SenatorSteve

Trip report England/Scotland June 20-July 6.



JanisJ: As usual, you are correct. The Blue and White rooms at Traquair are modern, only a couple of hundred years old.

Sunday, June 30. If you’re despairing at the length of this report, take heart. There’s less than 1 week left. As mentioned earlier, we had breakfast at Border books, packed and then got on the road towards the English Dales, with stops on the way. (Drive left, Drive left, Drive left.)

Our first stop was in Hexham, another great town that’s on the River Tyne. As frequently occurred, we didn’t have time to do everything on the list, but that’s ok. [side note – lists. My wife frequently gets irritated that I add so much to the lists, when we’re supposed to be on a restful vacation. They’re never restful, but that’s a different issue. I can rest at home. I put so much on the lists for two reasons. 1, doing the research on where to go is (for me) part of the fun of the trip. Second, we don’t have to go to all of these things, I just want to make sure that we have options for worthwhile things to do.] However, when you get toa relatively small town on a Sunday morning, we found that many of the shops were closed.

We parked in the town car park near the Wentworth Leisure Center, an indoor pool and rec area. It’s a steep climb from there to old Hexham, but we’d toughened up by then, so we made it without a problem. We started by touring the old Hexham Gaol, the oldest purpose-built jail in England. Three stories, interesting enough, kind of smallish. We went shopping and looking around the town. We first went to the major department store in town, Beales. Unfortunately, they were in the middle of a going out of business sale, which looked to me like a major loss for the town. We walked up and down many of the streets, which clearly were at least 500 years old. Very nice. Then we walked into the Hexham abbey, and were stunned.

The Abbey looks very impressive from the outside, but even more so from the inside. Apparently there has been a church on that site since the 6th century, and parts of this building were built between the 12th and 16th centuries. The very impressive stained glass collection, which looks ancient, is mostly from the last 200 years, but it looks like it’s ancient. Amazingly large scale for a small town, They have a museum, a gift shop, a coffee shop, and I highly recommend visiting if you’re in the area. We didn’t have time to give everything the time that it deserved, but you should definitely go to the museum which, of course prominently features… You guessed it. St. Cuthbert! If we’d had a little more time, we’d have visited the Queen’s Hall Art Centre, which is almost directly across the street from the Abbey. The Queen’s Hall looked impressive and large, but we didn’t go in or examine it too closely.

We would have liked to go to Vindolanda or Housteads, but they were in the wrong direction, and I’ve seen many Roman Ruins on various trips. Those guys were everywhere!!

I have a tradition. Every Sunday morning, regardless of where in the world I am, I try to have a bagel, lox, and cream cheese. Across from the Car Park is a Tesco Extra. We went there, and bought lunch to eat in the car while driving. My wife got one of the lunch sandwich specials, and I bought a roll, cream cheese, and a 4 oz. package of smoked salmon. While I was driving, my wife put cream cheese and salmon on pieces of roll and gave them to me. She also noticed that they had portable camping chairs on sale for 2 for 12 GBP, so she smartly suggested that we buy 2. We did, and they were invaluable when we got to the Dales.

We then drove to Durham, (drive left, drive left, drive left) a magnificent Cathedral Town. Good Roads, A69 to A1. We really only had about 1 ½ hours to spend there, so we went right to Durham Cathedral. Obviously magnificent. I have my notes from visiting Durham Cathedral, with things like “OMG” and overuse of the word “magnificent” but I can’t use them now, as I have to save them for York Minster. The Cathedral was very impressive, they filmed part of Harry Potter there. Strongly recommend that anyone in the neighborhood go there. On the Harry Potter note, a lot of religious people have condemned the HP books because of the use of witchcraft. To them I will point out that Durham Cathedral sells HP memorabilia in the Cathedral Gift Shop. It’s one thing when you can buy HP stuff at a secular location like Alnwick castle, but when you can buy it at the Cathedral, that looks like Divine approval. We supported the English economy at the very nice Cathedral gift shop. Have I mentioned St. Cuthbert recently, who had been following us on our trip? He is entombed at Durham Cathedral. He’s big there. Apparently his tomb was a journey for Pilgrims until the Dissolution of the Monasteries, but his relics remain, as well as his coffin.

We also walked by the University, which happens to be right near the Cathedral, and the Castle, which is also right near the Cathedral. The Castle was closed to visitors that day. We couldn’t get a good look even at the exterior. It looked nice, but we were starting to suffer Castle overload, and Durham Castle didn’t seem in the same league as either Bamburgh or Alnwick. I must comment on the City itself. Another ancient city. It looked great. I would dearly have loved to spend a few hours walking around, but you can’t see everything, which is also why we didn’t go to Beamish. Beamish was never really on my list, because it looks like that would take several hours by itself.

We then drove to Leyburn, our base for the Dales. Again, pretty good roads (Drive left, drive left) A1 to A6108, which wasn’t that bad at all. We stayed in a B&B in the heart of town called the Grove House, a grade II listed building, built around 1757. Landlord was excellent, food was excellent. They loaned us a waterfall book and a driving atlas, the home was charming, with relatively low ceilings and doorframes. I assume that we’re a tad taller now. They spent a lot of money fixing up the room that I stayed in. A few minor complaints, but I’d happily stay there again. Complaint 1 – Better towels. Complaint 2 – more outlets or more accessible power strips. Also, it was upstairs, and the old stairs were narrow. All minor, all more than made up for by the character. BTW, they left us snacks and fresh milk in the room each night to go with the coffee or tea that we could make in the room. Very nice. The Owner recommended that we go look at an area around 1-2 blocks away called “the Shawl”. We did so on our way to dinner. Very nice views of the valley below. They have chairs and benches set so you can sit and watch the views. One of the better views that we’d seen. We watched for about 30 or 45 minutes, and then went to dinner. We walked around the town, and ate in an Inn called the Bolton Arms. Food was ok, nice bar. Another meat pie for me, I forgot what my wife got. Very friendly people, mostly locals. Fortunately, one gave me the best advice we received on the trip. When I was asking about waterfalls, he recommended me to one very close to town. More on that it the next installment. We then went back to the Shawl, but only stayed about 15 minutes as it was starting to get dark, and we were getting cold, which is very rare for us. We didn’t have jackets or anything with us, they were all back at the room. We went back to the very comfortable room at the Grove House, and settled in. More later.

taylorparkeruk

I am enjoying while imagining myself instead of you... don't stop

PatrickLondon

For the GBP pound sign in Windows try Alt+0163

SenatorSteve

Continuation Of trip report England/Scotland June 20-July 1.

Boy this is taking a long time to do. Getting close to finishing. Onward!!

Monday, July 1. Best day of the trip. Waterfalls!! Waterfalls and their accompanying rapids are good for the soul. After a nice breakfast at Grove House, we borrowed their waterfall book and their travel atlas, and went Waterfalling. We brought with us the folding chairs that my wife had wisely told us to buy. We visited 5 or 6 waterfalls that day, depending on how you count. We liked Harmby waterfall so much we went there twice! We also didn’t want to walk to far or too steeply, as my left Achilles tendon still twinges from a Waterfall visit in Vermont 3 years ago.

Let me add that there appeared to be less water than usual in the rivers, streams, and therefore waterfalls. We kept passing the River Ure, which didn’t look like much of a River. In some areas, barely a stream. [Another brief aside. Have any of the readers been to Israel and seen the Jordan River? Pay no attention to “Michael row your boat ashore”, when they sing “the Jordan River is deep and wide”. It’s neither. Reminded me of the River Ure.]

We began by going to Harmby Waterfall, which receives less attention than any of the more famous waterfalls that we visited that day. I don’t know why, but I’m ok with it as we were the only people at that waterfall either time we went there. Harmby is the closest waterfall to Leyburn, only 1.3 miles from the Grove House. We got on A684, drove a few minutes, took a right at the Pheasant Inn, and parked on the side road. There’s a tiny sign pointing to the waterfall. The whole thing is in the middle of trees. We walked down maybe 6 or 8 stairs, and felt like we were in the middle of a forest somewhere. It was wonderful. We walked maybe 100 feet and got to the top waterfall. There was a good force waterfall, going over a rocky stream to a lower waterfall, maybe 40 feet away, then flowing downhill on rocky streams until they were out of sight. At some of the other waterfalls, the closest you could sit or stand was a few hundred feet away; here you could literally dip your hand in the water. The only limiting factor was sitting far enough away that you wouldn’t get splashed by the falling water, unless you wanted to. It also helps to find a flat piece of ground to put your chair on if you’re sitting. It was extremely serene, calming, and altogether wonderful. Where I come from, people would pay $25.00 for the privilege of sitting there, it would be crowded and nasty, and there’d still be a line. It was wonderful!

We stayed at Harmby waterfall for maybe 45 minutes, then reluctantly left, because we had more waterfalls to see. We then got back on A684, heading West, and drove to West Burton Falls, a/k/a Cauldron Falls. There was a convenient parking lot right there near the falls and rapids. There was were benches to sit on, but they were wet because of the weather. It was overcast when we got there, and started lightly raining about 5 minutes after we got there. We couldn’t get that close, and there were 1 or 2 photographers there taking pictures. There was a rapid stream running into the falls, which, as I remember, might have been 8-14 feet high. Good sound, as it led to a rocky stream with the sound of rapids. The rain picked up, and we left after about 15 minutes. Of course the rain stopped as soon as we left. There is a place in West Burton called “the Cat Pottery”. I assume that none of you can guess what they do, so I’ll just tell you. They sell pottery in the shape of cats! One of my wife’s best friends is deeply into cats, so we visited the store, and my wife contributed to the economy of West Burton. They have very good stuff there, but they didn’t seem particularly friendly or searching for customers. I truly wish them well, as it’s sad to see these handcrafters have problems.

After West Burton, we headed for to Aysgarth Falls. Also close. Maybe 10-20 minutes. Several things. First, as you turn into the road to Aysgarth falls, you’ll see a parking lot which appears to be for Aysgarth Falls. It’s not. Don’t park there. That’s the Aysgarth Falls Hotel, and you’re probably looking for the Aysgarth Falls National Visitor Centre, which is further up the road. We parked at the Car Park at the Visitor Centre, paid for parking and use of the toilet facilities (both honor boxes as I remember, I remember only because I haven’t paid to use a bathroom in a while), and walked down to the Middle and Lower falls. There are three sets of falls there, which aren’t steep waterfalls, actually more of a series of cascades. From the Visitor Centre, you can walk uphill to the Upper falls, or downhill to the lower and middle falls. The upper falls and lower falls are about the same distance, but the middle falls are closer than either, because they’re in the middle. The river is the River Ure, which I believe is the English version of the River Tweed, which pops up everywhere. (see my earlier posts about this trip) As I’d said, we appeared to be in a bit of a drought, so the falls seemed less than impressive. Could just the Ure be in a drought? After walking to the middle falls and watching for a while, we went to the lower falls, which seemed much, much further than they had alleged. We sat for a while, and then walked back to the Visitor Centre. Remember that I said that we walked downhill to the middle and lower falls. The lower falls are further from the middle falls than the middle falls are from the Visitor Centre. That means that we had to walk uphill a fair distance on the way back. It would have been very difficult had I started the trip there, by now, it was only difficult.

After we left Aysgarth falls, we headed towards Cotter Force, but we stopped at Wensleydale Creamery for lunch. The roads had been fine all day, not so much as we were driving to the Creamery. Small roads again, tiny village. Nice creamery, we skipped the tour as we’d toured the Cabot Cheese factory in Vermont and the Tillimook factory in Oregon. They have multiple nice restaurants there, we also went through the cheese room. I need to find out if some of those cheeses can be purchased in the States. Some were ok, some were very good. We ate in a cafeteria type restaurant, We shared a nice sandwich, a savory cheese scone with cheese, and a scone with currants and cream and jam. With tea, of course. We left feeling civilized.

After we left Wensleydale, we went fairly far west to Sedbergh. Back on a decent road, A684 . (drive left, drive left, drive left). It was getting a little late, so we really only had time to go one place before most of the town closed. We went to Farfield Mills Crafts, which honestly wasn’t worth the 80 or 90 minute roundtrip drive from where we were. It was basically a large craft shop, for which you paid a fee for the privilege of shopping there.

We drove back East on A684 towards Cotter Force. We parked at a little lay-by right after crossing the River Ure (again). The directions say that it’s one of the National Park’s most accessible waterfalls, suitable for pushchairs and wheelchairs. I say that they’re lying liars. True, the path is level. They give the impression that it’s a relatively short walk. It’s not. It was by far the longest walk to a waterfall that we’d taken, alongside a lovely little stream (the River Ure). We walked for about ½ a mile or longer, and then turned back, convinced that our instructions were bad or something. When we were almost back at the car, I said that we’d spent that much time, so we’d go to the end of the trail, or another 45 minutes, whichever came first. We turned back down the trail, and wonder of wonders, we eventually found the waterfall. It was a nice waterfall, and there was a bench there (we were still carrying our camp chairs, but it’s nice that they had the bench). When they say that it’s very accessible and suitable for wheelchairs, they should have mentioned that it’s a mile or mile and a half from the parking area. Still, and even without as much water as usual, it was one of the better waterfalls that we’d been to.

Finally, we headed to Hardraw Force, which was only about a 10-20 minute drive. Apparently it’s only a 2.3 mile drive, but the roads deteriorated badly as we headed there. Another of those “two lane roads” that really aren’t. To get to Hardraw Force you have to pay and go through the Green Dragon Inn, as the falls are entirely on private property. As we were close to the Green Dragon Inn, three or four cows decided to cross the road. Two went across without problems, but a third one stopped in the road, and glared at the car we were in. The cow appeared to be challenging us, and showed no intention of moving. The farmer got behind that cow and, I believe one or two others and began shooing them on. They went peacefully, forgetting the clash of wills with us. The farmer waved at us, we waved back.

We then parked at the Green Dragon Inn, and went behind it to the waterfall. We git there about 5:20, and the falls close at 6:00 (I’m not sure of someone turns a valve to shut the falls, but we were told that they close at 6:00). The woman asked us if we still wanted to pay to enter. We did, so we did. Pleasant walk to the falls. Again, perhaps because of the drought, it wasn’t as impressive as I’d thought. It is the tallest waterfall in England, with an unbroken fall of about 100 feet. There just wasn’t enough water to make it memorable. It was nice and pleasant, and we were glad we were there, but not outstanding. We left at about 5:50 to make sure that we wouldn’t keep the attendant waiting, although she had already left when we got there.

We then ate dinner at the Green Dragon Inn. The place dates back to the 13th Century. Full of charm. Low ceilings, comfortable but very old tables, the Inn looked like it was as old as they claim. Decent enough menu but when we asked questions about the Inn, the employee told us that he didn’t know anything, that he’d been working there less than a week. When we got the food that we’d ordered, it seemed that it had been cooked around the time that the Inn was built, or certainly long before that employee had been hired. Oh well, we got the great cow story from the trip to the Green Dragon, and the Waterfall wasn’t bad.

We headed back to Leyburn, but since it wasn’t really dark yet we headed back to Harmby falls one more time. That was by far the waterfall that I enjoyed most that day. We got there around 8:15 in the evening, and spent about 30 minutes there. Did I mention how wonderful it was? We then went back to the Grove house, took more Aleve for our legs, and went to bed.

Getting closer to the end. Only trip to York, York, and trip from York to Heathrow left.

janisj

Really enjoying this. I can picture every place except Harmby Falls. That is the only site you've mentioned that I haven't visited. And I last stayed in Aysgarth which is less than 10 miles away! So another thing to add to my wish list.

Morgana

Great report. You're very close to my neck of the woods now (I live in Lower Wensleydale).
Believe me, the River Ure can change into a very different beast when we've had a lot of rainfall. I have seen it 'dangerously' high in places (especially Ripon and Masham), threatening bridges and causing flood damage. This doesn't happen every year but it does happen.
Aysgarth Falls (setting for part of Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves) tend to be 'pretty' rather than impressive this time of years. I've been lucky enough to see them in winter when they were in spate. I remember getting out of the car at the Visitor Centre car park and the roar of the water was so loud we had to yell at each other to make ourselves heard over the noise!
Wondering if you visited my 'work place' - otherwise known as Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal Water Garden?
And I have a confession! I thought I knew this part of the Dales like the back of my hand but I've never heard of or visited Harmby Falls!

Morgana

To add - saw this on the BBC news tonight and thought of you! We've had horrendous storms today and Leyburn is currently cut off due to flooding!
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-englan...shire-49164275

SenatorSteve

Morgana: Wow! I'm sorry to hear about the flooding. I trust you that the River Ure is not always the trickle it looked like when I saw it a month ago.

You'll hear if I went to Fountains Abbey in my next post (Yes).

I'm glad that I was able to give extra info to pros like you and JanisJ. Check Harmby Falls. Just because I liked it doesn't mean everyone will like it.

I really didn't know about the Dales until you and others on the Board suggested I go there. Also, when I decided to go there, I was inclined to stay in Skipton until you "corrected" me.

Thanks. More later.

SenatorSteve

On Tuesday, July 2, we ate a nice breakfast at the Grove House, and then reluctantly left Leyburn. No more waterfalls. ☹ We headed towards York.

First we drove to Masham, a lovely little town. 20-30 minute drive on A6108. Not a bad road. (Drive left, drive left, drive left). We went to the very nice church there, Church of St. Mary the Virgin. Walked around the town square. Had Ice cream at one of the nice places on the town square. They had some nice candy places. We went shopping for glass at two places. First we went to Uredale Glass, which was very nice, but we weren’t really looking for what they were selling. Then we walked elsewhere on the square to the Masham Gallery which was a showcase for many crafts, including glass, art, and other crafts. We really liked that store, and my wife contributed to the economy of Masham.

We then drove to Fountains Abbey/Studley Royal Water Garden. Just to make Morgana happy (Just kidding). Theoretically about 22 minutes drive. Those *#@*%$ GPS designers sent me by backroads that wouldn’t fit a horse, where my car would scrape trees on each side of the road simultaneously. I couldn’t say “drive left, drive left, drive left” because if you drove on the left of the center of the road, , you were driving through hedges, cliffs, or people’s houses. You couldn’t fit two cars going in opposite directions if one car was a skateboard!!! mumble, grumble.

We finally got to Fountains Abbey, with my wife calming me down from the drive. When we walked around, we realized that we could easily spend ½ a day there, which we didn’t have. We budgeted about 90 minutes, and spent just under 2 hours there. Realizing this, we decided that we just couldn’t get to the Studley Royal Water Garden, which was just too far away from where we were. Sorry.

We walked to the ruined Abbey, which was even larger than the other ruined Abbeys that we’d been to. I must say that by this time we were getting a little tired of ruined abbeys. Quite a walk there. Downhill there, uphill back. We spent good time in the large ruins, and walked around the grounds. The Porter’s Lodge has a good exhibit on the history of the Abbey, and the Dissolution of the Abbeys. We walked around a little more, took a different path back to the entrance, spent some time in the very nice gift shop, and then left for York.

It took us about 2-2 ½ hours to get to our hotel in York. It took us maybe 90 minutes to get to York because of traffic, and then at least ½ hour to get to our hotel. We waited at one intersection alone for 5-10 minutes. I’d booked us at the Hotel Indigo, which looked nice and like it was at a convenient location for walking to the old walled city of York. I pat myself on the back, I picked a great location. (more Aleve, I just hurt my shoulder patting myself on the back). I thought that it would be a downside that the car park was a block away. It wasn’t. The car park was exclusively for the use of the Hotel. We stopped in front of the Hotel, got a parking pass, drove to the car park, wheeled our luggage to the Hotel, and left the car there until we left for Heathrow.

Hotel Indigo is part of a chain. I’d never stayed at a Hotel Indigo, but I might need to reconsider. They seem to pride themselves that “No two neighborhoods are alike” and so each hotel should be appropriate for the City. I can’t speak to that, but the rate was very reasonable at 147 GBP each night for three night. The room was larger than any other room we’d stayed at, and that wasn’t including the sitting room that we had attached to the bedroom. High quality bed, bedding, linens and toiletries. Nice lobby and I think a nice restaurant, although we never ate there. The staff was incredibly nice and helpful. The location was on Walmgate, a short straight walk down the road to Old York. My wife and I loved York, and agreed that if we ever returned, we’d want to stay at the Hotel Indigo again.

As soon as we checked in, we walked into Old York. The first thing that we did was have afternoon tea at Betty’s. We got there around 3:30, and the larger Betty’s at St. Helen’s Square had a long line. We decided to try the smaller Betty’s, about 2 blocks away on Stonegate. The smaller one had almost no line, just one couple ahead of us. We went upstairs, and had the famous Traditional Afternoon Tea. Very nice, but part of that may just have been the feeling of having Afternoon Tea at
Betty’s. Really, the Afternoon Tea in London or Edinburgh were both nicer, but we really liked this one also. After that, we walked around town, but shops were starting to close. We loved wandering around the little streets, and we walked to York Minster. I’ll use all of the superlatives here that I resisted using at Durham Cathedral. Ready?: OMG! This place was amazing! Magnificent! I couldn’t imagine how they were able to physically build this building. It was so tall. How did they do that? How many people got hurt or died building that Monumental Edifice? What did that do to their Worker’s Compensation rates? This was only a view from the outside, because the building wasn’t open to the public by the time we got there.

We walked more around York until Dinner time, around 7:30 or 7:45. We went back to the Betty’s at St. Helen’s Square, and waited around 15 minutes for a table. I wanted to try one of the Rosti dinners, which are grated potatoes, gruyere cheese, cream, and a topping. I had the Salmon Rosti. Outstanding. I believe that my wife had the fried Haddock, but I can’t swear to that. We both liked the food, and walked back to the hotel around 9:00. After walking this much for this long, especially most of the day today, my wife and I were both beginning to go lame. My right knee and hip, her left knee. More Aleve (for me, Advil for her). Then bedtime.

More later. Getting tired.

SusanP

Steve, does The Indigo have an elevator?

SenatorSteve

Yes, at least 2 elevators. We were on the third floor, and never had to wait long for an elevator. There may have been more elevators on the other side, I don't know or don't recall.

janisj

I'm an IHG member so have stayed in a handful of Indigos. Some seem 'too trendy', maybe a little full of themselves (or maybe I'm just the wrong demographic ) Was it comfortable???

Morgana

You can easily spend a day at Fountains (and it's the unique and beautiful Georgian Water Garden with its temples and follies that gives the place its World Heritage status, not the Abbey). You'll just have to come back!
Not sure what route you took but there are good (and not narrow) roads all the way there from the Masham area via Ripon - buses and coaches use them all the while. And there are 3 entrances, one near the Abbey is 'flat access' and avoids any hills and steps to make it as accessible as possible. It's vital to us that people in wheelchairs, and with buggies etc can visit too.
I live in the middle of nowhere but Masham is my nearest town - glad you liked it. The two famous breweries mean it is a popular place during the 'nicer' months. It's very quiet in winter!
We love Bettys - there are 6 branches in Yorkshire.

SusanP

Thanks.

SenatorSteve

JanisJ : Very Comfortable. The best place I stayed during my trip. And good location. I don't know about demographics, but I'm not young, hip, or trendy. I'm an overweight 60 year old white guy and I loved it. This is the first Indigo hotel that I've ever stayed at. I'm a Hilton guy.

Morgana: The reason that I was cursing the %*&^# GPS is that I know that there are normally good simple routes that take me where I want to go. However, the GPS was sending me by goat paths if it would be 50 feet shorter, and theoretically know 20 seconds off the trip. Even when I chose longer routes that went by better roads, it kept redirecting me the way it wanted to go. There's an option that you can use to only select roads without tolls. They need an option to only use roads that sane drivers would pick to use. grrr.

janisj

Proper paper road atlas, Proper paper road atlas, Proper paper road atlas. (as useful a mantra as drive left, drive left, drive left. )

SenatorSteve

Final Continuation and end of trip report England/Scotland June 20-July 7
OK, I’m going to try and finish today.

Wednesday, July 3, 2019. We woke up, struggled to fit into our clothes (We’d been on vacation for over two weeks, giving up any pretense of dieting while on vacation) and walked back to York Minster. We got there about 9:40, they didn’t open until 10:00, we waited around for them to open. We were among the first people in when they opened. I don’t want to get into the details about York Minster, because that’s easy to Google. It was amazing. It was fantastic. I was a little disappointed that due to renovations of the pipes to the organ, the Kings Screen (statues of 15 Kings of England, beginning with William the Conqueror) was covered, but there was so much else in York Minster to see, that we almost didn’t mind not being able to see the Kings. We walked around until the first guided tour began at 10:45, and then went on the tour. The volunteer was wonderful. There was so much to see there that we spent over three hours there, leaving after 1:00.

Since we hadn’t eaten breakfast, we went to eat lunch. We had lunch at a Roast or Joint restaurant (York Roast Company). Filling. Their Yorkshire pudding left a little to be desired, if there’s any place in the world that you should be able to get a good Yorkshire pudding, it should be in Yorkshire. Meat was fine, stuffing ok, but even ok stuffing is good stuffing.

We walked to the Yorkshire Museum, which was ok, and spent a while there. Around 3:00 we stopped someplace for tea and cake, and then went to the Jorvik Viking Museum. There was a bit of a wait, and then we got in. It was ok, much of it was riding in a Disney-like vehicle, watching exhibits. They also showed Viking artifacts, which were reasonably nice. My wife and I went on a Nordic cruise 2 years ago, and we went to Viking museums in Stockholm and Oslo. The Jorvik Viking Museum didn’t seem to match up, and I was a little disappointed. I’d have liked it more if I hadn’t been to the other museums. After we left the Viking Museum, we walked around the wonderful city of York some more. We looked into many small shops, including some antique shops, and my wife liked a set of small silver spoons. We contributed to the economy of York.

About 5:30 or 6:00, we were getting tired and walked back to the hotel. We took a short nap and went to dinner. We walked back down Walmgate from the Hotel, which changed to Fossgate after we passed the river Foss. We ate dinner at a place called the Cosy Club. It looked nice. An outside bar, inside very busy bar, and not as busy restaurant. The best way that I can describe the restaurant is to say that I was expecting to see Flappers from 1920’s New York. The menu was excellent. The food was good. More Cider. The problem was the service. It took too long to place our order, and too long to get the food, then too long to find the waitress to pay the check. They told us that 2 of their wait staff hadn’t showed up. Having said all that, I’d risk it again because the menu and food were good, atmosphere great. I’d give them the benefit of the doubt that service would be better next time. Went back to the hotel.

On Thursday, July 4, we had planned on heading out of town to see Castle Howard, Malton (the Food Capitol of Yorkshire), then Whitby, and finally if time permitted, Robin Hood Bay. Wednesday evening we decided that there were still too many good things to do and see in York, so we blew off the Out of York places. We’d gladly go to the other places if we go back to York. I’d seriously consider that if I could fit it into either a trip to the Northern half of Ireland (my wife has ancestors from Donegal), or our trip to the Highlands and Islands.

One thing I noticed was that they don’t celebrate July 4 with Fireworks and American Flags in the UK. What’s up with that? Ohhh, now I understand. I get it. Never mind.

We got up and went for a bagel, lox, and cream cheese (even though it wasn’t Sunday) because we’d seen a restaurant called “bagel nosh” which is a nice New York sounding name. We were expecting a good bagel. When we got there, we found the name was actually “Bagel Nash”, presumably for a guy named Nash. The bagels came in either refrigerated or frozen, they were barely edible. The salmon was barely ok, there wasn’t enough cream cheese, they shouldn’t call themselves a bagel shop at all.

We went to the York Castle Museum, which should be renamed the museum at York Castle, because the Museum is located where York Castle used to be, but it’s not about York Castle. It is a very interesting style of museum, organized by time period as opposed to organized by subject. Many of the items were not unique or famous items; what made the museum interesting was it showed common items during each period. There were also staff dressed in period clothes from different time periods. Ghey had a tour of a Victorian Street with people dressed in Victorian garb. There was a toy exhibit with toys over the last 60 years, a 60’s exhibit, a WW I exhibit, etc. We really liked the Museum, and spent about three hours there.

To get to the York Castle Museum we had to walk by Clifford’s Tower, the last remnants of the old Castle. It was the location of a massacre of all of the Jews of York in 1190. There is a bronze memorial plaque there. We stopped by the plaque and said a prayer.

We went to the Treasurer’s House, a largely faux exhibit near the Minster. It’s a large nice house, but it had been divided into little units. In the late 1890’s a wealthy man named Green reassembled as much of the property as possible, and rebuilt it. However, since he wanted to be accepted by society, he put up real portraits of people long ago that weren’t really related to him. One room might be build Elizabethan, another room could be Georgian, while a third room could be Victorian. It wasn’t a genuine example of any period, just a recreation or a fancy by an eccentric older guy.

We walked over to the Merchant Adventurers Hall, one of the finest medieval Guild halls in the world. The problem was that we thought that it closed at 5:00, when it really closed at 4:30. We got there around 4:00, or 4:10. We still paid to go in. We really liked it, I just wished we had more time there. It was refreshing to be someplace authentic after leaving the Treasurer’s house. I took lots of pictures.

One of the reasons that we were late there was Royalty. To elaborate, as we were leaving the Treasurer’s House, right by York Minster, we noticed a number of police and cars with sirens, etc. I asked one of the officers (who was at least 6’6, and looked like he could bench press a car) what was going on. Surprisingly, he answered (bad security). Prince Andrew was visiting York Minster with some Veterans, and the officer pointed to a door and said that he’d be right out. We waited to take pictures. And Waited. And Waited. Finally we had to leave if we were going to see the Merchant Adventurers Hall, and we didn’t know how much longer he’d be, so we left. I guess If you’re the Duke of York (another of his titles) you can spend as much time in York and York Minster as you want, and generally come and go as you want. Especially in York.

We stopped for Dinner at another classic English restaurant, Marzano’s Italian Grill. Outstanding Italian restaurant. I heartily recommend it. We walked around York a little more, as our last view of the City. We went back to the Hotel at maybe 7:30 to pack.

We loved York. We loved the Old walled City. We loved the narrow winding streets. We loved Betty’s. We loved the museums. We loved the number and variety of restaurants. The little shoppes. The Shambles. How walkable it is. I’d love to go back there. If only they had a few more Churches. I found it interesting that there were so many churches there, and they can’t be torn down, so the old ones without sufficient congregants to keep up the church are being used for different purposes.

We went to a very sizable number of Churches, Abbeys, Cathedrals, etc. I contributed at all of them. I believe that I should now be an honorary Anglican.

On Friday, July 5, we left York to go to Heathrow. We knew it would take about 6 hours to get there, as Google Maps said about 5 hours. We did hit slowdowns on the way.

We stopped at Newark on Trent on the way. An old market town. We ate lunch at the Civil War Museum there, and went through the Civil War Museum. It was nice, but much of it was closed because they were in the middle of changing the exhibits, so we only saw part of it.

We left Newark on Trent fairly soon because we wanted to spend more time in Stamford. When we got to Stamford, we stopped in the outskirts at a large Antique mall, where we spent maybe 45 minutes to an hour. Then we tried to get to the old part of Stamford. There were road closures going on there. Traffic was at a gridlock. There was no parking spot anywhere in sight. After close to an hour of sitting in traffic and/or looking for parking I threw up my hands (figuratively only, I actually kept my hands on the wheel) and headed back to the main roads.

We reached Heathrow maybe 7:00ish. We returned the rental car, and took a cab from the rental car company to the Airport Hilton, which apparently opened only a few days before we got there. I think that we may have been the first people in that room. The elevators were having problems, not everything in the room worked, but considering that the hotel had just opened, that was understandable. We ate at the hotel restaurant. I ordered some standard British food (some type of pasta with grilled chicken) The first time it came, it didn’t have the chicken, so the waitress took it back. When it eventually came back, it was so spicy that I couldn’t eat it, despite the fact that there was nothing indicating that it would be spicy. I can’t eat spicy food.

What was great about the Hotel was that you could walk from there to the airport terminal. We walked there Friday night, just so that we could see where we’d have to go when we were wheeling luggage the next day. We were flying back Virgin Upper Class (thank you frequent flyer miles for my first flight on Virgin airlines), so we went to locate where the Upper Class Lounge was. We were very happy that we did this without luggage, because it took a while to find some things. That night I started receiving texts from Delta warning me that my connecting flight from JFK to my home city could be cancelled. I called, and they told me that hey didn’t expect a problem, that the weather at JFK was clearing up.

The following morning we checked out of the Hilton at about 8:00 or so, and walked over to check in at Virgin. The Upper Class line went quickly, security went quickly, I stopped and got another bottle of good whisky to bring home. We went to the Upper Class lounge, which is the nicest airport lounge I’ve been to. Our flight left at noon, and we left the lounge maybe 45 n minutes before the plane took off.

The Virgin flight from Heathrow to JFK was far superior in every way to the Delta One flight from JFK to Heathrow. When flat, the seat/bed was far more comfortable, better food, better service, etc. The plane was so much better that while it took Delta 12 hours to fly there, it only took Virgin 3 hours to fly back. It really shows that American International first/business class flights really aren't as good as most flights from other countries.

Things started to go wrong when we hit JFK. We landed at around 3:00, and had a connecting flight at around 6:00. It wasn’t raining at JFK. It wasn’t raining in my home city. What could go wrong? Why would I ask such a stupid question?

At 5:00 they postponed the flight for an hour. At 6:00 they postponed it until 8:00. I called the Delta Platinum desk and asked what the problem was, and they said rain between JFK and my home city. I asked if they would end up cancelling the flight. I understand bad weather, I just didn’t want to be stuck at the airport all day, and if my flight was cancelled, I wanted to be able to get a room. They assured me that wouldn’t be the case. At 8:00, it was postponed until 11:40 PM. I called again and asked if they thought it would be cancelled. Again, no. At 9:15 they cancelled the flight. I immediately tried to find a hotel room, but all rooms near there were already booked. I called the three Hiltons, and at the last Hilton they told me that they’d been saving a few rooms for Hilton Diamond members, and I got the last room. We got there around 10:30, got a few hours sleep, checked out at 4:30, and went back to JFK for an 8:30 flight. I was (correctly) expecting a zoo because of the flight cancellations, and I was correct. When I checked in, the agent asked why my flight was taking almost 8 hours with two connections. I asked her the same question. Turned out that the three flights was the only way that they could get us home first class. The agent told us that there was a direct flight at 9:00 that would get us home by noon, if we were willing to split up and fly coach. Of course we were. I wonder why the other agents hadn’t advised us of that option. We finally landed at home at around noon, collected the luggage, caught a cab home, and rested/slept.

Final observations on the trip

· We loved this trip. The Dales waterfalls. York. Traquair House. All of the research was well worth it.

· The trip would not have been nearly as good without the help and advice of people on this Forum.

· The UK was wonderful. Very old country. In The UK, if you have something 500 years old, it’s pretty old. In the US, it’s dug up by archaeologists, because everything older than that was Native American. My undergrad degree was in History, so I loved it.

· People there (in general) were so nice and helpful, at least compared to so many of my brash countrymen.

· Great country, some truly horrible roads.

· What’s with parking there? Many roads are difficult to drive on because it seems that people can park on the road (or half on the road) wherever they want.

· The UK has a reputation for bad food. I believe that this is an old story. I thought the food was fine. Again, I was expecting pubs and Indian, I wasn’t expecting so much Italian, which I happen to like. I only gained about 8 pounds because of all the walking that I did, and I considered only 8 pounds a moral victory.

· Thank you again. Those of you that are frequent responders deserve great thanks.

The end

Steve

Gyhtson

Hooameye

" The UK has a reputation for bad food. I believe that this is an old story."

We also have bad teeth, don't talk to anyone, wear bowler hats/pin strip suites and carry umbrellas all the time. Don't believe stereotypes, as I don't believe what I hear about people from the US (having lived there).

bilboburgler

I'm glad you liked UNESCO Fountains and York. Two of my favorite places. When you come back you have to see UNESCO Saltaire.

I'm really happy that you enjoyed the food. Immigration from Italy (for which the Euro and their constitution are both a disaster) has greatly improved an already fantastic food scene.

I have no problem with the UK lacking space for its cars, the trains are better for our planet and get you town centre to town centre without left left left..