Lake District, Gretna Green and Edinburgh: Friday 15 July

We were woken at 5:20am by a noisy family on the street below our first floor room (directly above the main entrance, with a perfect view of Clifford's Tower). This was a nice room, but like all on the tour so far, the rooms are very small by NZ standards, and there is really only space for one suitcase.

Again, out suitcases were out by 7am and we were ready for breakfast at that time - again a hot and cold buffet. GF toast was available when I asked. We were on the road early at 7:55am, thanks to everyone in the group being so reliable about being on time. 
We had a two and a half hour drive north, first through the Yorkshire Dales (very picturesque) and then through the Cumbria region. All the land thus far was flat or gently undulating, but increasingly high through Cumbria. Dry stone walls bounding the fields were a feature here, with Galloway belted cattle (white band around their middle) and sheep. The weather was very grey and overcast, and starting to get drizzly.

We stopped for coffee in an unusual service area of cafes, restrooms and shops, called the Rheged Centre, which seemed to be built partially underground. The history of the area suggests a King Urien and his successors tracing their ancestry back to Coel Hen (alias King Cole), who is a mythical figure who may have actually lived in the area during the 5th century.
We drove into the Lake District National Park area. It was interesting to hear the role of Beatrix Potter in having this huge area established as a national park. Lots of tourists come for the historic and scenic beauty, and for hiking. 
This area and Cumbria were badly hit by a Foot and Mouth scare in the past. The hardy grey-wool Hardwick sheep were almost wiped out. The hills are called 'fells', and the lakes have various names (or none at all) depending on their size and importance. 

We parked in Grasmere and Michelle handed out Insight umbrellas and took us on a short walk through part of this very quaint village of stone buildings (in increasing drizzle), to see Wordsworth's grave. His home (Dove Cottage) was in a different direction, and we could have walked there if we were very keen Wordsworth fans, but that would have used up our entire allocated hour and a half. 

We found a cafe that advertised an extensive list of GF menu items, and David shared with me a plate of shepherd's pie and a sausage roll, and I appreciated being able to have something completely different.

We arrived back at the bus to find that every couple had a gift of Kendal Mint Cake (GF yay)! We had passed a signpost to the town of Kendal on the way, so David's family possibly originates from the area. By the time we left Grasmere, it was raining steadily and down to 14C - most days we've hovered around 19-22C.



The rain got really heavy as we headed up the M6 towards Carlisle and Gretna Green. We had a 35 minute break at Gretna Green, and had our photo taken (in the rain) under the clasped hands sculpture. I bought some GF shortbread but wasn't tempted by any other souvenirs.

We had a further 2 hour drive to get to Edinburgh and it rained steadily along the way. The scenery was lovely though - lush, green farmland.

We arrived at our hotel, the Waldorf Astoria Caledonian, at 4:45pm - quite a fancy place!

We were out the door again at 6:30pm to go to a dinner and Scottish cabaret (Taste of Scotland) in the stables at the Prestonfield Manor. It was a fabulous night's entertainment of Scottish music, song, dance and humour. Dinner included haggis, but it wasn't GF.... David surprised me by trying it, and he said it tasted a bit like a spicy sausage and was quite pleasant. The dinner wasn't brilliant for me in terms of their management of GF, but it was still an excellent evening of entertainment and the 27 (out of 38) of us from the tour who went had a fabulous time.

Lincoln and York: Thursday 14 July

Bags had to be out in the hallway by 7am, and breakfast was then too. It was nice to have both continental and hot breakfast buffets, and good ones too. Then, onto the bus for a long 2 hour journey to Lincoln. We have a rotation system with bus seats, and today we were in a front row. On the way, Michelle gave an interesting presentation about the UK and Great Britain. 
We arrived in Lincoln, another lovely town, with a castle and an amazing gothic cathedral on a hill, overlooking the town. We had three hours to tour the castle, wandering up on the walls, and seeing an interesting presentation about the Magna Carta. Normally an original copy is kept there, in a special building designed to protect it. Unfortunately, the conditions were apparently a little more damp than expected and so the Magna Carta had been put back into protective storage. I walked around some of the walls, and enjoyed the views - David walked right around, but I was a bit anxious about the steps and uneven stones. As it turned out, I could have managed, but was wary of the warnings in the information handed out to visitors.

 

We had lunch there (baked potato with salad and coleslaw for me), then wandered out to grab some more photos. It was a lovely sunny day, and around 20C. I suspect I got glutened because I had a decent dose of heartburn during the afternoon.

Then, another long drive to York, another picturesque town, and bigger than we imagined. I must say, I think the scenery along the main highways is really lovely - lots of farmland, pastures (everything is very green), and small groups of houses. We went straight to our hotel, the Hilton (sounds posh, eh), and headed straight out at 3pm for a guided walking tour with Michelle.

York has a history back to Roman times, and later it was an important Viking settlement. Indeed, there is a Viking museum (Jorvik) that was unfortunately closed because of a bad flood in the town. 

We had passed remnants of the walls as we drove into town. The hotel was opposite Clifford's Tower which is all that remains of York's castle. This tower has a rather a nasty history, including in 1190 when some Jews committed suicide by burning themselves in it (rather than taking whatever punishment the mob of townspeople had in mind for them). 
Elsewhere in the town we were shown the home of Margaret Clitherow (now a saint) who had been punished for harbouring Catholics, and who had been crushed to death between a rock and her own door (weighted down). Nasty...

It is easy to get lost in York, with the narrow, winding cobbled streets, and the small alleyways between buildings and shortcuts between streets. One of the streets we walked through was the famous Shambles (once a street of butchers), with buildings almost touching - hooks for hanging the meat can still be seen under the eaves. We also saw Grape Lane (actually where the prostitutes had worked).

    

Our walk culminated at York Minster, England's biggest gothic church. We did not go in as we've seen rather a lot of gothic churches in our time (but I now regret not seeing it). We stopped for a drink at another pub called the Blue Boar, and then headed back to the hotel to prepare for dinner.

I had a laugh heading back to our room via the lift. A hotel guest spotted my name tag and said her name was also Carol. Then she added, I know where you're from, "Oh really?" I laughed. She said "You're from New Zealand - I can tell by your posh type of Australian accent." LOL?

We sat with two couples from Melbourne and enjoyed a lot of laughs over a lovely dinner. I was well-looked after for GF: An entree of Parma ham, beetroot, goat's cheese and pine nut salad. And the main was pork loin steak, creamed savoy cabbage with smoked bacon, sage mash and juniper berry jus. GF bread to start, and icecream and fruit salad to finish.