S and J got us interested in the Oystercard cheap rail tickets summer offer, so we all got on the train to Leeds for a day. We were prepared for the two-and-a-half-hour train journey, as I'd brought my Settlers of Catan set to play on the ride. If you've never heard of it, this is an award-winning German board game. It was S and J who introduced it to us, and got us hooked on it. Anyway, like I said, we were prepared for the journey - unfortunately, we didn't think that we'd be sitting apart.
Kirkstall Abbey
Yet again, we didn't do any research at all before coming, so we headed straight to the Tourist Information Centre, where we found that most people came to Leeds to get out of Leeds (that is, to various areas around Leeds city that were of historical and natural importance).
So we took a bus to Kirkstall Abbey. A young girl on the bus assumed correctly that this was where we were going and told us when it was time to alight. It was a nice gesture.
Kirkstall Abbey is a 12th Century Cistercian abbey, through which a main road once ran. We found a game of Nine Men's Morris and I proceeded to teach the rules to J. We played a game while B and S fooled around with the monks' costumes, including a wig complete with bald pate.
City centre
Back at the city centre, we went on a hunt for some restaurants that B had tried when she had been on assignment in Leeds. They were all closed as we were a little too late for lunch. We settled for pasta at Strada.
Having filled ourselves up, we visited the Henry Moore Institute, outside which young people gathered in groups or sat in pairs sunning themselves. Perhaps it was the glorious weather but I rather enjoyed walking along this stretch, although I'm not able to say why.
Largest naans in the world
The rest of the day was a bit aimless: walking through a Victorian arcade, visiting the Corn Exchange building, taking a bus around the city and watching a student band perform by the river.
The highlight was dinner at Akbar's on Greek Street, which served the largest naans I've ever seen. The waiter was funny too. We told him we had a train to catch, and he kept coming round to remind us how many minutes we had left.
Needless to say, we made it home smoothly. It did take a while to work off all that naan, however.
