2 June ’05, Thursday. Who’s In The Pillory Now ??? …
We were going to do yesterday that we ended up doing today…Why ? RAIN !!! I’m sorry, but sometimes you just don’t want to get out in the wet, and besides, Lou wasn’t feeling so good. She was suffering from a wave of nausea that flowed in a wave from her stomach to her head, and then back. I think it was the red wine from the night before… Anyway, today we packed up, drove to Chester (about 5 miles away), and spent the day as tourists. Chester is a walled Roman city on the Welsh border and they say the “Romans still rule the roost here”. Something that wasn’t Roman, was the beautiful black and white Tudor-style architecture of the “Row”. These were particularly in the shopping district and are the half timbered, two level structures. Chester has been occupied since the “stone age”, but really came in to power as a trading settlement for the Romans about 1 AD. We felt the best way of getting our bearings and finding out what makes this town tick, was to walk the city walls. I don’t know just how far we walked on the walls, but by the time we were through, I was just about through…you know, worn out… tired… wanting to quit… The books, say it is a 40 minute walk, but I’d like to find that person who wrote the book. I don’t know, maybe it was the red wine from Tuesday… I guess it wasn’t just the wall, as every time we came to a place that looked interesting from the wall, we had to leave the wall and check it out. The first exit was when we arrived in the center of the “old town” of Chester. The main shopping area was filled with the “Row” buildings, throngs of people, and more sites that drew us in. One thing we did find, was that we were just in time for, the noon time messages from the Town Crier. The Town Crier for Chester is David Mitchell, and a Town Crier he is… He put the messages out to us and took the time to invite us personally to his town. Fact is, he asked me if I wanted to find a way to keep Louise from spending too much money shopping here in Chester…”of course”, I said, and with that he had Louise step forward, and he strapped her into “leg clamps” with a sentence of: “The stores close at 6pm and I’ll release you at 6:10pm”… and then he turned to me and told me “Of course, it will cost you 15% of what ever I would save by Louise being in “clamps”… We also had stops at a couple of internet cafes, three different Roman ruins, the Roodee racecourse, the city clock tower, and the Chester Cathedral, among other stops along the way. Our self-guided audio-tour through the Cathedral was a real highlight. Construction started in the early part of 1100 and continued with additions until the late 1300’s. In 1190 it became a Benedictine Abbey, and a new Church in the Norman style. One thing that sets this church off from many in England, was due to the Dissolution of the Monasteries by Henry VIII, the Abbey was closed in 1540, but the next year it became the Cathedral of the newly created Diocese of Chester.

8 May ’05, Sunday.
The Lakes District… We haven’t traveled a great amount of miles, but we have traveled on some of the most incredible roads, through some of the most enjoyable scenery. First, we are in the mountain areas of Great Britain. They aren’t the mountains that we have in the North West, but they do get as high as 3000 feet, but they are formed more like large rolling hills than jagged mountains. One of the “passes” we went over we had to climb at a 20 to25% pitch and then going down was the same…the roadway is just wide enough to barely have room enough to meet a car coming at you. Remember, you are driving on the “wrong” side of the road, at about 35-45 miles an hour, a large hedge or rock wall (standing anywhere from 4’ to 8’ high) right at your drivers door, and the front wheel on the passenger side is riding on the little bumpers in the middle of the road (you just can’t get over enough to get off of them). And then, on top of all of that, the road is winding, twisting, rising, and dropping constantly. Every once in awhile, you will come to a part of the road that is just wide enough for your (or their) car…you hope when that happens, you are by yourself. Again, the day was spent in wonderful scenery, and on a bright day of sunshine, it was going to be tough to find anything wrong with this day. We did find a waterfall that we could hike up to, and it was worth the stop. We also stopped by the Castlerigg Stone Circle. These large stones were laid out in a circle high up on one of the hills. They say they don’t know who or how these stones were put there. They don’t even have any idea yet how long ago it was that they were laid out there as well. What they do know is, it was a long time ago. Well, tomorrow will treat us to more of the same roads and scenery for at least a couple more hours. Tonight, we stay in a forest, right on a river bank, about 30 miles from any town or city of any size…it will be a dark and quite night, I’m sure….

7 May ’05, Saturday.
A nice drive through some wonderful rolling hills, with some being in full bloom, and others of bright green grass, that the sheep keep cut short…it looks like a golf course as far as you can see. As we got closer to the coast, we started to see large forests that were planted about 20 years ago, and are looking good. It is amazing, that other than those, we have seen very little of any type of “forest” in Great Britain or The Netherlands. As we pulled into Carlisle, we found our campground right away. After we paid for our nights stay, we headed off to get some groceries. The young lady at the campgrounds told us how two get to the store (about 2 miles away). No problem getting there, but we had a lot of daylight left, and there was a castle in Carlisle that we wanted to see. We followed the signs and found our parking spot. A look around the grounds and up on the walls, gave us a good over-view, and not much else to see, so we walked into town to see a cathedral and then back to van. As we drove back to the campground, we followed the signs as we did coming in, (we know were right), but they lead us astray. We were lost, hopefully lost, and tired…why now ??? We tried one freeway off ramp, and we tried another, we traveled 5 miles up, and we traveled 5 miles down…were are we camped ??? If we hadn’t paid for the nights stay, we would have been on our way, but we had paid… finally, we found the right off ramp and the right campground…tell me, who gets lost more than we do ??? Tomorrow….the Irish Sea coast and then into the “Lakes District”.

4 May ’05, Wednesday.
The wind shook “Bumble Bee” all night long, but when morning broke, the sun was out and the wind dropped off considerably. We had a little of last nights “attitude” left, but that was melting with the help of the sun and a trip into this little town we were in… Berwick-upon-Tweed (aren’t these names just beautiful ???). Unfortunately yesterdays fiasco pushed us past a couple of wonderful sites that we would liked to have taken in, but that was yesterday and this is a “NEW” day. We were heading up to Edinburgh Scotland, about 45 miles distant, and we were taking “A-1”. Fortunately for those of us that wanted to take the “coastal route”, this time A-1 is the coastal route. About half way to Edinburgh we came across a highway marker telling us of a small village at the sea, so we made a U-turn on the A-1 and went back a 100 yards and then headed down this very narrow road. We wondered over hills and valleys, around bends and by small and large farms, and then we came upon this incredible seaside Scottish fishing village called St Abby’s Head. As we came into the village, the main part was on top of cliff and then there was this little single lane road that we could take (providing that no one was coming up) to the small wharf below. Once there, and a lot of pictures taken, we saw this very little outdoor patio serving food. On the menu, it said, if the tables are full or it is raining, we will bring your order on a tray to your car… This was a very nice, but very old looking building. Outside, they had 7 tables that were set up inside of a wall on 2 sides…to keep the wind out… We were lucky that it wasn’t a weekend because we wouldn’t have had a table and that meant we wouldn’t have had our crab sandwich, tea, and scone with jam and whipped cream…. Oh yes, tonight we went into the little village close to the campground and had dinner at one of the little “Pub’s”. For a “starter” we had “Haggis”…mmmm good !!! Tomorrow…Edinburgh (ED’n-burah)

3 May ’05, Tuesday.
We are getting closer to Scotland, and you can sure tell it by the stronger British/Scottish accents. After leaving camp, we headed north and our first stop for the day is going to be “Hadrian’s Wall”… Built by the Romans and their slaves, at Emperor Hadrian’s order in AD 122. Hadrian’s Wall marked the northern boundary of their empire in the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD, and was their most impressive engineering achievement in Northern Europe. Hadrian’s Wall covers over 73 miles and still stands on average 6 feet of the original 10 feet in height. Also along with towers, complete settlements followed the wall. For the infantry men who were to man the wall, come summer to winter, it can get very cold here. Today, the first week of May, and the rains have continued and the winds are blowing cold. Just think of the wind and snow together…it must have been really tough. Just as we arrived, the rain let up to a light drizzle and the wind was mild. Once we parked “Bumble Bee”, we had a walk of just over a half a mile to the wall. This walk took us through gated fences that kept the sheep and their new (twins) baby lambs in the “bright green” grass pastures. Our trail was down a hill and then up the other side to the wall. This section that we stopped at, was once a complete settlement for the Roman military. The foundations of most of their buildings were still there, and of course the wall. It was really amazing, because once you were at the top and looking down into the hills and dale on the Scotland side, and then with your eyes, follow the walls east and west until they went out of site in the far off distance…it was really a physical and engineering feat. Well, we had better get on the road. We haven’t decided were we will settle for the night yet, but we want to follow the “coast road” as much as we can, and it is only 2 in the afternoon. We had to back track for about 30 miles to get back to the coast (North Sea), and then make a left turn and follow the water….sounds easy???…guess again !!! I really don’t remember anytime that we had more wrong turns, mis-directed by signs and maps, and road just ending than we had today. IT WAS HELL!! I won’t go into all the trials that we went through, but we finally said enough was enough and headed for “A-1”…the mail highway…the one that IS the most traveled…ANYTHING that will take us out of our misery. When we finally pulled into a campground in a driving rain and wind storm, we really weren’t good company for each other (or anyone else, I’m sure…). WE DON’T WANT TO TALK ABOUT IT !!!

2 May ’05, Monday
The solid stone walls of the Pickering Castle still guard over the small church and a little bit of the castle walls that are still standing. It was interesting, but the Church of St. James and John made the stop. One of the stories coming out of the church was about one of the clergyman that thought the 10th century frescos that were painted on the walls, showed lewd and suggestive images that he didn’t want his congregation to view. So, he grabbed a paint brush and started painting over them with white paint. Thank goodness they have been restored. They are just wonderful paintings showing things like a dragon being slain by St. George and other bible stories. When they were painted in medieval times, most of the people couldn’t read so they painted stories on the walls.
Next, we wandered over to see the North Yorkshire Moors Railway train station. This is a small railway, whose trains are pulled by steam engines. After the train left the station, we headed north into town. This is a little town called Goathland. Goathland is located right in the “moors” of Yorkshire, and the station is in a small valley with a small river running right in back of the station. This station is the one that was filmed in the Harry Potter movies. The moors (heavily brushed with heathers and heaths), run right up the bank of the other side. Our drive through the “moors” was really very pretty, but as we have read, it must really be outstanding when the heather and heaths are in bloom.
On the coast is Whitby Abbey. Perched high on a cliff, the gaunt remains of this magnificent abbey stands tall above the picturesque seaside town of Whitby. The Abby was founded in AD 657 by St. Hilda (known as Hild during her life time). Unfortunately the Abby was destroyed by a Viking invasion in AD 867. Much later, William the Conqueror rebuilt it in 1070, but again King Henry VIII had it destroyed during the dissolution in 1538. It’s really sad, because it must have magnificent to see in AD657.
Now, back on the road, those less traveled, we head off to our next campground, White Water Park. It is located just in between Middlesbrough and Thornaby-on-Tees. One night there, and then up the coast route “tomorrow”….

1 May ’05, Sunday.
Leaving York, we ended up taking the “Ring Road”, which is to save you time as it will take you out of the city traffic…but NO, it takes you into one of those traffic jams that is miles long, instead of a block or 2…I hope we have learned something from this… Our destination was from York to the coastal town of Scarborough. It should have taken us about 45 minutes to an hour, but, we decided to take a side trip to Helmsley Castle.
This 12th century Norman castle sits high on a massive earthworks (hill) overlooking the Rye Valley. Unfortunately, there isn’t a lot of castle left, but the views, the historical story, the stone cottages of the village, the small shoppes, and a nice little restaurant that we found. We decided to split a pizza and salad, and thank god we did, it was all we could eat as it was. England has a program called “English Heritage”, which we could join for £ 40, or about $75. This will get us into over 409 “Heritage” sites all over England. We gave a quick calculation, and decided that we would probably make up the cost of the pass in the first 2 weeks…we need as much help as we can get. Now, onto our next campground…West Ayton. It’s about 12 miles outside of Scarborough. Tomorrow, we’ll head back about 10 miles to Pickering...

29 April ’05, Friday.
Back to York this morning to see what we missed yesterday. York has a “City Wall”, that is broken up into 7 sections, which means that it doesn’t cross over either one of the rivers, and there are a number of “bar’s” (gates), that you have to leave the wall, cross the street, and go back up to continue. I think, there was only 2 that we could cross all the way to the next without leaving the wall. There were 3 locations that we had to walk quite a distance to rejoin if we wanted to complete the whole thing (which we did). We also spent a lot of time just exploring the streets (including the “Shambles”), street market, stores, restaurants, and then on to the Castle Museum. We spent at least 4 hours exploring this museum. It was set up much differently than any we have been to so far. A lot of it was set up like you were walking down a street of Ole York, or even into someone’s home. It also had historic items ranging from the 9th century onto the end of WWII. We had a good time there and glad we took the time to see it.
Most of York today, is much the same as it was centuries ago. Yes, there is some new and modern, but most still date back into the 16th and 17th centuries. They are small, but they have a wonderful feeling as soon as you enter. By the way, York is know as the “most haunted city in Europe”. They have not only had people that have seen, heard, of felt a “person”, but even whole Roman regiments in a couple of cases…want to spend a night in one of the most haunted places ??? I’ll let you take my place.

28 April ’05, Thursday. Clifford's Tower,York
Yesterday we traveled north by taking a lot of “lesser traveled” roads. It was a windy day for the road, but fortunately for us, it was mostly a tail wind. The roads here in England are again different from all the others we have traveled on during our journey. The first thing of course is the side of the road that we travel on. The next is, there is no shoulder to these roads, in fact, there is a curb that keeps you on the straight and narrow. It is a little disturbing to see that curb right there beside you on these narrow country roads. We have seen a few “Grand” Country Homes, with all the manicured grounds along the way and also were quite surprised at the amount of mustard that is being grown in all the fields. Another picture, is all the farm land that is fenced in with plants of “hedges”. It is a beautiful sight to see the fields of yellow mustard blooms completely “hedged” in.
Our first stop was the college town of Cambridge. It was one of those towns that you have heard of forever, and you just wanted to see just what it looked like or felt like to be there. This was another town of narrow windy streets with no parking, so I just pulled up to the curb, stopped and got out. “You can’t just park here…”, “Well, if they would make more parking spots, we wouldn’t have too… come on, we will only be a little while”… As it was, as we walked around the corner, we walked right into a great little market going on, so… We also had to visit the Information Center… As luck would have it, we got back and everything was OK, but no sooner had we gotten back into our seats, and a police car pulled up, parked, got our of their car and walked around the corner heading for the market as well…”so there…”
A half day of driving and we decided to settle into our next campground. It is located just outside of the city of Nottingham, that is the Nottingham of Robin Hood fame. We were also close by the “Sherwood Forest”. These are real places and real legends…kind of neat. The campground was also kind of neat. We camped right on the edge of a small lake, complete with all the waterfowl (with their young), and fish. We even had a fisherman doing what fishermen do… This morning, we again took to the back roads and finally made it to York. We got into town about noon, so after doing a quick “set-up”, we headed off into see what York had to offer. It took us all of 10 minutes to walk to “Clifford’s Tower”, which is all that is left standing of the Castle of York. Clifford’s Tower stands high on a hill, which used to be surrounded by water and a much larger fortress. The harbor has changed dramatically here. Today the city of York has 2 rivers flowing through and around it, but centuries ago, there was a large body of water from a river, but is now much more shallow and narrow. Even today, the River Ouse will take you out to the sea. Just around the corner from the tower is York. We wondered the historic streets, visited a couple of churches, (even had lunch in one), and then found ourselves inside the famous “York Minster”. We had no sooner entered and they were starting a tour, so we jumped right in. It is amazing how much more information you get when you have a tour guide to show you through. The York Minster is the largest Gothic church north of the Alps (540 feet long and 200 feet tall). (The word “Minster” means a place from which people go out to minister of spread the word of God.) Construction was started in 1280 and wasn’t finished for over another 200 years. It has many outstanding “painted” windows throughout, but the one that stands out to me is the one called the “Five Sisters Windows”. These are 5 windows that stand over 50 feet high and are painted, and then each piece is put together with lead (like what we would call a stained glass paneled window). As always, there is so much more to tell you about this “Church”, but it will have to wait.

26 April ’05, Tuesday. Campground at Nottingham
Tuesday morning we were up and at the ferry terminal by 6:30am to catch our “fast ferry” for the crossing to Great Britain. This fast ferry was a huge catamaran that they say is the largest and fastest catamaran in the world. As far a size, it loaded on about 10-12 large truck and trailer combo’s plus a lot of cars, caravans, campers, and busses filled with school kids on a break of some kind. There were 2 movie theatres, and at least 5 restaurants and more on board as well. The crossing took about 3 hours compared to the slow ferries that take 9 hours to cross the same route. Anyway, we left Hoek van Holland and arrived at Harwich England. As we were going through the passport check, they made sure that we remembered that we would be driving on the opposite side of the road from then on… I was hoping that I could follow someone for the first few miles, but that was hopeful thinking, as “Bumble Bee” just couldn’t keep up. Well, put the headlights on, think of what you were doing constantly, and hope you don’t mess up…just go for it… After leaving Harwich, we traveled on for about 30 minutes and we pulled into our first town in England…Colchester. This turns out to be the “first town to be recorded in England”. The first thing we noticed was parking was almost non-existent, and the streets were really narrow, so add this onto driving on the wrong side, we had a challenge in front of us. Now after finding a parking lot and a place we could park in, we had to find the ATM to get some “Pounds”. Of course the ATM doesn’t put out coins, so I had to find a store to buy some little token so I could get change and then run back to the van and hope that I beat the “meter maid” there. Got all that taken care of, now seeing as how we were famished and had some money in our pocket, we went looking for something to eat. As it was, we came across “Computerchinno”, which was a small restaurant and internet café all in one. After having our lunch, catching up on the web page, and email, we headed up the road to find our next campground.
Tomorrow…heading north toward York…