Well the title isn’t quite true as I was a Day Rover for only a day but hey was a pleasant day out. As far as my Blogs go I’m still back in the summer holidays this particular day I thought I’d get a day rover ticket from the post office go to Leeds and then get the first local train from the station. The ticket is good value £6.50 and is valid for trains or buses in Metro area.
If I had thought earlier I would have got my ticket the day before as I meant I had to get a later bus into Leeds than I wanted. Got the bus that went the long way round but didn't mind as I enjoyed the ride looking at the scenery and listening to an audio book. The main problem I have is been attracted to Junk food on these trips, it was near dinner time when I arrived so ended up in MacDonald's.
Its surprising what you find down side streets, this time it was a large glass fronted building.
The first train in was going to Bradford so got on that planning to go to the Photography Museum.
It had been years since I was in Bradford and was pleasantly surprised seemed to have cleaned and continuing to clean up the place.
Although some buildings have seen better days a shame really. Think it may be the New Victoria theatre although it doesn’t look very new now.
Near by is the Alhambra Theater
The new and the old.
Very close by is the National Media Museum. This is another of these places I hadn’t visited for years, well before my kids were born. My main memory of the visit was seeing a life-sized hologram (well I thought it was a hologram) of Lord Litchfield or was it David Bailey. Been trying to look it up but can’t find a mention of it on the internet, so may be a figment of my imagination. I was a little disappointed with the Museum bit of the place as not as much there as I remembered but there again I may have missed big chunks of it, found it hard to navigate. The main reason for going was to see an exhibition called “The Lives of Great Photographers”. That didn't disappoint. Images from all the expected people such as Daguerre and Talbot to people like Bill Brandt and Tony Ray-Jones.
http://www.nationalmediamuseum.org.uk/PlanAVisit/Exhibitions/LivesOfGreatPhotographers/Gallery.aspx
The link above has a selection of the images that were there.
In future I will have to write my blogs while the exhibitions are still on that is if I ever catch myself up.
On my way back to the station I called in at another gallery advertising a photo exhibition. The most memorable bit of this visit was the chewing gum I has stood on sticking to the highly polished wood floor and making a loud squelching/squeaking/sucking sound every time I lifted my foot.
The Photo’s themselves were odd, well in my opinion, they were all to do with people who want and have been frozen so they can be brought back in the future. There were some of the containers that are used for the process. I found the whole thing macabre especially the portraits of the future users of this process. I didn’t look too long as I found it a bit disturbing but I got the impression these people were going to end their lives in a controlled way so they could be frozen. Although I don’t disagree with assisted suicide, this some how seemed different and to an extent sinister. Perhaps that’s my lack of understanding. Any way I didn’t think the photo’s were very good.
It was still only mid afternoon and it was a lovely day when I got on the train. So rather than go home I decided to get another bus and go to Kirkstall Abbey.
Across the road from the Abbey is the Kirkstall Museum, in the past I had been there a few times its like a condensed “Castle Museum” in York. Across the road lay the ruins of Kirkstall Abbey. From the road the ruins look impressive but as it’s in an urban area and I had only seen from the road before had somehow believed the ruins were small. Yet again I was proved wrong. The size soon became apparent and I saw lots of it was in pretty good nick too.
I had about an hour before it closed so I did feel a bit rushed but its free to get in so another trip could well occur. There is a public park area close by and perhaps by walking a bit further from the ruins in that direction I could get some good shots. This trip I had to make do with around the abbey instead.
So here ends another enjoyable day out.
All the photos can be seen Here
