As the county town of North Yorkshire, Northallerton is to York as Albany is to New York City; often overlooked in favour of its larger neighbour in an "always the bridesmaid, never the bride" kind of way. It is, however, a charming place. You just have to look a bit harder to see it than in Ilkley and Harrogate.

All I knew about Harrogate before I arrived there for Day 3 of the Bettys Tour 2019 was that it's a spa town which has two branches of Bettys, is the hub of the Bettys empire, and once hosted the Eurovision Song Contest. The last time I visited was to go to a concert at the Conference Centre as a student in York. The concert was fairly dull and Bettys was full, so I arrived very much hoping that my second visit would be more rewarding.

Ilkley is a gem of a place, located on the banks of the River Wharfe in the Yorkshire Dales, and overlooked by the famous Moor rising above it to the south. Nothing says Yorkshire to me quite as much as Ilkley Moor does, so when I arrived at the station for Day 1 of the Bettys Tour 2019, I was ready for an espresso shot of Yorkshireness and wasn’t disappointed.