Leeds Royal Armories

Okay, so it's been a while since I posted anything. My bad…

Let's start where I last signed off, with a visit from my Dad last summer. I took him to the Leeds Royal Armories, a free museum that may or may not have lots and lots of scary, murder-y and war-y things. 

Hall of steel

My Dad got to pretend he was a famous jouster!

The Dad in shining Armor

We also got a very good look at the famous painting depicting the battle of Waterloo.

Lady Butler's Charge of the Scot's Greys at Waterloo in 1815.

And a famous portrait of Henry VIII. I am pretty sure this was a replica of the famous 16th Century portrait, but it could have been the original. If it was the original, it certainly didn't have much in the way of security.

16th C portrait of Henry VIII

Last, but not least, we tried our hand at shooting crossbows. Dad was the clear winner, but I at least eventually got my arrows to stick into the target after a few tries. 

Crossbow Practice

Crossbow winner

I even forgot to put on my protective eyewear. So… yeah. I'm not going to become crossbow champion any time soon. 

Crossbow novice

Upon departing Leeds we hit the end-of-work rush hour Leeds traffic, Leeds is not a city I enjoy driving through in the best of circumstances (crazy one-way roads, illegal bus lanes that sneak up on you, parked cars you have to slalom around, etc.), but leaving the city centre during rush hour was definitely not fun. I caught my Dad pumping his foot on a non-existant break peddle (he was in the US driver's seat in a UK car, so he was fairly stressed) on several occasions. I'm pretty sure that hour-long drive was the reason I received a dash cam for Christmas a few months later :-)