Photo montage of York

A few shots of York, to be added to as I can.

At the Minster

Around the town

The Shambles

(aka Tourist hell in central York with very narrow streets)

More around town

Exploring the Coast

Saturday, 1:55 pm, York

I'm sitting in a wireless cafe in York's town center. I want to move in. The food is sooooo good, for a good price, and it's homey and hip and sweet all at the same time. We ended up here after a solid traditional English breakfast (sausage, baked beans, tomatoes, mushrooms, mine without egg) on campus, a walk that involved feeding the campus' black swans from my hand, and finally a drive around and subsequent walk atop the old fortress-like city wall of old York. Now, Andrew has gone off to buy an antique watch and peruse some more shops, and I'm resting my feet, sipping a mocha, and catching up on blogging.

Our trip day before yesterday is worth more detail (and some pics!). We drove from West Linton (the village Andrew's family lives in) through Peebles, Galashiel, Kelso, and Coldstream, headed toward the Eastern coast of Scotland and the North Sea.

We stopped at the River Tweed for a bit and hiked into a field to take pictures.

Then we went on to the coast, driving along roads that, to my eye, could comfortably fit a single car but which in the UK are two-lane, 60-mph roads! (Sorry mom. Be assured that here, every driver on the road is engaging in precision driving. It's astonishing how much better, kinder, and more heads-up the drivers are. Now I understand why Andrew grumbles so at American drivers! We are a rude bunch. Ah, good, I've been away long enough that I'm whinging about home. Grin.)

Our first stop on the coast was Bamburgh castle, which has a "proper beach" behind it.

Me! In the North Sea!

We even found a barn swallow nest, with four nestlings!

More coast shots (taken further south):

We spent the night at a little B&B in Durham. We saw very little of the city because the B&B was so lovely we just stayed in and rested. Everything was really clean and the couple who ran, Helen and Joe, were delightful.

-Erika

The Falkirk Wheel

Friday 11:45 pm, York

Hello again! As it is so late, this will be a short post, but I will have time to write more tomorrow. We have been without wireless for a couple of days, but we're staying tonight at the University of York, so we have wired access. Andrew went to university here in his late teens and early twenties, so I'm getting a better sense of his younger years. The campus is absolutely lovely; photos to follow in a later post.

Yesterday, we drove down to England via the Eastern coast of the North Sea. It was a fast drive through very scenic, yet narrow back roads; again, more photos to come tomorrow. Andrew and I are both getting comfortable driving; it's great not to squeal every time a big truck comes at us in the opposite lane! :)

As promised, here are some photos from Wednesday. The first is one of my favorites, of Andrew and Gwynneth at the Stirling castle.

As I mentioned in the last post, on our way home, we stopped to see the Falkirk wheel. This enormous feat of engineering raises or lowers boats from one canal to another. Just as we arrived, it ran through a cycle (empty). It was quite a sight to see it move that much water, much less to think of adding a boat. The basin that holds the boat is inside the circle you see in the photo below.

Here's Gwynneth alongside, to give you a sense of scale:

And these? These are narrowboats, a version of houseboats suitable for canals. They have been pulled by horses, pushed with poles, and moved through tunnels by people lying on their back and "walking" the boat through. They have a top speed of about 4.5 mph, contain several beds, a little kitchen, bath, and dining area. I am in LOVE and hope to be able to rent one on our next visit, hopefully with the kids.

Ok, it's off to bed now. I'm still struggling a bit with jet lag and wanting to stay up all night. :) Much love! xoxox, Erika

Thurs after midnight

I'm happy to see that we already have a follower for the blog! Welcome, Vicente! Now, would some of you beloved people whom I actually know please become followers too? ;)

Today, after a leisurely morning of Wheatabix and a group-lambasting of the educational systems on both sides of the pond, Andrew, Gwynneth and I took a day trip to Stirling, a small town about an hour North of West Linton. We stopped off at Avis on the way to switch to an automatic, which created AMPLE reasons to whinge, as customer snarkiness is apparently common here. The car switch was worth the wait, however, and has made driving much easier for both Andrew and me.

Stirling is a wonderful combination of the very old and the very new. The city is watched over by a castle on its highest hill. Satellite dishes are affixed to buildings several centuries old and bored-looking hairdressers with bright red nails smoke cigarettes in arched stone doorways covered in black soot and moss.

Statues of historical figures seem to be around every corner:

Robert Burns Rob Roy

We visited the Church of the Holy Rude, because of its name, of course.

The graveyard was scenic, with many gravestones so old they were worn beyond readability.

We arrived at the castle too late to go inside, but there was a marvelous view.

We ended the trip with a visit to the Falkirk wheel, a giant gadget that lowers or raises boats between two canals that are about 300 feet apart in altitude. Pictures tomorrow?

Tomorrow, we're off down the coast towards York, where Andrew went to university.

OK, must get off to bed! Hugs!

-Erika