Friday, 1 July: I won’t bore you all with the drama about collecting the car a day late (regardless of letting the agency know this would be the case) – all I will say is I will never use the broker CarTrawler again!
We finally got on the road and the three of us motored off to our dear friend Jacqueline’s place in the south east in a lovely little place called Lindfield. We arrived mid-afternoon and did a lot of catch up. Later that evening we went to the Witch – and the food was fabulous (do you see a theme here!). Jax, Renoir and I all had the scallops for starters, and we all had a burger in various stages of burger-ness (ie I didn’t eat the bread and Renoir eschewed all the salad-y things!) A couple bottles of a really lovely Temperanillo and spent a fun evening swapping mad travel stories! And then, something I love about England, we were able to walk home, so no-one got stuck with driving.
Saturday 2 July: and an early start to the Sainsburys (the local supermarket) to buy the food for the evening’s dinner party. With eight for dinner we stocked up, 3 chickens to roast, pumpkin for soup, loads of veggies, and desert. Our menu was simple: curried pumpkin soup (prepared by Steve); roast chicken (2 of which were stuffed by yours truly), loads of veggies, an original style toad in the hole by Renoir; and a cheats version of lemon meringue-pie by me, all accompanied by fab wine. It was one of those nights where the conversation flowed effortless, there was loads of laughing and storytelling, and multiple conversations happening at once. We were all amazed when the guests said they were leaving and it was after 1am – they’d arrived at 730pm and the time had absolutely flown!
At this point I have to say a VERY BIG THANK YOU to Jax from both Renoir and myself for putting us up (or putting up with us!) twice – before and after our cruise.
Sunday 3 July: off on the UK part of our adventure! We were on our way to York, which is on the east coast of England. Renoir figured it would be a 5 hour drive so leaving about 10am gave us plenty of time to get there.
We allowed ourselves to get waylaid by the Cambridge University Botanic Gardens (there is that garden theme again!) They were featured in a magazine I had bought for their winter foliage, but they were just beautiful in the summer too. We even found a Wollemi Pine! We wandered through their gardens, around the lake, into the greenhouse (where we had a little bit of Brisbane humidity to remind us what summer at home is like!).
We only intended to spend about 45 mins there but we enjoyed that glorious garden for over an hour before we moseyed back to the car to resume our journey.
We arrived in York about 530pm and easily found the Travelodge. Now the Travelodge is no Hilton, but it is clean, has tea making facilities, and is in the middle of town. Although they didn’t offer parking, we could use the parking station nearby and get a discount, so after unloading the car we parked the car and wandered this wonderful old town.
York is another of the walled cities of England. It was overrun by Vikings many times, and its history is alive in every street and even in almost every building in the old town. The sun doesn’t set until after 930pm, and everyone was out promenading on the bridge across the Ouse (pron Ooze!) river, around the town and enjoying the weather – apparently it can get bitterly cold in winter.
About 7pm we wandered into a bottle shop that was the downstairs component of the House of the Trembling Madness, purportedly the oldest mediaeval banquet hall in York. It was all whitewashed and dark beams, everything at a weird angle because of its age, and loads of stuffed animal heads on the wall (which neither of us like particularly but it is all part of the history). We enjoyed a drink, then ordered dinner; an ale & beef pie for Renoir (which was a bit spoiled by being very peppery) and a ham and cheese ploughman’s plate style dinner for me. It was a tiny, and very lively place, with many students (some of them American); and families as well as young couples on dates – a lovely microcosm of the town!
We continued our walk – fortunately the shops were of course all closed or we could have done some serious damage in the second hand book store! A brief stop in a pub Renoir had visited before – the Yorkshire Terrier – saw him have 4 one third pints of a choice of the beers they had on top, me a sparkling water – and some live music helped us while away some time, very relaxing, before moseying back to the hotel.
Monday 4 July: York: A quick brunch and a visit to the Jorvick Viking musem. All I can say is WOW! We kept expecting to see evidence or references to Vikings when in Scandinavia and saw very little – but now we were totally in Viking territory. The Jorvick museum has marvelous exhibits. You started by walking over Perspex that protects an existing excavation. Then we moved into a ride of sorts, where we sat in a capsule, and listened through headphones set into the back of the seat tell us the story of what we were seeing. The exhibit was set up as though we were passing through a Viking village in York – complete with the street names like Copper Gate where we had walked that morning (Copper Gate was where they made cups/mugs etc). There were human, not puppet, more like animatronics, where they had facial expressions, and moved a bit, like they were real. We travelled through their homes, their markets, saw and heard them argue and trade – we even saw an example of a chap on the loo – and he wasn’t happy! Everyone, including the kids, drank beer because the well was very close to the loo in their backyards so the water was unclean.
Other exhibits included a skeletons that had been unearthed – and these had been assessed by osteo-archeologists who were able to give a summary of their bone health. One of the female skeletons had been suspended in a display case, and this was overlaid by a laser description of their bone health, and the overlaid was an example of her clothes – the fabric, the colour and dyes, the ornaments such as glass beads. More exhibits included specific trades, such as leather making, or an example of a home –and both these had a video where an actor played the part of the leather maker or home maker – all these really brought to life how the Vikings lived.
After the Jorvick we wandered through to the markets – yes I do love markets – it always gives me a great way of getting an idea of the fabric of a town. Then off to fill in some time before a Viking walking tour where we came across the prettiest little 13 century church called Holy Trinity. It was incredibly beautiful, with recreated stained glass windows, and a fabulous history.
Then off to our tour hosted by SP Grey – a children’s author who does many tours a week depending on the time of year. We were very lucky there were fewer than a dozen people – many of these tours have up to 50 people and of course you can’t hear a thing! And his knowledge of the Vikings was phenomenal – rather than just give us facts he structured things in story form and really made they Viking invastions and Saxon defence come alive.
After the tour, we explored the city further, some of the burbs to enjoy the mixture of local architecture; and then visited Lendals Cellars – a wonderful old pub set up on the site of one of the original priories of the city, and the main part of the bar in a beautiful cellar complete with brick arched ceilings. One drink and off again, this time to enjoy the sunset off the bridge over the river Ouse (where I got a couple of lovely pix of Renoir). We explored the option of a drink in the local Russian bar/restaurant (called Revolution) but the inside was too much loud techno, and the outside was full of smokers – so we moseyed on and came upon a lovely little church called St Martins, which we had to ourselves.
St Martins has had a tumultuous history, it’s been a Catholic, Protestant, and Catholic again, and was nearly destroyed by bombing in WWII, but there has been some amazing restoration work done and it is now church open to all Christians no matter their faith. One of the things I loved about this church was the new organ which had been donated by a German city – which kind of closes the loop quite nicely. We really enjoyed the quietude and investigating the decorations (always on the look out for a Green Man – which I have managed to find) we were finally hounded out by three vodka-fuelled women who were giggling and loud and totally spoiled the peacefulness of our visit.
By this stage the sun had set, so even though the city was still alive it was time to head back to the hotel, as we were off to Washington the next day (yes Washington -George Washington’s family took their name from this town – and you can visit his ancestor’s home), and meeting some of Renoir’s extended family – Gill’s aunt and cousin – for afternoon tea.
Tuesday 5 July: Such a shame we missed being in Washington yesterday, as being the 4th of July there were celebrations to be had. Still, I wouldn’t’ have missed York for anything, and am really looking forward to returning and seeing so much more of the town.
We headed up the road to Washington. Taking a comfort stop ‘Scotch Corner Services’ (‘The Services’ very regular along the M roads) we fancied a bite to eat, but thought we could do better than a packaged sandwich we moseyed into the little town of Middleton Tyas (pron Tie-as). Ah, English pubs – I just love ’em. The Shoulder of Mutton personified all the best things about an English pub - the welcome, the warmth of spirit, the chat, the food! We shared three entrees – a herbed baked Camembert, scallops cooked in butter and parsley and pate – it’s been a long time since I had tasted pub food that good. And the bar maid described the ghosts that were in the pub and curiously how she used to live upstairs and never saw ghosts but started seeing them when she moved out! A truly delightful break in very easy journey.
Then off to Lumley Castle – a magnificent mediaeval castle that now operates as a hotel and guest house. We met Gill’s aunt Carol, her partner Ian, daughter Vicki and Vicki’s two littlies Eddie (3) and Josie (nearly 2) for afternoon tea in the garden. What a delightful afternoon – chatting non-stop catching up on news, sharing stories, watching the kids climb over and under things. The weather eventually sent us indoors for a little while to finish our tea, and then the rain stopped long enough for us to enjoy a walk along the golf course adjacent to the castle with Carol’s much loved Boris (Labrador/Rottweiler cross and Ruby, newly rescued greyhound). Thanks to Carol, Ian and Vicki for being such gracious and friendly hosts and giving us a shot of family love and support
We stayed in another Travelodge on the motorway – a cruisey evening allowing us time to catch up on travel diaries and planning the route to take us to Berwick the next day.
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