We stayed overnight at the Premier Inn on the York ring road -
so on the Sunday morning we were up and out by 6am so that we could walk into town.
It was a beautiful morning and we walked along the river,
arriving at the Minster by 7.30am.
There was lots of space at the barriers, so I went to get breakfast from Starbucks
while Al found the perfect spot.
We settled in right opposite the south transept doors for a long wait.
As on the Saturday, the crowd grew as we watched the caravan pass just after 9am
music, dancing and lots of freebies,
and as we approached the roll out time of 11am the atmosphere was amazing.
Motorbikes passed -
the UK police doing the high 5 thing that stared on the torch relay in 2012
{even one gendarme joined in}
The bells from the Minster rang, helicopters took their aerial shots,
and then a Lancaster Bomber and Spitfire flew over the Minster.
Fantastic!
We had a much better view than in Harrogate - and of course as the race was still neutralised the pace was so much slower.
But the cheers were just as loud.
And after the slower whizz past, we walked back out of town,
though yet more crowds, back along the river to our car.
We drove back over the pennies listening to the commentary -
where the route was going to cross the M62 we saw the crowds gathered -
waiting their turn to see the whizz.
Over 2 days we saw the bikes for less than 2 minutes in total -
But this "grandest of grand departs" will stay with us forever.
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