Jolly Old England

London, York, Whitby and Durham England
November 8-14

The date was November 8th and we had now spent almost three months in countries where English was a secondary language, if it was spoken at all. So it was honestly a shock when we landed in London and every sign was in English and almost everyone around us was speaking English! We were both laughing like kids. It was great! We could go to a pharmacy and pick out shampoo without worrying that we had accidentally bought Nair! We could go to a restaurant and order a meal knowing it was probably an animal we would have eaten by choice! Oh, it was lovely. The things we took for granted three months ago were priceless now! And even better, it was all in London, one of my favorite cities in the world!

One of the iconic Lions in Trafalgar Square

We touched down in London at about 11AM and made a quick trip through baggage claim and customs. After 11 weeks of travel, we had no fear of public transportation so we headed downstairs and bought ourselves a day pass for the Tube, London's subway system. An hour later we were all checked in at our hotel and ready for lunch. One thing we had really missed in the last few countries was spicy food so we were on the hunt for heat! We found an Indian restaurant near our hotel that had a small lunch buffet for 6 euro. London is famous for it's Indian food, for good reason. We both filled up on hot spicy food until our noses were running and our bellies were full.

That afternoon was indicative of how we would eat in London. There were so many foods we were craving and most could be picked up at a take-out shop or a cafe. We ate sushi and chinese food and wraps and salads and chicken wings. Some were healthy, some were not, but they were all "comfort foods" at this point in the game. Not a breaded, pan fried meat in sight!

We were staying for three days in London even though both of us had already been there before. I had relatives there and we had a friend of a friend living there as well so we wanted to do some visiting, which was the first reason for our stay. But secondly, there are just a million things to do and see in London so its just a great city to visit. We knew it could be expensive so we had researched cheap and free sights and had set aside some funds for a splurge night as well.

Our first night we visited with Brian and Sheila (Kirrane) Wright. Sheila is my Dad's cousin and she is a school teacher in London. Brian is her husband and he owns an old school London cab. The night we were going out Sheila had parent/teacher conferences, so she couldn't meet up with us until about 8PM. Brian was available earlier though so he picked Shaun and I up at the hotel at 7PM in his taxi and gave us a tour of London! And I mean all of London! Brian drove us all over the place, pulling over along the way to show us certain monuments or bridges or streets. He also showed us the different neighborhoods and talked about how they came to be. That night we we went through the neighborhoods of Kensington and Knightsbridge, Notting Hill, Mayfair, Westminster, St James and Soho to name just a few. And driving through the streets at night, we saw the city from a whole different perspective.

Our drive with Brian was fascinating and lasted about an hour at which point we headed over to the West End to the Bloomsbury section of London and a restaurant called the Eagle Pub. The Eagle was great. It was one of the first GastroPubs to open in London back in 1991 and it still does big business. Even though it was a Tuesday night the place was jammed. Sheila was waiting for us by the bar so we ordered drinks (Beer for the boys and me, wine for Sheila) and settled in on one of the couches.

We had a great time chatting with Sheila and Brian. They had been to the States years ago and knew many of my cousins so we had lots to talk about. And Brian is a wealth of information about London in particular and the UK in general. Shaun and I were wishing we had more time to spend in London once Brian started telling us about some of the more interesting, but lesser known things to do in the city. Clearly we need to go back again soon!

After a fun dinner and lots of good conversation, we headed out for dessert. Bar Italia is a great little Italian cafe in the Soho section of London. They had a row of sidewalk tables with space heaters above, so we found a spot and ordered some cappuccinos and Italian desserts. Shaun got to have carrot cake, which is his favorite dessert, so it was a perfect way to end the night! My only regret is that I forgot my camera so I don't have a picture to post from our fun night out! A big thanks to Brian and Sheila for making us feel so welcome in their city!

The next morning Shaun and I headed in separate directions. Shaun had found a CrossFit box in London so he was heading over to get in a workout. I needed to do some shopping so I was headed up Kensington High Street. My goal was pretty simple, warmer clothes! We had done a damned good job of packing for the trip in my opinion. We had made it all the way to mid-November based largely on what we had packed back in August. Of course, we had some help from mother nature. The weather throughout the trip had been unseasonably warm everywhere we had gone, so we were able to get away with lots of light layers. Now things had started to get cold and we knew they would only get colder. It was time to bulk up the clothes a bit.

Shopping that morning was great. London seemed to be in full Christmas mode already, with Christmas lights up everywhere and tons of sales happening. It was pretty easy to find some turtleneck sweaters, and a warm jacket on sale. And it was really just fun to go shopping. I've never been a big shopper, but it was definitely rewarding to look for and find things that you really need and that you know will make your life easier! With my new warm clothes in hand, I headed back to the hotel to meet Shaun. This was our splurge night in London so we had to get over to the Theatre district!

One of my favorite things to do in London is to go to the Theater. The west end always has great plays and musicals and they have the original Half-Price ticket booth so you don't have to pay an arm and a leg. We knew exactly what we wanted to see so we headed over to Leicester square and got in line for tickets to Billy Elliott, the Musical.

Now let me start by saying that the movie Billy Elliott is one of my favorite movies so the musical had a lot to live up to! I needn't have worried though, it was absolutely fantastic! The music was great, the dancing was fabulous and the kid who played Billy was incredible. Because these are young kids who can only play Billy for a year or two, there are actually three Billy's at any given time and they rotate which night they do the show. Regardless I couldn't believe how talented this particular kid was. He had to sing, dance and act his way through a three hour show and he was only 12 years old. Wow. Just wow. The musical is touring now- don't miss it if it comes to your city!

Waiting for Billy Elliot to start at the Victoria Theatre

That afternoon and the next day we also spent lots of time at London's great museums. One of the great things about the UK is that they have tons of free museums. While we were there we visited three of them; the National Gallery, the National Portrait Gallery and the Tate Modern museum. It was a great cross section of museums. The National Gallery has everything from ancient egyptian sculpture to Impressionist paintings. The National Portrait Gallery is just that, portraits and photographs of famous British people from Henry XIII and Anne Boleyn all the way to Sir Paul McCartney and John Cleese. The Tate modern London's premier Modern Art museum. It may not be for everyone, but we had a good time. It was actually made more fun by a group of little kids who were obviously there on a school field trip. Listening to a 6 year old interpret modern art is really funny! I think I had as much fun seeing their reactions to the art as I did viewing the actual art!

On the Millenium Bridge on the way to the Tate Modern

Our last night in London was another dinner with a new friend. For years now, our friends Susanna and Adam have been taking trips around the world with Susanna's friend Amy. We had never met Amy because she lived in Germany and then subsequently moved to London. So when we knew we were heading to London, we e-mailed Amy to see if she was available. It was another fun night. Amy took us to a wine bar over in Notting Hill called Kensington Wine Rooms. It had single glass wine dispensers so you could taste all different sorts of wines and a tapas style menu with delicious meats and cheeses and hot and cold appetizers. It was really fun to meet Amy after all these years. We talked about her adventures traveling with Susanna and Adam and her time living and working in Europe. We tried lots of wines and some yummy food and it was just a great way to end our stay in London.

Dinner with Amy in Notting Hill

The next morning we were off to York, England. We really had no plans beyond London when arrived here so York was just sort of a coin-flip decision. We wanted to go somewhere we had never been, and somewhere that had a lot of history, but it needed to be on the way to Edinburgh, our next big planned stop. When we found out that the National Bus line had a 10 pound fare to York we were sold. We bought our tickets online on Thursday afternoon for the Friday afternoon bus.

On Friday morning we packed up and headed over to the Victoria Coach station. It was going to be a long ride, so we picked up some waters and sandwiches before boarding the coach. The bus ride was a bit tedious. It was 5 hours from London to York by bus, something that would have only taken about 2 and a half hours by train. (But would have cost at least 70 pounds each instead of 10). We both read, Shaun slept for a while and we ate our sandwiches but we were still antsy. We played Rummy 500 for a while until Shaun could no longer stand the beatings and then we moved on to Hangman. By the time we got to York it was 6:30 and it was rainy and dark. At that point we just wanted to be at the B&B so we sprang for a 5 pound taxi ride instead of walking. Our cab driver thought it was hilarious that we only paid 10 pounds to get from London to York and then had to pay 5 more to get a mile! It was worth every cent!

The B&B was great. It was called Ashley House and it was an old converted Victorian run by a great guy named Phil. Phil was waiting for us when we arrived and after chatting for a while he brought us up to our cozy room on the top floor. He gave us a few ideas for dinner and then left us to relax. We chilled out for a while and then headed out to see York and get some dinner. We ended up at a little place called Oscar's (named for Oscar Wilde) where I had more delicious Indian Food and Shaun had a burger. As always, we were exhausted from the travel day so we headed home for a good sleep at Ashley House.

I loved the view from our room in Ashley House in the morning over the rooftops of York

The next morning we woke up to the best breakfast we have had on the trip. Phil served up a ridiculously good full English breakfast, complete with eggs cooked however you like, bacon, blood sausage, roasted tomoatoes, sauteed mushrooms and toast. All with a hot pot of coffee. What a great way to start the day, and it was included in the price of the room, which was even better! After breakfast we were ready to go. We only had one full day in York and we wanted to know more about the city so we went to the Tourist Information center and asked about city tours. The guy there was great. Not only did he find us a free walking tour that was happening that afternoon, but he also suggested a few towns to visit when we left York on our way to Edinburgh.

The walking tour of York was fabulous. It is run completely by volunteers, and each person has their particular special area of focus. The woman who was leading our tour had her doctorate in Medieval studies from York University. She took us on a 2 hour tour through York, taking us through the history of the city from the Romans to the Saxons and Vikings to the Normans, all the way through to present day. We saw great old ruins and medieval buildings and got to walk along the city walls. It was a great way to get to know the city and learn some history at the same time.

You can walk almost all the way around York along the medieval city walls

The remains of Saint Mary's Abbey in York

The next day morning checked out of the Ashley House and started our drive north. For the rest of England and Scotland we needed more flexibility than we could get from trains or buses, so we rented a car. The trip from York to Edinburgh was long so we decided to take the advice of our friend at the TI and make some stops along the way. For our first stop, he had suggested a seaside village called Whitby.

The drive to Whitby was a little scary, but also wonderful. It was only the third time we had a car in the three months we had been here and it was the first time we were in a country where they drive on the left. I was absolutely positive that I didn't want to drive, and Shaun was all for it so that was great. Still, it was a little nerve wracking at first. There are about a million rotaries in England and I think we went through a hundred that day. And then we got up to North York Moors National Park.

When I was a child, one of my favorite books was called "The Secret Garden", by Frances Hodgson Burnett. I bet I read that book a hundred times in my childhood. I won't bore you with all the details, but the story takes place in England and it is about a young orphan girl named Mary Lennox who goes to live in England in a castle on the Moors. All through my childhood I tried to imagine what the Moors looked like based on the descriptions in the book. She described the Heather and Gorse and Broom and the long expanses of low dark brush. She talked about how the wind would rush through and make "a singular, wild, low, rushing sound". It sounded so mysterious and dramatic and I wanted to see it for myself. So when we came through York Moors I was just thrilled. It was just like I pictured in my imagination, dark purplish low bushes stretching out as far as the eye could see on both sides of the road. It was just gorgeous, even at this time of year when no flowers are in bloom. I would have liked to stop and take some pictures but the fog was rolling in and the road was narrow and winding and Shaun was still getting used to driving here. We decided it would be best to drive on to Whitby. But I got to see my Moors. I may need to bust out the Secret Garden again soon just for old times sake.

By the time we got to Whitby, the fog had really rolled in but it just made Whitby seem even more romantic. The town is an old fishing village on the Yorkshire coast that is a very popular summertime vacation destination. It is filled with narrow cobblestone streets with little shops and restaurants that also make for a great day trip. We stopped in for lunch at one of these restaurants, a cute little place called The Humble Pie and Mash Company. It was just a teeny shop with about 4 tables, but they make all their meat pies in house and they had a welcoming fire burning. We sat down and ordered; a minced meat pie for Shaun and a lamb stew pie for me. We both had them with a mug of hot tea, the perfect English lunch for the perfect foggy, cold English day.

Lunch at the Humble Pie and Mash Company in Whitby. So cozy.

After lunch we took a hike up the 199 steps to the Parish church of Saint Mary with the ruins of St Hilda's Abbey looming in the background. Saint Mary's was supposedly the church that inspired Bram Stoker to write the book Dracula, and on this foggy day it was not at all surprising. We stood along the cliffs looking at the old graves in the shadow of the two churches and the beautiful views out onto the Bay. It was quite lovely in an eerie sort of way.

Shaun in the graveyard of St Mary's with the ruins of St Hilda's Abbey behind him in the mist. Ghostly.

Climbing back down the stairs to Whitby Harbor

By that time it was getting late, so we headed back to the car to continue our drive. We decided that Durham would be the perfect overnight stop. It was only about two hours from Edinburgh and had a cheap available room at a place called the Premier Inn, right in the downtown area. It turned out to be a good thing that we made a stop because Shaun wasn't feeling well that night. It was nothing serious, but it would have made an extra two hours of driving very tough. We only had one must-see on the list for Durham, the Cathedral which we could see in the morning. So we settled in early at the hotel for a good night's sleep, hoping Shaun wasn't getting really sick.

By morning Shaun was feeling much better so we headed out to get a little breakfast and then made our way over to the Durham Cathedral. It was worth the stop. The Cathedral dates back to 1081 and is still a place of worship today. In fact, mass of some sort had been celebrated in this cathedral every day for over 900 years. Unlike most cathedrals we visited, Durham does not have an entrance fee. They rely solely on donations from visitors and the generosity of benefactors. We were more than happy to make a donation after seeing this fabulous church. We were too early for an official tour but they had a little guide that tells the story of the 25 most important parts of the church. It was a great way to do a self guided tour. They also had a tower you could climb but it had lots of warnings about heights and confined stairwells and narrow steps so I decided to pass. Shaun, on the other hand, was all too happy to climb up there and take some pics on my behalf!

The view from the top of Durham Cathedral

Loved the beautiful old buildings around Durham cathedral and University

After our visit to the cathedral, we hopped back in the car. We had spent six fun days in England and now we were on our way to Scotland. As usual we had a few places in mind and a few days left open for whatever fate would bring. We had a car and a map and great company, what more could we need? So it was off to the land of Scotch and Lochs and Highland Cows! First stop, Edinburgh!