Our Travels: Edinburgh to York

Today was our final morning in Edinburgh and Scotland as well. Because of that, we awoke to glorious sunshine! Of course. There was definitely more to be seen and experienced in Edinburgh, but just not enough time. I would love to come back and will be sure to do so. I will also be sure to stay in the little B&B at 14 Hart Street again. James and Angela were so nice, you could just talk to them forever. Lucky for us we discovered that it was actually a short walk to the train station and, more amazingly, we were able to pack our luggage into the original configuration of three bags and three backpacks! Arriving at the station we saw that there was a train leaving within 15 minutes that would stop at York. As luck would have it, it was also one of the busiest trains for the day. Needless to say, that without a seat reservation, we did not get on the train! However, 30 minutes later a train rolled in that had lots of empty seats - we even got 4 around a table so there was plenty of room for us! The countryside was very pretty, although the hills we had been used to seeing in Scotland, gradually flattened out as the view gave way to England. We arrived at York on time and were happy to discovered that our hotel was just a few minutes walk from the train station - and what a lovely hotel it was! The Cedar Court Grand is housed in the old offices built by the London Northern and Eastern Railways back in it's heyday. Designed to be opulent and luxurious, the hotel has lost none of that original grandeur. They even kept the green tiled stairwells which matched the color of the Flying Scotsman - their most successful train. The spa at the hotel is in the old vaults of the building, where LNER purportedly kept millions of pounds! The hotel is grand in the very English sense. A doorman in tails helped us with our luggage and the very nice and very helpful concierge actually walked us out to the street to point us in the right direction and point out interesting sites on our map.

Our first such site was the enormous and very impressive National Railway Museum. They had a large station house area with all kinds of trains from small steam engines to the sleek A4 Mallard that set the steam train speed record, all the way to a Japanese Bullet Train. Jeff was very excited to see that they had a whole section of the museum dedicated to the Flying Scotsman. This was the most celebrated train service between London and Edinburgh and has a very storied history. That engine now resides in London (I believe), but it was built and, more recently, restored in York. Closer to home, Jeff has had a poster for the Flying Scotsman in his room ever since he was a boy! We actually found the poster in the exhibit. We also saw one for the Silver Jubilee - the other poster Jeff has in his childhood room. Other interesting things to look at included some of the coaches used by British royalty including Queens Adelaide and Victoria - talk about riding in style!

By the time we were done with the museum, our room back at the hotel was ready. What a beautiful space - high ceiling with lots of light and some lovely details. I read that each room is slightly different to preserve some of the details of the original space. The best part? On Josh's little rollaway bed there were his own robe and slippers along with a little activity book and a gingerbread cookie. Josh was in heaven! Not even the Grand has robes for the kids! We also took a swim down at the pool - it was really nice in the spa. I wish I had time to have a treatment - it was rated best hotel spa last year in the United Kingdom.

Refreshed and happy we set off in the small old town pedestrian district for dinner. Graham, the helpful concierge had suggested Lucia's - a little Italian place because they had small plates. We shared a pitcher of Sangria and some nice plates including a cheese board, a lamb skewer, and arancini. Josh was in heaven with his Spaghetti and Meatballs. We also had a great dessert - a caramel and amaretti charlotte. Kind of a cream cake with crushed amaretti cookies and caramel on the top. Josh may have eaten more than all of us!

After dinner we walked around briefly to shake down the food and get our bearings a little more. We walked part the York Minster church, large and impressive in the twilight. There is also a really nice looking pedestrian district with lots of promising shops. We will see tomorrow!