Tuesday, Dunstanburgh Castle, Hadrian's Wall

Another day, another castle!

Northern England is covered with castles. In medieval times, the area was under constant threat of raids from Scotland. As a result, castles were built to provide protection. Yesterday at breakfast, an English couple staying at our B&B told us how they had enjoyed their visit to Dunstanburgh Castle. It is located near the fishing village of Craster, which is not far from away. We decided to plan a visit before we left for Keswick in the Lake District.

Unlike the Alnwick Castle that we visited yesterday, Dunstanburgh Castle is now a ruin. It was built in the 14th century by the Earl of Lancaster. Craster has a car park located just outside the village. You walk into the village and then turn and walk along the coast for a few kilometers.







We have been very lucky with weather so far on our trip. This was the first day that rain was a bit of an issue. We started our walk in drizzle, but when we reached the castle, the wind came up and the drizzle turned to rain.



Fortunately, when we got back to the village, we found a delightful little cafe where we found a warm bowl of Stilton and broccoli soup, some scones and a pot of tea to take away the chill.

By the way, we've been a bit surprised by the temperatures. We get down to single digits at night and daytime highs are in the mid teens.

While planning my first trip to England in 2006, I had read about Hadrian's wall. Hadrian is the name of the Roman Emperor who decided in 122AD to build a wall and fort system across the north of England from coast to coast. The wall represented the northern border of the Roman Empire and was intended to keep out the barbarians. The wall took the Romans six years to build.

We didn't get far enough north to see the remains of the wall on our 2006 trip, but this time we would be passing nearby, on our trip across England to the Lake District.

After returning to the car at Craster, we plotted our course to visit the wall. We have been using a combination of a GPS and a detailed map book we bought in a bookstore in London. This combination seems to be working.

We left the main highway, to drive on a secondary road that follows along the path of the wall. We found the Visitor's Centre of the Northumberland National Park and were given directions to where to view the wall.





We climbed a path to the top of the ridge, to get a closer view of a section of the wall.



A few miles later, we stopped again at another spot called Walltown and I hiked to a more impressive section of the wall. Cathy opted to stay in the car park this time. She took one look at the sky and with characteristic Newfoundland-mariner instincts, declared it was about to rain again. I went off on this hike by myself and got a few more pictures before I got caught in the predicted downpour.






We arrived in Keswick and found our B&B. It is called Seven Oaks on Acorn Street.



Again we are in a Victorian townhouse that is within a convenient walk of the market area of the town. Our host are very friendly and knowledgable about the walking trails around the area.

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Monday - Alnwick Castle

Our B&B in Alnwick is quite different than the one in Pickering. While Ashton House was a large modern home, the Percy Terrace B&B is in a historic row house. Everything is much more compact and basic, but it is still nice. It is also located just a few blocks from the market square.


We are the blue door.



We can walk almost directly to the market square through a series of alleys and paths.



The town is very picturesque with an arch at either end of the Market square.







We visited Alnwick Castle. It is a private home that has been lived in by members of the Percy family for 702 year! The castle's state rooms were open for viewing. They were amazing; incredible woodwork, silk wall paper, paintings, china, artifacts. Such wealth! Unfortunately photos were not permitted.

Some scenes from the Harry Potter movies were shot at the castle. There was a broom flying training session for little witches and wizards going on while we were there.

This is a picture of the keep.



A view of the castle from the outside the main wall as we were walking to Alnwick Garden.



Near the castle is Alnwick Gardens. They have a giant treehouse where we had our lunch.






The treehouse has a series of suspended bridges and boardwalks that made a loop path. We could not resist doing it once. David said it was like walking on the deck of the Caribou on a rough crossing.



The centre point of the gardens is a large water feature called the Grand Cascade.




One interesting area of Alnwick Garden is a section called the Poison Garden. It is in a special fenced and locked area that contains various poison plants. We did a tour. It was quite interesting. I think that I might get rid of our monkshood.

Tomorrow we plan to visit the ruins of a castle on the coast and then make our way to the Lake District.

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Sunday, North Yorkshire Moors and on to Alnwick

When we arrived at the B&B on Friday night and looked through the travel literature for North Yorkshire, I thought that we should have allowed two weeks instead of two days. There is just so many interesting things to do and see. Now we are leaving and making our way to Northumberland. One thing that I really wanted to see was the heather on the moors. So we pulled out our guidebook, Back Roads of Great Britain, and plotted their recommended route through the North Yorkshire Moor National Park.

We travelled on a secondary road to Hutton-le-Hole, a quaint village on the edge of the moor. We parked at the Sunday car boot sale (flea market), and walked around the village. There were sheep all over the place and sheep droppings all over the sidewalk and grass. To our amusement there were also signs asking people to please pick up after their dogs. Apparently dog poop is bad, but sheep poop is OK. (Not a good day to wear sandals, Cathy)

At the far edge of the village the moor started and yes there was purple heather as far as the eye can see. The guide book, recommended a road across the moors, so we went back to the car and got on our way.




Again there were sheep everywhere.







We had some threatening weather but no rain.



Cathy showing off our car.


At the far end of the moor was a village at the bottom of a deep valley called Rosedale Abbey. The road down to the village is said to be the steepest road in all England. We learned that it is also very narrow and with lots of turns. (My nail prints will forever be in the door handle. Oh and this driving bit is causing David to develop a mild case of potty mouth, Cathy)







After making it down the hill, we stopped for a Cornish pasty and mushy peas for lunch and to recover.




Then we continued onward. The roads were narrow and steep. This road has two way traffic with a speed limit of 60 miles per hour! We were usually doing 20, much to the annoyance of cars behind us.






Eventually we made it to the coast and the city of Whitby.






The ruins of Whitby Abbey are at the top of a headland that overlooking the city. We climbed up the steps for a closer look. The steps are at the end of some neat walking streets (alleyways) that are full of shops. We got back to the car just in time to escape a huge downpour.






By this time we realized that it was getting late so we programmed Alnwick into the GPS, and hit the road. We arrived at 8:30, just in time to get to a restaurant before closing time at 9:00.

Tomorrow we are planning to visit Alnwick Castle and Gardens.
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Saturday, York and Getting Lost

You would think that after driving for 6 or 7 hours yesterday, that I would be adjusted to driving in the UK. Not so. Before heading to York, we decided to go to the local tourist office for advice. It was just a couple of blocks and a roundabout away. However, it was not easy. Navigating the roundabout, turning into the correct lane, avoiding on coming traffic on narrow roads, whew!

We decided to go to a Park and Ride car park just outside York to avoid driving in downtown. Used the GPS to go to the Monks Cross shopping centre by mistake instead of the Monks Cross Park and Ride car park. Then we got very lost trying to find the park and ride. We finally asked a fellow who took pity on us and drove ahead of us to the car park!

We eventually got downtown around noon.

We found the Yorkminster. The minister was built between 1220 and 1470. It is largest Gothic cathedral in northern Europe. It has impressive stained glass. We climbed the 275 steps to the top of the tower.















After climbing the tower, we dropped by Betty's tea room, which is apparently a Yorkshire institution for their famous bun called a Fat Racal. (I am turning into one, Cathy)






We left York and headed for the Rievaulx Abbey ruins near Helmsley. We got very lost. We got back on track and then came upon a detour. Then we got very lost again. This time we got a chance to drive on some very narrow roads, including some two-way single track roads. Meeting trucks on these roads required a maneuver similar to the night bus scenes in the Harry Potter movies. (Thought we were going to have to pull bits of trees and grass out of the side mirror,Cathy)

Unfortunately we didn't get to the abbey until after it was closed so we just got some photos from a distance. The abbey was founded in 1131 and by the 13th century was home to 150 monks and over 500 lay brothers. It was one of the 850 monasteries and shrines that were closed by Henry VIII during the Reformation (around 1540).

Returned to Pickering without going astray and had a wonderful supper. This is a great area and can say that this B&B is one of the best we have stayed in.

Tomorrow we hope to do some touring of the North Yorkshire Moors before heading further north to Alnwick in Northumberland.




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Friday, From London to Pickering

On Friday we checked out of our hotel and took the Tube to Heathrow. From there we picked up our rental car. It is a little Vauxhall Astra hatchback.

With Cathy as navigator, I did a couple of laps around the the parking lot to try to get a feel for the car. We were more than a little nervous about driving. It ready feels weird driving a car with right hand drive. It was hard to get used to shifting with my left hand and more than a couple of times reached for the gear shift with my right hand and only found the door handle.

With the help of a GPS we got out of Heathrow and on to the correct motorway. We made our way to the M1 and headed north. The traffic was very heavy almost the whole way and several times all four lanes came to complete stop. We left Heathrow at 11:00 and didn't reach our B&B until almost 6:30. We did stop a couple of times for food and coffee.

The last couple of hours of the drive were on local roads, which in some ways is more challenging that the motorways.

After we got settled in the B&B, we walked to the local pub, the Black Swan for food and some much needed beverages. We walked past an old church and graveyard along the way. The church apparently has striking frescoes on the walls that were hidden under limewash during the 16th century Reformation. They were rediscovered in 1878. I hope we get a chance to see them.



We are staying at Ashfield House, which is a very nice modern home that was built by our hosts.



The front yard.


They have a beautiful sunroom where they serve breakfast.



Pickering is a lovely little market town of about 8000 at the base of the North Yorkshire Moors.

Tomorrow were plan to explore the city of York and visit the Yorkminister.
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Thursday

Today is our last full day in London and was not as busy as yesterday. We have enjoyed our stay in our hotel and would highly recommend it. Here is a
picture of it's exterior. You can see our little yellow rental car in the foreground, NOT.




I spent a good part of the morning sorting out my cell phone. I had found a shop that unlocks cell phones on Tuesday and had agreed to come back this morning to have my phone unlocked. This process took a little longer than I expected, which was bad because while I was on one end of High street in the phone shop, Cathy was at the other end of High street in Mark and Spencer's with the credit card:)

The cell phone is now fully functional with a UK phone number and internet. With the UK SIM card we can call Canada for 5p a minute and we get 10M of Internet free each day. Since it is a prepaid SIM card, we can control how much we spend. This is much better than the rates offered by Bell.

After we got the phone sorted we headed off to see Harrods department store. We walked around the food hall. Amazing! You could have everything from caviar to barbecue chicken to remarkably expensive chocolates. The place was packed with people.



Then we took the tube to Trafalgar Square and walked around there for a while. A statue of Admiral Nelson sits on a 170 foot column. He died defeating the French navy in 1805 off the coast of Spain at Trafalgar. The bronze reliefs at the base of the Nelson Monument were made from the melted-down French cannons. You can just see Big Ben in the distance.



From there we walked to Leicester Square. We stopped at the Haagen Das restaurant for a treat. That is warm molten chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream that I'm about to Hoover.



In the evening, we went out to Tottenham to visit Mrs. Smith, friend of Cathy's.


Tomorrow morning we will take the Tube to Heathrow and pick up our rental car. We will drive north to Pickering in North Yorkshire.





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Wednesday: Along the Bankside Promenade and Billy Elliot

London was peaceful last night, without any problems. People seemed relieved this morning and there was a sense that things were returning to normal.

We took the Tube to Westminster station for a walk along the promenade along the south shore of the Thames. We walked across the Westminster Bridge and then followed the promenade east. The beginning of the walk was packed with people. There is a good view of Big Ben and parliament. It is also where the London Eye is located.

The London Eye from Westminster Bridge.



Big Ben and parliament from across the Thames.



We walked almost all the way to the Tower Bridge. There are many pubs, restaurants and sights along the way. We stopped at the Borough market for
lunch. We got a good view of the Tower of London at the end of our walk. We didn't visit the Tower this time but did on our last visit to London.

The vendor at the Borough Market who provided our lunch. He is stirring a huge vat of curry.



The Tower of London.



The Tower Bridge.



We retraced our steps as far as the Millennium Bridge and walked back across the Thames. You can see St. Paul's Cathedral in the background.




We found St. Paul's Tube station and took the Tube to Covent Gardens. We walked around there and took in some buskers.

The nice thing about London is how compact it is, with regard to it's major points of interest. With the Tube, it is easy to get around. The last time we visited London, we were all about visiting all the spots: the Tower, St. Paul's, Westminster Abbey and so on. Having done that, this visit is more about just enjoying the city.

In the evening we went to see a performance of Billy Elliot. It was spectacular and the young man who played Billy was amazing.



Before the show, we took a short walk to Buckingham Palace. Cathy wanted me to say that this is a picture of her in front of our hotel.


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