Text: Peter Johansson
Tillägg och redigering: Christer Lundstedt
Bilder: Christer Lundstedt, Peter Johansson
Filmer: Christer Lundstedt
Sunday 7th of August
08.44 Today's breakfast here at the Wilson Carlile Center (https://www.wilsoncarlilecentre.org.uk) in Sheffield also came in a bag. No, now it will be nice to take the next step towards the upcoming English cities and then heading towards home in Sweden.
09.31 It was locked at the reception but Christer used the key card and he got in. It was unmanned there but a gentleman appeared and took the card. Now we walk towards the railway station.
09.58 The metal bench is full of small holes. It is certainly practical in some way. We are sitting at Sheffield Station waiting for our train. We have dreams, plans to end the day with a pint of good beer and a piece of meat. We'll see if these dreams can be fulfilled.
10.04 We are on board the first means of transport of the day, a train. The display on the ceiling wants us to read and familiarize ourselves with the safety regulations. We'll see how that goes. How much do they differ from those we have read before? We chose this extremely short train journey out of pure convenience rather than learning how to buy tickets for the tram system you can use in Sheffield and surrounding areas.
10.24 The sound of church bells echoes across Rotherham north-east of Sheffield. That's probably all that happens here. The city has a mummy's pulse like this on a Sunday morning. A small distance from us flows the Don. It is a considerably a tamer Don than Europe's fifth longest river in Russia which has the same name.
10.51 This is still Rotherham and it's still Sunday. It's deserted in All Saints Square and it's unfortunately closed at Costa Coffee where we intended to drink eleven o´clock coffee. Google Maps lied to us and informed that it would be open. Rotherham with a population of 117,262 is only a mile from Sheffield.
11.16 After walking in a deserted center and photographing the church Rotherham Minster, we regrouped to the city's bus station. Now it's just a matter of continuing to wait.
14.10 So we were back at Barnsley Interchange. We are visiting towns at a fast pace now at the end of our journey. Östersunds FK won the match against Landskrona and our clothes are in need of at least one machine wash. Now we will soon move on to this Sunday's fourth visited city.
16.31 Goodbye Costa Coffee, goodbye for today! Now we will eventually move to Doncaster railway station.
20.15 Now that we have rested and showered, we will soon go out for various food purchases. Due to the Pride hysteria and the location of the hotel, it will be difficult to find a good dinner restaurant tonight.
Monday 8th of August
The breakfast at the Wilson Carlile Centre.
The Bridge Inn, a pub in Rotherham.
Rotherham Minster.
It´s empty in Rotherham this Sunday.
Barnsley Interchange - bus section.
Barnsley Town Hall.
The Queen is remembered outside Barnsley Town Hall.
Barnsley in South Yorkshire.
The fountain in Centenary Square.
Two gentlemen in Barnsley.
Floral splendor along Church Street, Barnsley.
The Victorian Arcade, Barnsley.
Queen Street, Barnsley.
Beautiful art in Doncaster.
Doncaster Station.
Saint Sepulchre Gate, Doncaster.
Peter at Costa Coffee, Frenchgate.
Doncaster Minster.
We have arrived at the main railway station in Leeds.
There was someone more than us who didn't attend Leeds Pride.
Holy Trinity Church, Leeds.
Leeds Corn Exchange.
Leeds Minster.
ibis Budget Leeds Center Crown Point Road.
An August evening in Leeds.
07.36 In the absence of a kettle here at the ibis Hotel, it will be tricky to fix morning coffee. Today is a new week and the last full day on English soil. Tomorrow we are heading home towards Sweden and everyday life again.
08.31 Now we start getting ready for the last trips and the last city visits for this time. Christer has just checked in on the flights home tomorrow morning. Now it's getting closer. 09.04 We have walked the relatively short distance to Leeds Bus Station. We are on the move early today as we need to get back to the hotel in good time tonight. 09.21 We have now boarded the bus from First Bus which will take us west from Leeds to nearby Bradford. The last bus journey of the trip goes to Bradford, unless we count the transport to the airport. Other movements today will take place by train to save time. The buses are simply too slow. 10.11 On the way into Bradford we have seen the Hindu Cultural Society of Bradford and also a religious center for Sikhs. Bradford is one of the English cities with the largest proportion of people of South Asian origin. Just under 30% originate in India and neighbouring countries. 10.27 Finally we were let off the bus at Bradford Interchange. It's an overcast sky over Bradford. We are currently sitting at the majestic town hall, Bradford City Hall.
We and Leeds have woken up to a new week.
Our bus rolls through Leeds city centre.
It's downhill on the way to Bradford.
Hindu Cultural Society of Bradford.
Bradford City Hall.
Mirror Pool in City Park, Bradford.
10.36 We have been sitting here on the bench at City Hall for a while. Christer recognizes the building since his visit here in August 1997. Then he traveled on his own from Manchester to London, making various stops along the way. Here in Bradford he stayed at a student accommodation where his penpal Katy Crowson had a room. The resourceful students had amused themselves by collecting signs warning of surveillance cameras and they had put up signs marked with cheese around the house with arrows that would lure the rats to the rat traps.
10.55 We have continued to investigate central Bradford, a large city in West Yorkshire with a population of 375,018 people. A few steep steps took us up to the beautiful cathedral, Bradford Cathedral. By the way, are there many ugly cathedrals? 10.59 From the street below the cathedral we got a good view of the city's football stadium, the University of Bradford Stadium, which used to be called Valley Parade. As well as being the home of Bradford City FC, the stadium is best known for the tragedy that occurred on 11 May 1985 when a fire broke out in the wooden stands, killing 56 spectators. 11.31 After some searching, we eventually found The Broadway Mall. In it we found yet another Costa Coffee, a Costa Coffee with good coffee and sandwiches. 12.11 We are now back at the city's travel hub, Bradford Interchange. Now we are ready to go by train to the next city. 12.30 After a short journey on an overcrowded train on the way from Hull to Blackpool, we are now at the railway station in Halifax. A little girl on the train had an honest and lovely question for her father. "Dad, have you ever stood up on a train before?" 12.45 Here in Halifax not much has happened yet. An alcoholic has asked if we had a phone that he could borrow. We said no. Now we are, without the alcoholic, at the local minster, Halifax Minster. A minster was originally a monastic church but later became a title given to certain churches. Halifax, located in West Yorkshire, has 88,109 inhabitants. 12.54 Via a gate we have now arrived at The Piece Hall, the large cloth hall from the 18th century which today contains shops, bars and restaurants. It is a beautiful place, like a square with buildings all around. Here there is life and movement, it has been since 1779. Once upon a time, woven fabrics were sold here. Besides the two of us, some preschool or elementary school kids seems to have a field trip here. The gray weather we experienced in Bradford has now changed to a nice sunny summer day.
Tyrrell Street, Bradford.
Bradford Cathedral.
We got off the train in Halifax.
Halifax in West Yorkshire.
Square Church & Halifax Library.
Halifax Minster.
13.05 Never underestimate a bench in the shade. It's really nice. People and animals pass on the cobblestone street Woolshops in front of us. A troubadour plays for us, Mister Sandman, bring me a dream! It's originally music from the 1950s with The Chordettes.
13.35 So slowly we have returned back to the railway station. Here we await one of the last train journeys this summer. 13.57 Was this the last train ticket check for this journey? In about a day, it will soon be time to go by train in Sweden. 14.17 We have stepped out of Huddersfield's grand station building and are standing in Saint George's Square. There is a statue of the Prime Minister Harold Wilson who was born here in the city. 14.30 Once we arrived in this long journey's last new city for us, we went to The Crown pub that we read about online. There we had intended to eat a hearty quality lunch as a worthy end to the trip. Inside the pub, however, it was crowded and a loud atmosphere. There was no sign of anyone eating and we opted out of this option. 14.40 We don't know much more about lunch than that we are now sitting hungry in front of Huddersfield Parish Church without any clear plans. We don't find any really good options for any meal. Huddersfield is also part of West Yorkshire. 146,234 inhabitants live here. 14.59 Things are going badly for us in terms of food and restaurant hunting. We should/must eat something. Most likely we will wait with that activity to Leeds when we return there.
The Square shopping street in Halifax.
The gate into The Piece Hall.
The Piece Hall, Halifax.
Woolshops, Halifax.
Welcome to Halifax!
Plenty of Yorkshire flags at the Woolshops Shopping Centre.
15.15 The clock was ticking and time for us was getting short. The solution was therefore simple, efficient and classic. We are at KFC on New Street.
15.28 KFC helped us get full at a cheap price like so many times before. It's a reliable backup option when we can't find anything better. However, it feels sad that we missed having a nice closing meal both in Leeds and here in Huddersfield. 15.53 Such a station circus it became for us when we were to travel from Huddersfield. The printing of the pre-purchased train tickets in a ticket machine suddenly stopped, but the machine thought it had already printed them. A visit to a woman at a ticket counter yielded nothing. She just sent us back to the machine to test again. The problems continued and the lady asked us to call the company we booked with to sort it all out. We don't have that time right now. Instead, we checked with one of the barrier guards and his colleague kindly printed out the tickets for us instead. However, he needed to see Christer's VISA card and thought it had a nice color. He also wondered where we were from. Kind as we are, we let him know. Aha, Sweden, no army and cold, he claimed. Did he mix up Sweden and Switzerland? Well, we're going with our train after all. Good! 16.02 We are on board but not in the reserved seats that are on the tickets, they simply do not exist. It's become a lot of trouble now. Maybe it's time to go home to Sweden? First, though, we have to get to Leeds. 16.50 We are back at Leeds railway station and will now do the last errands here in the city. We will check where the airport bus leaves from, have a look around the city center and buy ourselves some supper and other provisions.
Halifax Station.
Close to the railway tracks is this factory premises from 1879. Today, Nestlé is based here.
Huddersfield Station.
Harold Wilson (Prime Minister 1964-1970 and 1974-1976) welcomes us to Huddersfield.
Huddersfield Parish Church.
The last city of the trip greets us.
16.55 We have, in a limited amount of time, walked around a bit in the center of Leeds. Among other things, we have seen Leeds Town Hall, Civic Hall, Leeds Cathedral and the large hotel The Queens.
17.16 The trip has now been summed up on the last recorded film of this trip. We did this on a bench in Penny Pocket Park near our hotel. 17.44 We are back in our hotel room. Food for the night and morning is purchased at the small shop Nisa Local behind the hotel. Are we tired and exhausted after 55 days of travel? Well, a little bit. Now at least it will be a shower for me. Christer has already done it. 18.16 Now we will try to get a few hours of sleep in this room. It's a long night ahead. We are warned of huge queues at check-in and security at Leeds Bradford Airport which we will be flying from very early tomorrow morning. We can't catch the first airport bus in the morning and taxis become an expensive story. We will go out with the last airport bus of the day and then wait at the airport. 22.44 I have been able to sleep for an hour or so. Christer has not been as fortunate. He has instead thought further about when we actually go to the flight. Both options feel completely wrong. Check-in for our flight with KLM is open approximately from 04.20. Should we really go out and wait for four hours or sleep more and order an expensive taxi out to the flight?
City Square, Leeds.
Leeds Town Hall is wearing clothes.
Leeds Cathedral.
Cookridge Street, Leeds.
The Queens hotel is located outside the train station.
Evening darkness has fallen over our hotel. It's time to leave Leeds and head out to the airport.
23.04 We stick to the first plane and take the airport bus out to the long wait. We still won't have time to get any more sleep worth the name here at the hotel.
23.40 We checked out in record time (before the last night) and are now in place on York Street outside Leeds Bus Station. Here we are now waiting for the airport bus to arrive, oh now it is already here! However, the driver doesn't seem ready to let us aboard yet. 23.50 So we were on board the bus that will pass the airport. It will be the first small step towards home.
Tuesday 9th of August
00.31 We are not alone at Leeds Bradford Airport, which is located in Yeadon just north of the two cities that gave the airport its name. In fact, several others seem to have the same crazy idea we have, to spend the night out here. On the bus trip out here, we learned that the actress Olivia Newton-John has died aged 73.
01.43 Baguettes bought at Greggs and good Oasis drinks have been consumed here on a bench inside the airport. Now we each read a detective novel and wait for check-in. Time suddenly goes incredibly slowly. The only thing that happens here is that an advertising sign changes its motif from time to time and that sometimes a person walks by. 03.37 Now there is not much time left until we have to check in the luggage. Then follows a long wait in the queue for the security check. 04.22 After being checked in, we must now queue for security. The queue is longer than the longest but so far it is entirely indoors. Some days it has gone right out into the parking lot here. On a sign it says how many minutes the wait in the queue is expected to take.
Early in the morning we leave England.
05.35 It took around 40 minutes to queue up to the security check. It was tough but not as bad as we had feared. There in the control my little backpack got stuck. It had liquid or liquids in it according to the man on X-ray. I had to wait for a closer inspection because there were others ahead. When it was my turn, there was no examination. The backpack was X-rayed once more and suddenly everything was OK. Now Christer and I are looking for seats.
06.11 KLM's Cityhopper will take us from here to Schiphol airport outside Amsterdam. We've been there before. Now I'm going to change the clock to Central European time.CHANGING TIME ZONE
08.07 After KLM has offered us coffee and coconut cake, we have now started the approach down to Schiphol.THE NETHERLANDS
08.32 It was fine to land, continue to the gate and take the bus on to the terminal. Now we will go towards the area for our next gate.
09.02 We have scanned the passports because we returned to the EU and then walked a lot. Schiphol is long and narrow so you have to walk a long way here. 09.47 For a while we have been sitting near gate D78 where there were free seats. Now we will proceed to the gate where we will appear for boarding.
Airport Schiphol, Amsterdam.
We take off from Schiphol.
Offshore wind turbines.
Dutch agriculture.
We fly over Alkmaar.
10.27 Now we are on board the next plane, KLM's Boeing 737. Our seats are 30A and B. Our destination is Arlanda, Stockholm, Sweden.
10.43 There was a fantastic view of the Netherlands when we took off from Schiphol. Now we lean back and rest a little.SWEDEN
12.53 After a calm and uneventful flight, we arrive at Arlanda Airport. We hope our backpacks arrived and will appear on the baggage belt soon.
13.17 Hooray for our luggage coming along and reaching us. Less good is that half of Sky City is closed off. One half is now part of Terminal 5 and only those who will be traveling shortly from Terminal 5 have access there. 13.24 We took the outer path outside to get to the floor below but there are no seats at the burger restaurant MAX so we probably won't have lunch there. 13.41 What the hell are we doing? There is hardly a decent restaurant with seating in the part of the airport we have access to. The extremely expensive restaurants and McDonald's are included in the category of restaurants that do not feel like an alternative. 14.02 Now we capitulate. It must be a sausage from Pressbyrån as nutritional intake. Not quite what we thought and could handle. Damn, there's a queue there too!
Christer is waiting for the train that will take us from Arlanda.
14.21 It was ice cream and bananas for Christer. It was French Hotdog and Coca Cola for me. We have really indulged ourselves when it comes to food these past few days. No, now I was being ironic.
15.05 Around ten minutes late, our train arrived at the underground railway station here at Arlanda Airport. On our train car it said no boarding and the doors did not open. The same was at car 3, but we got in there anyway. 16.06 Track work means that the northbound train takes slightly different routes today. We just passed Sala. 16.52 During the summer we went to and from several railway stations and passed even more. Right now we are approaching the station in Storvik. 18.07 The train is currently making a longer stop in Söderhamn. We roll on from here around seven thirty. 18.44 Suddenly a troubadour appeared in the carriage who wanted to entertain us with guitar and song. It didn't happen on the trains in England. 19.01 Exactly 54 days ago, our joint summer adventure in the British Isles began. Soon it will be time to sum it all up. 19.54 The train has stopped in Sundsvall and Christer got off. Over seven weeks of teamwork is over. It has been an intense summer, filled with excitement, surprises and challenges. After two summers in Sweden, we decided to go abroad again. I hope we can backpack next summer as well. I want to travel outside Europe. It was a while ago.
You can see 65 photos from August 7 in this photoalbum.
You can see 72 photos from August 8 in this photoalbum.
You can see 12 photos from August 9 in this photoalbum.