A DIFFICULT TIME IN DURHAM

Durham is this little town in Northern England between York and Edinburgh that I thought would be a fun little stop. Now keep in mind the area is very hilly - think San Francisco or Madison & Marion Avenues downtown Seattle - full of tall trees, an enormous and very famous cathedral and all of this along the banks of a large river. It is beautiful. But somehow things were just difficult. It's not the town's fault or anything, it was just the way the cookie crumbled that day.

I arrived around 2pm and found out that my B&B wasn't "open" until 4pm. The walk to the B&B was the equivalent of walking up and down the hills of downtown Seattle about 4 times. I was hot, tired and sweaty by the time I reached my destination. The Castle View B&B was adorable and well maintained.

The owners weren't there so I sat on a bench and waited...and waited and waited.  As the hill was steep, more like a ski slope really, several people who walked by also sat on the bench to rest. We had nice little chats and it did pass the time I must say. The owners were an hour late but it was okay because I got a chance to sneak in with someone who had a key and sat in the garden. It was lovely. 

The building, the garden and my room were just enchanting. After a short rest and before night fell I went for a walk. This tiny college town is chock full of eateries, pubs and did I mention hills? I decided to get fish and chips for dinner and this was my eating area. That building was once a church but is now the Town Hall.

The Castle Museum was closed for renovations until 2012. The Cathedral was closed but I did get to see the outside. It was too dark at this point to take pictures. My adorable B&B was across the street from not 1 but 3 drinking establishments. I could hear the noise even with earplugs and a pillow over my head. It was a sleepless night to be sure. In the states if people were outside making that much noise the cops would come but not there, oh no.

It was with no sleep but a yummy breakfast in my tummy that I decided to just get on the train for Edinburgh.

A YANKEE IN YORK

Can you believe that the Brits and Scots call all Americans Yankees? I was a bit surprised and although some people here at home have said it's derogatory, I never got that feeling. Here's what I found on Urban Dictionary as a definition for Yankee:

To foreigners, a Yankee is an American.
To Americans, a Yankee is a Northerner.
To Easterners, a Yankee is a New Englander.
To New Englanders, a Yankee is a Vermonter.
And in Vermont, a Yankee is somebody who eats pie for breakfast.

On to the story: Once Upon A Time a Yankee from Seattle arrived in York after a grueling train ride that included a really scary bathroom story, 2 train connections with a anxiety provoking 6 minute gap and some very loud, bohemian riders. I had to check my backpack at the "left luggage" (we call it luggage storage or check) for the day because my B&B didn't open for check-in until 5-6pm and the staff wasn't there during the day. Lucky for me that this particular train station was large enough to have a luggage storage. My room was super cute albeit a bit small but there was a writing space and a closet for my clothes and behind the door was a very nice bathroom. I liked it there.

Did you know that just about every city in Europe was a walled city during medieval times for protection? I didn't - never occurred to me frankly. Many of the walls surrounding York still remain and are cared for regularly. You can even walk on along the wall and look out from the Bow & Arrow turrets. In AD 71 the city was named Eboracum, a Roman provincial capital and the northern most city of the Roman empire. Emperor Hadrian's Wall is nearby and Constantine was proclaimed Emperor here in AD 306. After Rome fell the area came under the control of the Vikings. Some of their words have remained in use. In York the word "gate" = "street" and the word "bar" = "gate".  This picture is of Bootham Bar, the main gateway to the original city. This dates back to the 4th century.

These are the remains of St. Mary's Abbey that was destroyed by randy King Henry VIII.

Here's another Tourist Information office story: I asked about the Hadrian's Wall tour and two of the staff members there we so pleased to help me. We discussed the dates and times for the coach (bus) and the visiting center, etc. The coach required reservations and as I hadn't made any in advance, they had no openings. They tried to get me interested in some other things but I declined. On my way out I decided to ask another staff person and she gave me a brochure about Hadrian's Wall and it turns out that there is a public bus that does go to that location: I thought we WERE talking about the public/general bus. Oh well. At this point I realized that it would take an entire day and I probably wasn't interested enough.

One area of York that is really cool - and swarmed by tourists - but worth going to anyway, is the Shambles: an atmospheric old butcher's area. The word "Shambles" was originally "Shammell" - which meant - a butchers cutting block. These business owners built overhangs or eaves to hang over the front of the store so they could hang their meats by hooks for people to see. In addition, there was at one time a tax on the ground floor of any building based on square footage. Therefore, people built the first floor (what we would call the second floor) wider than than the ground floor of the building and so forth all the way up.

Iti was hard to get a good picture because the street is so narrow, the buildings so tall that without a ladder it wasn't possible to get the base of the buildings and the top. Plus, I was surrounded by a stream of people.

Many of buildings are protected due to historical value and are so old that they are leaning significantly and cannot be altered. However, they are allowed to change the inside so the British have learned to fix the inside structures of buildings without changing the outside, thereby making them safe to live in or continue business.

This is York Minster. The word minster comes from the Old English word "monastery" but is now simply used to imply that it's an important church. While Henry VIII destroyed England's great abbeys, this was not technically part of the monastery and was therefore left standing. During medieval times York Minster was a destination for pilgrims on spiritual journeys. The tower is 197 feet tall and can be seen for miles away.

I really enjoyed York because it's easy to imagine squabbles, wars and so forth taking place and soldiers shooting arrows from these walls.

PICTURES - YORK

St. Mary's Abbey

Roman tombs discovered in the last century while building the train line.

The bottom of this wall was built by the Romans and the top by the Vikings.

The inside of York Minster. A grand beautiful church. 

THE COZY COTSWOLDS

The Cotswolds: quaint, charming, endearing, cute, film gobbling, make-your-teeth-hurt-it's-so-sweet, adorable. Okay, we got all the adjectives out of the way. The "Cotswolds" refers to a 25 x 90 mile area in the English countryside of Gloucestershire. The economy in this area was driven by the wool (sheep) industry until the Industrial Revolution which increased the use of cotton. At that point, the economy fell apart in these little towns and there wasn't any money to update buildings and structures. So the area has a traditional, gracefully dilapidated, historic look and feel, AND it's authentic.

Traveling from Bath to the Cotswolds on a Sunday was a real trial. See my page named "Train Travel" for thoughts and feelings regarding train travel. Turns out that Sunday isn't a good day to travel by train. HOWEVER, you should know that the view from the train exceeded my expectations. Imagine green rolling hills, hedge groves, trees, pastures, and of course, sheep. 

The name of my home base town is Moreton-in-Marsh pronounced MautinMash. You eliminate some of the consonants and run the whole name together. It's one of the few towns in the area that has a train station and it's one of the lesser visited, less touristy towns. Most of the villages have somewhat inconvenient public transportation but with patience, some walking and a Rick Steves' guidebook, you can get around.

A view of the main or high street in Moreton-In-Marsh from the very wide median that divides traffic. Streets in these little villages are very wide since they were once used to bring the sheep into town for selling, shearing, etc.

My B&B was named Warwick House which was a grand old house run by a small family. I had a huge room with my own enormous bathroom. I arrived around 4pm completely exhausted and put on my PJs and got into bed.

The Cotswolds are all about walking. The circle signs on the kissing gate give the name of the town and list directions to other walking paths and towns.

 I headed out for a short 4 mile walk to an Batsford Arboretum. There is a mansion in the middle because the land was donated to the England National Trust and turned into an arboretum on the condition that the house could remain. The mansion is private property which is sort of a bummer because it looks like it would be fascinating inside.

Along the way I met a lot of people, travelers from America, Australia and an English woman who used to live in Portland. Once I arrived at the arboretum I basically collapsed. Literally. Well, I didn't need medical aid or anything but I had to lay down on a bench because my feet were killing me. There is no way for me to know how long I laid there because I fell asleep. On the way home I stopped for tea and while sitting there enjoying my snack I dozed off at the table. My waitress thought I was nuts.

The next day began with a "learning experience" which is a nice way of saying "these people really frustrate the heck out of me". Rick Steves' is always signing the praises of the Tourist Information office (TI) in each city but don't you believe it. This is one thing that he is not always correct about. Sure it only happens about 3% of the time but HA! he's not perfect.

When you ask for help from a TI you need to remember that the staff there may be very literal. You must take each topic and question to the next level. Example: Rick had mentioned that the #8XX (I couldn't remember the full number) bus has an all day pass so I could hit as many of the villages as possible.

I asked the woman "Does the bus #801 goes to both Stow-On-The-Wold (Wold means rolling hill) and Burton-On-The-Water and is there an all day pass?"

She said "Yes, it goes to both towns but it doesn't have an all day pass. Just tell the driver where you are going and he will charge you as needed." 

So, I get on the #801 bus and tell the driver my itinerary and he says "You should be on the #855 it goes to both places and has an all day pass."

My reply "Well I wish the woman at the TI would have told me that, I discussed my plans with her."

"Typical" was his sardonic retort. 

This is just one of many similar stories. Before the bus question, I asked about a tour of Blenheim Palace scheduled for Friday & Saturday only. Blenheim Palace is in the Cotswolds and a grand must-see-palace, pronounced Blenem. Since I was leaving before Friday we determined that I wouldn't be able to tour Blenheim. Later I found out that the brochure I was referring to was for a specific tour group and Blenheim is open everyday. I totally could have gone on my own. Grrr. I was annoyed for about 3 minutes and then added Blenheim Palace to my "What To Do Next Time I Go to England" list. That made me smile.

It was market day in Moreton-in-Marsh. Traffic was rerouted from the main street and the whole length of the street was full of booths of goods; handmade crafts, used books, fresh bread (unsliced, unwrapped - when do we ever see that?) stacked loaf upon loaf, fresh baked pastries, fresh local cheeses, food carts, a butcher booth - meat stacked on a counter completely unrefrigerated and I mean huge hunks of meat about  9 inches thick and chicken & ducks plucked with their heads still on, clothes (hideous cheap ugly clothes), produce, etc. It was really fun just to walk around while I waited for my bus.

Off I went to Burton-On-The-Water. It is a fun place to walk around and they have great ice cream too. The bridges were used for bringing sheep to town way back when.

Next stop: Stow-On-The-Wold. You can make your way around this little village in about 45 minutes - IF there weren't so many tourists. A convoy of coaches (big buses) inject hoardes of tourists into these tiny towns by mid-day. Arrive early or after 3pm when things have thinned out a bit. Worth a visit even with the crowds.

Behind this church, St. Edwards, is a famous door way bracketed by two ancient yew trees. Apparently J. R. R. Tolkien hiked the area extensively and sketched this doorway many times.

During the 2 months I traveled, the Cotswolds was the only place that I wanted to spend more time in than what I had alloted. There was more that I wanted to see but I was tired of walking. On the day I left for York, knowing that I was going to spend the day on the train - sitting - sounded wonderful. I will definitely go back to the Cotswolds soon.

PICTURES - COTSWOLDS, ENGLAND

More pictures of St. Edwards in the town of Stow-on-the-Wold. This church is very well cared for inside and there is a group of women who make sure the kneeling pads are well made and deocrated.

This are some houses in this adorable town. The light color of the stone is what defines and designates the Cotswolds.

This is the back door of a tea shop in Moreton-in-Marsh. 

This was the view on my long walk through the pastures and kissing gates. It was a warm day - about 75 or so - sunny and just pleasant.