York

We woke fairly early on Saturday so that we could have breakfast, say a proper goodbye to Dave, Julie and the cats, and head to York with Sam and AJ. Dave cooked us eggs, bacon and toast again, such a lovely treat since he has worked as a cook for many years. We had a brief cuppa with our hosts, then Patricia showed up so that we could all take a family photo that I'd forgotten to do the previous evening. We all piled out onto their balcony once Sam & AJ arrived to pose, then started our goodbye hugging. I almost got all verklempt hugging Julie goodbye, it just felt like too short a time to spend. But it's difficult to host people, and they were so generous that we didn't want to overstay our welcome, either. Next time, though, we might plan for additional time because it was not long enough. Three or four days would have been great. 

After hugging all the people and petting all the kitties goodbye, we piled into Sam's little car and made the 3 1/2 hour drive to York. It is still very strange getting used to the left-sided roadways, and the narrow, windy roads, and holy cats, the roundabouts! It feels like being on the Knight Bus! (Harry Potter fans will know what I'm talking about) The drive was pleasant with chit-chatter and the trance-like state that long rides are prone to lull a person into, the English countryside presenting an idyllic backdrop. They dropped us off at our hotel, the Premier Inn, and then we met them down the street and walked around the city of York, stepping into the enormous Minster to check out the incredible stained glass windows, and walking the "Shambles" which is a unique and very narrow, cobble-y road with buildings that are built so that their upper levels and roofs sort of bend inwards towards the lane, and it creates a funky, fun-house sort of effect. The whole city was jammed and rocking with street musicians and even a street DJ! We checked out some little shops in the street market, got to sample some delicious fudge. Eventually made our way over to The Wall, the original city walls of York which are high, stone walls that you can walk along, and were used back in the day for protection, equipped with slits in the stone for archers. As it started to rain, we went to dinner at a place called The Cellar that was a favorite eatery when Sam was in University in York ten years ago. I had lasagne with salad and John had bangers and mash, both very good. They used some incredible cheese in the lasagne, and the more I eat fancy cheeses, the more I understand the whole rave about fancy cheese. We wrongly assumed that the rain would be done by the time we left, but it was coming down steadily, and though we all had rain coats, none of us had umbrellas. We were drenched by the time we got back to the hotel, and I had to use the hair dryer to dry my purse. I enjoyed a few cups of tea while blogging, got ahold of Mum and was pleased to hear her voice and her chipper mood :)

Next day was really feckin' great! Sam and AJ picked us up about 8am, and they drove us out right away to see Stamford Bridge and the quaint town that surrounds it. John knows all the history behind the site, and it was on his wish list to see it, so it was awesome that we were able to find it because it seemed like Google was giving us goofy information. We took photos of the landmark that was in both English and Norwegian, and then walked around the town a bit and found lots of references to the Viking influence. There was an absolutely gorgeous park with willow trees that looked like they must be a thousand years old. We then decided we had better eat breakfast, and went to the chain restaurant Weatherspoons which is where Dave works in Dereham. We had yummy traditional English breakfast with toast, fried tomato, beans, bangers, ham and hash browns (that were just like Arby's hash browns, my favorite!) I thought I'd never be able to finish it, but I gobbled most of it down. Apparently in England, restaurants don't typically do "doggie bags" like we do in America, so we have been trying to order only what we know we can eat in one sitting. 

Then it was off to walk a little more of the wall and see the rest of the city from above. This town, while it has a seemingly unusual number of pumped up, muscle-y jock types and women dressed as if they are going to the Grammy's in the middle of the afternoon (which Sam told us were all "hen parties", or in American parlance, bachelorette parties), it had the charm and variety and what seemed to be a wonderful balance of college town, big city and small town all rolled into one strange and wonderful place. That was exemplified by the next surprise that we stumbled upon: the town's soapbox derby races! This was such absolute fun that I don't think we could have planned a better topper to our trip to York than seeing loads of hilarious soapbox derby cars flying down the ramp and speedway, some crashing headlong into bales of hay or losing steam straight away. The pictures will speak for themselves!

(For some reason, I was only able to upload these few photos and no more. I've been having a lot of trouble getting the photos in so I'll add more photos from home, which is now only two days away!)