Day 18, July 1, 2024 York, England

 

Happy Canada Day. The sky was looking cloudy as we headed off for our mornings activities, but the rain held off until later this afternoon.

We decided that, although our Airbnb had a very fancy combination washer/dryer, neither of us had the energy to try to figure it out and we decided instead today to drop off laundry and have somebody else wash, dry and fold it for us. You don’t even realize how much you know how your washer and dryer works until you look at some of these with strange symbols and things we don’t really understand. We dropped off the laundry and pleaded for it to be ready today, because tomorrow we have to head off to the next part of our journey. They agreed.

Then, we had about a half an hour time before we were going on a guided tour of the history of York. We were able to follow a narrow stairways, go up and walk about a third of the way around the ancient walled city on the actual wall. 

It was a beautiful morning and it was so fun to sometimes seem like we’re walking through a wooded forest, and sometimes peeking over into peoples backyards or fancy restaurants. This wall dated way back to Roman times and even the time before the Romans, when other groups had walls here. The Vikings also use the area as a protective fortress after the Romans. Eventually, the town was almost ready to tear it down, but some people in the Victorian age pleaded to keep it and actually restore it, which happened in the late 1800s. So now it is in beautiful shape and you can walk much of the wall around the old city.

We arrived early for our tour starting outside the Minster church and found that it was just going to be the two of us, another American gentleman, and our guide, Nick. This is one of our most favorite things to get basically a private tour while  still paying the normal public rate. This happens to us regularly and we are always grateful.

For the next two hours,  our guide took us throughout the historic town. Some of the areas we had explored on our own or on the haunted tour, and some that we hadn’t seen yet. Nick was really knowledgeable and was particularly impressive how he could come up with exact dates that things had happened. We learned a lot more about the history of Christianity and the cathedral. And he brought us around so that we could see the workshop, where the stonemasons are working to repair parts of the cathedral. This was very impressive.

We also learned more about the Roman times and about the variety of different kings of England and Scotland, who had come through York. For a long time, York was considered the number two city in England. And it was also the farthest most north Roman outpost and capital of the province. Actually, York was for a few years of capital of England. So lots of famous people and lots of famous things happened here.

It was fascinating to fill in some of the information that we had gained an earlier parts of our trip. The houses traditionally had slate roofs with the slate coming from northern Wales. We’ve saw that in Wales. We also heard more about the Romans, as well as the fact that York was the target of bombing by the Germans and World War II. And it was picked as a target here out of the same German guidebook that talked about cities that people should visit in Europe. It had the same status as Bath as being an ancient city with lots of important historical sites. Thankfully, the cathedral was not damaged during that time and has actually the largest collection of intact medieval stain glass windows in the world.

We also had a chance to learn more about the trade guild systems that were very strong here with shoemakers, exporters, tailors and weavers among many other trades. There were 56 different guild houses in this small area. And a lot of wealth.

The tour was excellent and we were really appreciative of all the more information that we have about the town of York. We had another good healthy lunch and then back to the Airbnb to work on photos and have a rest.

In the late afternoon,  it was time to go and pick up our newly washed and dried laundry. And it was raining steadily. This was the first real rain that we had to walk through in over two weeks of being in the UK. Luckily, we had dragged along our raincoats and we slogged down the street, stopping to pick up some things for dinner at the grocery store, got our laundry and headed back. We fixed early dinner and had a little time before we were headed off on one more adventure for the day.

This was a one-hour boat cruise on the River Ouse (they told us we would cruise the Ouse, which rhymes). A lot of the reason that this town was here was because it was the confluence of two rivers. So we felt like we wanted to get a chance to see it from the river. The rain had stopped, but it wasn’t exactly the beautiful romantic evening as the online promotional information promised. It wasn’t that long of a walk to get to the point where we hopped on the boat. We were grateful that it had a covered area in case the rain had continued, but it was warm enough that we could join the brave people up on top. Everyone was offered either a glass of wine or a cup of hot chocolate, and we picked hot chocolate for a damp evening. Then for the next hour, we went up and down the river. We thought we would get some commentary of the historic sites. Instead there was oldie music playing and we had to try to guess what we were seeing. It was a fairly lame , but fun way to cap off our time in York.

Then, back to our place for a good night sleep because tomorrow we had to go to Coventry.

Day 17, June 30, 2024 Edinburgh, Scotland to York, England

 

Up and ate  breakfast and one more walk to the train station. We walked a lot of miles in Edinburgh. We chose a less expensive place to stay out of the hustle and bustle, but this meant more walking. 

Everything went well on the train although it was so crowded we couldn’t sit together for half the time. But a couple hours later my, we were arriving in the ancient city of York.

We were pleased that our Airbnb this time was only about 10 minutes from the train station and we had made arrangements to walk over and drop off our luggage early. 

Right away we noticed the city. One of only three intact walled cities left in all of England. The walk was easy and it was only a little confusing trying to find the exact address. Most of the streets didn’t seem to have street signs, and when we got to actually the right street, the guy at the restaurant that we stopped to ask didn’t even know what the name of the street was that the restaurant he worked at was located on.

Once we found our address, and the bar next-door where we could drop off our luggage, we were set. We found our Airbnb hosts have been so gracious of allowing early drop off of luggage and sometimes check in early. Especially when you’re working with public transportation, that is such a blessing. 

So we found a restaurant that looks good, had some lunch and begin a little exploring of this new town. In Edinburgh we had been out of the hustle. For York, we were smack in the middle of the tourist zone. This was a little overwhelming. But, we hoped it would work out for us. 

Soon we got the text that our airbnb apartment was ready for us. This was in an old building and the bedroom and bathroom were on one floor with the kitchen and living room on another floor. We were concerned that there would be a lot of street or other noise, but it was quite a quiet place.

After a little rest, we went over to the Minster, which is the large Gothic cathedral in the town. Before we were quite ready to go over, the bells and carillon at the cathedral started ringing. It was just delightful, and Dick went out with his camera to see if he could capture some of the sounds of the bells ringing. They actually went on for nearly an hour, and he was able to walk all the way around this large cathedral basking in the beautiful music.

Then we went for the evening service. The minster was only a two minute walk from where we were staying. Many of these churches have often daily late afternoon or early evening services that feature choir. The choir for this was especially beautiful. The church was built in something like 1300 or earlier. Other churches had been on this site before this particular one. It is massive and gorgeous. We both agreed that it’s one thing to visit these fabulous buildings as a tourist and take photos, but to be there and listen to the music and the message as had been done for hundreds of years, this was how these churches were meant to be experienced.

We again took advantage of having a kitchen in our little apartment and got some grocery store tomato soup and fresh bread. After some of these busy days, it’s nice to have a simple meal that we can cook ourselves.

The town of York is known as one of the most haunted towns in all of the UK. It was here that some of the very first ghost story tours started over 50 years ago. There were a dozen or more groups that now did these tours. We felt like we should at least take part in one of them, which we did. This was led by an actor who really enjoyed playing some of the really creepy spooky aspects of the town. And for an hour, he let us around to different places and gave us just taste of some of the stories of tragedies, murders and deaths in this town. It wasn’t the most spectacular show we had ever seen, but it gave us another taste of this interesting community that we were joining for a couple days. Then, back to our apartment and off to sleep.

Day 16, June 29, 2024 exploring Edinburgh, Scotland

We woke up to another day with no rain. Our weather karma has held well. We had some breakfast and then headed off for a small group walking tour of Edinburgh. Dick is great at choosing routes that are efficient but also take us down roads that we hadn’t gone on before. We walked along a major street and cut through a beautiful park. We were enchanted with some street art, including sculptures that we think are pigeons, but we are the size of large chickens, as well as a couple of beautiful giraffes full-size . There were a number of beautiful monuments and fountains as we walked through this old beautiful city. We were walking along the park, looking up at the castle.  Dick was especially struck by the Rush fountain. 

We were also reminded that the election is coming up in less than a week. There’s been a lot of discussion about elections both here and back in the US.

Eventually we met up with our small group of nine travelers and our amazing independent historian who would be giving us a tour, Allison. Some of the tour guides that we’ve met have been enthusiastic and friendly, but not really in-depth with their information. Allison is really a pro, having taught at the university level and done lots of private history work, as well as being part of British public television series on the most historic cities in the UK. We were in good hands for the next several hours.

We learned so many things about this ancient city where the history goes back 1000 years. Throughout our time walking together, we would learn more about back in the Roman time, the various Scottish and English rulers who were in charge, the wealthy and the poor who lived in this amazing old city.

Early on, we were brought through a beautiful farmers market. Both of us felt sad that there wasn’t enough time to stay, taste and buy some of all of the beautiful fresh fruits and vegetables.

We started walking from below and every time you turned around, you could see that castle up on the top of the old volcanic plug. The town was set up around that castle and the buildings were so old. Many many buildings that we went by were built in the 14, 15 and 1600’s. 

There were so many interesting stories that Allison told, and she also gave us opportunity to ask questions and was very interactive. Dick was able to answer a couple of questions that are usually stumpers for the groups. But, he had done his homework, too. 

We walked along that beautiful royal mile between the big castle and the palace at the end. We learned more about the unicorn being the symbol of Scotland, being wild and untamed. We had seen unicorns elsewhere, but Allison gave us the most information. 

This is also a city where there were a lot of writers, and they really held up writers and poets. In one area there were many beautiful quotations carved in stone, right by the writers’ museum. We loved seeing these, even though some of them were written in Gaelic and so we couldn’t really understand what they said. We were reminded that John Muir we knew from California, was actually Scottish by birth.

After we heard the 1 o’clock cannon go off up at the castle, our tour was complete. We were so hungry and found our way to a beautiful healthy place with great fresh salads, soups, and breads for a delicious lunch. Then, we saw a great sculpture of the Scottish thistles the official plant of Scotland. We again have seen these elsewhere, but this was a particularly lovely statue.

Then we went over to the Scottish Storytelling Center where we had a chance to look around see some things focusing on Scottish Storytelling and Patti got to sit in the Storytelling chair with either a dragon or a sea serpent. We’re not sure which.

We also went to the Museum of Childhood dedicated to childhood experiences, including thousands of artifacts from the UK. We saw games and toys as well as recollections about how childhood has changed throughout the time. It was so interesting for us to see many things that were the same as our growing up in the Midwest of the US, and some things that were very different. This was a great museum.

We were then out of gas and headed back to our Airbnb. We picked up a few groceries and made us simple dinner in the kitchen there. We had had a beautiful time in Edinburgh and although we wished we had energy to go listen to some more traditional music, we were tired and needed to be caught up on our photos and blogging so we didn’t go out again. But our time was beautiful there. Even though this was a less busy day, we still had walked 6 miles. Our feet in our knees could feel it.

 

Day 15, June 28, Aberdeen to Edinburgh, Scotland

Up early and worked our way through cleaning up our Airbnb apartment and then down the stairs, four flights to this place, and one last walk about 10 minutes to the train station where we would catch our train to Edinburgh.

It was a very full train and it was clear when we arrived in Edinburgh that this is quite a large city. Getting out of the train station was complicated and crowded. We were able to find on our Google maps on the phone that would be about a 17 minute walk from the train station to our Airbnb hotel. It was crowded and noisy as we were walking through the streets. We reached our AirBnB , almost like a hostel, and figured out how to use the lockbox to get the key to come in. We planned to just drop off our luggage and head out, but the woman who was cleaning said  she would have it ready for us in just a few minutes. So we ate a little salad that we had brought with us down in the dining room and then we’re able to come and, get our room. This is obviously an old building and they went through and added in bathrooms into each room in a very crowded and odd way. The toilet is actually basically in the same space as the shower. Kind of funny but it works. 

So after we regrouped, we headed out to do a little exploring of the city. We wanted to visit the National Museum of Scotland, which was a massive free museum. It was a combination of history natural history science museum. We spent a couple hours there and it was wonderful and overwhelming. We were both rather tired, but were particularly enchanted by the millennial clock, which was this huge project that was made for when the new millennial happened turning to 2000. The clock was made of all kinds of found material and recycled junk from Scotland. It went off in this spectacular manner several times each day. We were pleased that we got to watch it. 

In addition to that, we saw many things out of the history of the Romans, and some of the archaeological findings that have been dug up. There is also a really powerful display about the museum trying to make decisions about which stories they were telling about their collection. Another theme that we had heard about at the boat museum in Windermere.

Following the museum, we made a pilgrimage to a statue honoring a dog called Grayfriars’ Bobby. This dog whose owner died, refused to leave that gravesite for 14 years. People were so taken by his loyalty, that they fed him and took care of him, but he would not leave. So his spirit continues to be honored.

One of the fun things that we’re seeing Edinburgh is the street musicians tend to be bagpipe players. We would see them throughout the city.

After having a walk up to the main attraction of Edinburgh: the Royal Mile, (more on this tomorrow), we needed to have some dinner. So we ate in a little café and rested because we were headed to a fun event: the Edinburgh storytellers from the Storytelling Center of Scotland sponsor a monthly Story program entitled “Guid Crack”. Crack or Craic is considered a good time a fun gathering. And this gathering in a local pub was a time for a guest performer to share several stories, and then some of the 40 people who gathered  offered a story or a song or a poem to add to the evening.

It was really a fine event and the main teller told some really great stories. “Old tales told new” was the theme. The songs that people shared were traditional, Scottish ballads and sea shanties. And there were many different stories. Patti shared her version of The Paperback Princess which was well received. There was also a teller from Germany and one from Hungary, as well as many local people. It was really a fun event and it went until after 10 PM.

We were struck as we were walking down the street at 10:30 at night. The sun had just set, but it was still quite light. And there were so many people out and about walking throughout the streets. We made our way back nearly a mile to our Airbnb, happy and tired. We had walked over six miles today. Time to sleep.