While there are a few parks in and around Leeds, they aren't always the easiest to get unless you hop on at least two buses, which means we haven't made the most of them since moving up here. However, now I have Priscilla, we can be at a park in a few minutes, especially now we live closer to several. Golden Acre Park caught my eye as there is a lot of woodland, which reminds us both of home and makes it a bit more bearable to enjoy a walk when it's raining.
We basically just wandered around and enjoyed being somewhere surrounded by green and minimal noise. This led us through a couple of wooded areas, as well as a few more open sections of the park. While there is a lake as well, we didn't quite make it this far due to a combination of the wet weather and my husband's injured back. However, we're going back again soon on a sunny day so will definitely be walking through the gardens and feeding the ducks at the lake.
In typical south-western fashion, we chose to have a cream tea, although we split the scone, jam and clotted cream and opted for coffee instead of tea. The scone was absolutely massive so I would have struggled even without my gastric band. The only thing my husband moaned about was the fact that there wasn't more clotted cream, but he's Cornish so as far as he's concerned, there is never enough clotted cream.
Everything tasted lovely and fresh and the service was fantastic, so if you do go to Golden Acre Park, I definitely recommend stopping in to the cafe for lunch or a drink. While we're planning on taking a picnic next time we go, we'll still probably get a coffee as it was so great.
The area really isn't all offices, shops and houses, as there are some great places to go and relax away from the busy city. If more parks in Leeds are like Golden Acre Park, I'm looking forward to exploring them in the next few months.