with the women wearing the full face covering Burkha type of clothing. Not being racist, just stating a fact. It's hard not to notice.

The view from the road near where we are staying.

Art at the Tramsheds in Bradford.

Bradford City Hall. We tried to see some of the inside, but it's not open to tourists.

We did take a quick tour of the Media Museum. They had some neat displays about how the internet came to be.

And a good display of old televisions.

We went inside an  old church that is no longer a church. Now it's a bookstore. The architecture of the ceiling is interesting.

An old cobbled road. This becomes quite steep and is certainly NOT suitable for a motorhome!

Another view of Keighley area.

We made dinner at home with Glen and then just sat and visited the rest of the evening. Hard to call it evening really because it stays light out until about 10:15pm! And then it's light again before 4:30am.

Today, we're off to the old village of Haworth and then the Unesco World Heritage site of Saltaire.