Touring York

We all had a great sleep at the Cedar Court Hotel last night.  We will need to stay at this hotel again in the future – and stay more days.  Everyone at the hotel was extremely courteous, especially the concierge as Karen indicated in yesterday’s post.

I (Jeff) got up early to get in a workout in the gym downstairs while Karen and Josh slept more.  The gym was small but quite nice. Had 2 of everything I needed.  Although I could have used a sleep in day too!  L

We had a light continental breakfast at the hotel and then packed up (yes, already!) to check out. We were only staying here one night.  Our bags are now extremely tight and heavy but we still managed to cram everything into them.  The hotel stored our bags for us while we toured York for the day.

The Halters woke up very early (6am!) to get on the 8am train to York. They arrived just before 10am – with Josh jumping up in down in excitement as they arrived.  It was as if the three of them hadn’t seen each other in ages.  It was funny listening to them talk after they met up.  They were taking turns talking and waiting patiently for their turn to glab about their greatest trip stories so far.  (the Halters had been in London for a week already)

The plan for today was to tour York together.  York is a middle-sized town – much much smaller than London.  They have a decently sized pedestrian-only area downtown which is packed with eateries and pubs.  Have we mentioned how they love their cakes and sweets up here?  The Halters said they didn’t notice it that much in London, but we have noticed it everywhere in Scotland and now here in York. Nobody is complaining!

Several people said we needed to take a Viking tour called Jorvik.  It is a museum and underground tour (with motorized moving seats) explaining the time period when the Vikings ruled this area.  Many years ago, they uncovered new Viking artifacts as they were digging/preparing for a new building.  The tour was actually very well done.  The motorized portion took you through mockups of actual Viking villages and how they lived. (complete with motorized people – like in the Disneyland rides!)  The kids enjoyed it fairly well.  I think the adults liked it more – and of course Karen could have spent forever there looking it all over.  (so could I)

Next up was the York Castle Museum which also was highly recommended by several people. This one was a complete dud for all of us.  It was a hodgepodge of different themes stuffed into two museum hallways.  Nobody liked it and we got the heck out of there once we realized it wasn’t going to get any better. It also didn’t help that we had encroached a bit on lunchtime and we were getting quite hungry.

We headed down to Betty’s restaurant for lunch.  This is a very traditional and well known eatery here.  We had to wait for about 30 minutes to get in but it was worth it.  It’s a combination of traditional English and Swiss food – with fantastic baked goods as well.  Josh had pasta with melted cheese and ham.  I had the Chicken Schnitzel.  And Karen got the Sausages with Rosti.  All were very tasty. We got 5 different desserts to share among the 7 of us and those were all outstanding as well. 

After that, we spent the rest of the afternoon strolling around the quaint and beautiful center city area of town.  The weather was perfect.  Partly sunny and 72 degrees.   We had enough time to take a boat ride on the river so we did that just before leaving. 

We gathered up our bags and headed back to the train station (right down the street from the hotel) and caught the 7pm train back to London. Our train car had no A/C so it was a bit stuffy for the 2 hour train ride but we managed ok.  They handed out bottled water free of charge for us.  Got into Kings Cross on time and took a taxi to the hotel (10 mins away).  

I was using 3 free Hyatt nights and was able to get the Hyatt Churchill downtown.  It's a fantastic hotel right next to Hyde Park.  We'll be off early for Bath tomorrow.  Time for a shower and bed!

Josh in his kid's robe and slippers

York

York Minster

York City Wall

York River Cruise

York from River Cruise

York from River Cruise

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!

View of York from Hotel area

Cedar Court Hotel

Railroad Museum

Silver Jubilee Trains

Silver Jubilee Trains

Room -- Very nice!

What was on Josh's bed at hotel at arrival!!

View of York

Some boy with nice view behind him

Cedar Court Hotel

Happy Bird

York

York

Scotland - Day 9 - Edinburgh

We got in so late last night (11:30pm) that we decided to let Josh sleep through breakfast. He agreed and got more rest.  Karen and I had our first breakfast here with some other guests.  Both were from England.  One couple had come up here (by car) just for the Tattoo the night before.  The other couple was here on a bike trip from Newcastle. They were getting ready to bike back this afternoon.  They said there is a company who has mapped out most of the U.K. with excellent biking routes that never take you on a major highway and have you on good backroads that have very little car traffic.  Intriguing for another trip sometime! 

We got out the door around 10am and went straight to hike up Arthur's Seat -- an extinct volcano very near where we are staying.  It is about 850 feet high, which seems to be quite high for these areas.  It took us about 25 minutes to hike to the top, which afforded some great panoramic views of city.  The day looked like it was going to be a great sunny day but it turned out to be a mostly cloudy and cool day after all.  I (Jeff) was sick of wearing my pants and longer sleeve shirts so I braved it (thinking it was going to be sunny of course!) with shorts and a roll-up shirt.  That worked out well for the hike.  Even without the sun, we were a bit sweaty. The train was frequented by quite a lot of people, young, old and even many doggies, including one without one of its front legs.  There is a massive flat field at the bottom of it and all we could think about was how much Athena would have loved the hike and the park.  Surprisingly, there was no complaining from the little man.  He hiked up and down without a problem.  Since there are very few gyms here that allow non-members to come use their facilities for a day, I used this as part of my daily workout.  Karen's achilles was starting to voice its disapproval.

We went straight from the hike to a kids show that was part of the "Fringe Festival" that runs here all month long.  We bought tickets for a show called "I hate Children Children's Show".  They have a TON of shows -- the program for it is very thick.  Somehow, this one caught the eye of Karen and Josh.  We got lucky.  This show apparently one the award for best kids show last year and they got 4 stars this year.  It was set in a courtyard where there were several indoor stages together in different buildings -- all devoted to kids.  In the middle were 3 or 4 (I kid you not) beer/alcohol tents as well as a few places to buy kids food/drinks.  The show was really well done.  It was run by two guys from San Francisco.  One of them is the lead and the other is his sidekick who helps mainly by playing guitar.  He runs it as a comedy/magician show.  He promises (and delivered!) on bringing up every single kid over the age of 8 up on stage.  He would do tricks with them and ask them all sorts of questions. He was very spontaneous and witty with them.  Josh loved it and couldn't wait to get on stage himself.  Of course this is Josh.  Josh is a ham.  Every other kid gets up there and is either very nervous or just following orders from the lead  Not Josh.  Josh is looking for every opportunity to do something or say something funny/witty.  The magician had fun with him but really didn't have a lot of time to deal with Josh's tactics.  :)  I could tell that if he had time to chat with Josh, they would probably sit and chat like old buds for an hour or two. 

We headed out to the Scottish National Museum next not quite realizing that we were a bit hungry and getting tired.  The museum is quite amazing.  Well rested and fed, we could easily spend a few days there. Their displays were very well put together. Karen was in heaven in their pre-historic section.  They had a very good interactive section for the kids which Josh enjoyed.  In the end, Josh and I were not totally into the museum (for me, it was mainly a fatigue and hunger thing) so we left to grab a quick bite to eat and head back to rest.  Tripadvisor guided us to a place called "The Piemaker" which had cheap "pies" -- pasty's and other savory pies.  Like ham and cheese, steak & ale, etc.  They were very good and just what we needed to fill us back up. 

At that point, Karen headed back to the B&B to rest her feet and Josh and I headed to a bakery that was ranked good -- Cuckoo's.  Turns out it was (mainly) a cupcake place.  We got 5 cupcakes and a crushes Oreo and Salted Caramel Brownie.  We hiked those back to the B&B to enjoy and relax.

Josh's red velvet cupcake was pretty good.  Not exceptional. But the Sticky Toffee Pudding cupcake was insane.  I don't know what it is with toffee, caramel or brown sugary deserts in this country, but they make them much better than anything in the U.S.  The Oreo brownie (with caramel sauce) was also divide, again because it had Scottish caramel sauce!

Karen has been on the search for Mackay's Ginger marmalade sauce.  The B&B here has it for breakfast and she's in love.  Of course, we can't find it anywhere.  But leave it to Amazon.com -- they have it for sale for $9.  :)

We took a late afternoon (earl evening) stroll out after some rest and headed up to the nearby Calton Hill area.  There are several older structures here but the most infamous one is the replica of the Parthenon that is only partially completed.  They ran out of money for it (in the mid 1800s) and they never completed it.  While it is called the "National Monument of Scotland", the locals dub it "Scotland's [or Edinburgh's] Disgrace".  The views were excellent from this point.

We took a stroll down the New Town section but it was already getting "late" (but the sun's still out) -- 7pm.  We found a nice restaurant on Rose St.  Josh had another hamburger and mash (the burger was very good), I had the Steak and Ale Pie (quite tasty), Karen had the chicken sandwich (lots of shredded cheddar!) and we shared a plate of onion rings.  The onion rings were smaller shaped (like normal onion slices -- not the gigantic ones we get in the U.S.) but very very tasty.  Karen and I shared a jug of Pimms and Lemonade.  I'm starting to wonder if they consider that a "girly drink" here.  I've been ordering it a lot so it wouldn't surprise it.  And honestly, I could care less.  Just curious, that's all!

The town seems remarkably clean and graffiti free for a large European town.  There are very few homeless people -- and I'm sure they're out in force with the festivals here.  It's really a pleasant city to spend time in.  They love their pubs and drinking establishments.  As our friends Tony and Lisa mentioned on their trip to Edinburgh earlier this year, there are several restaurants and pubs that can't serve minors after 8pm.  Even higher end restaurants.  Very strange.  And it's not obvious which restaurants can and cannot serve minors after 8pm until you go in.  (they tell you right away)

This is our last full day in Scotland.  It has been an amazing birthday trip for me -- it has been everything I had hoped it would be. We have found another gem of a country and most certainly will be making it back here in the near future.  We felt totally comfortable and really enjoyed talking with everyone we met, in the small or large cities. 

Tomorrow, we check out and take the train to York and begin our week-long trip in England with the Halters.

Atop Arthur's Seat

Atop Arthur's Seat

View from Arthur's Seat

Josh High-5'ing the lead of the show

Pic with Show Lead afterwards

Why you little!! (notice the thumbs up)

Cuckoo's Cupcakes

National Monument of Scotland

At Calton Hill

Funny shot at Calton Hill

At Calton Hill

Scotland - Day 8 - Edinburgh

We should just christen this the day of walking. There is always one (usually more) on each trip! Our first breakfast at 14 Hart Street was really nice. It is in the dining room and you feel like you are at the family table. That's what it is - just one large table, with the end set up for us. The middle was laden with cereal, fruit, and yogurt with lots of jams and jellies to choose from! After a heartening breakfast we set off once again for the Old Town, beginning our day with a tour of Edinburgh Castle. It was slightly drizzly but since we are now seasoned Scottish tourists, it didn't phase us a bit! The castle really is magnificent - there has been a structure on that location for at least 2000 years. The current castle has been built up over many years with some areas being 500 years old and other much newer. One of the newer parts of the castle is the national war memorial. This is the most stunning war monument I have ever seen. It appears to be a church from the outside, but inside there is a nave for each branch or regiment in the Scottish military. Some are set up by clans. At each area there are two books, one for WWI and one for WWII which give the names of the soldiers lost. There are also separate areas for the Navy, Marines, and Air Force. I the back of all of this there is a domed room containing their tomb of the unknowns. There were some beautiful words written on the wall, but I can't recall them. The other highlight of the castle was the Scottish Crown jewels. They aren't as fancy as the English jewels but they are impressive. We went in the entrance that tells the story of the jewels how they were made, hidden, and subsequently rediscovered. We also learned a little about Mary, Queen of Scotts and her son James the VI, but crowned as infants!

After we were finished at the castle, it was a short walk to our next stop - the Camera Obscura Museum of Illusion. What a place this is! There are 4 floors of exhibits relating to different types of optical illusions - holograms, mirror mazes, trick photos and everything else you could think of! Josh really liked the vortex tunnel - a tunnel you walk through that has spinning lights all around, making the tunnel seem like it is rotating and causing you to lose your balance. He loved it until he went through it too fast the last time and ran into the mirror at the end, hurting both his pride and his nose. At the very top of the museum is the camera obscura. A hidden camera if you will that is positioned at top of the tower and looks out over the Old Town. It is projected onto a simple stone disc and we had fun sightseeing over the city and spying down on the people walking around. At one point he handed out fold paper cards and we were invited to pick up the people walking around and put them down again - it was great fun! We spent quite a lot of time in the museum so that when we came out it was time for a bite to eat. Score one for Jeff's prowess using Trip Advisor. It pointed us to a small store front called "Oink" there was a whole BBQ pig in the window and that is all they serve! There were three sizes of pork sandwich and you could get it with haggis or onion and sage. Then there were choices of sauce - BBQ, applies, sweet chili and one other. We all got with onion and sage and the apple compote - so delicious and simple! What a genius idea. It was hard to get Jeff to agree to eat anywhere else after that :)

We needed a bit of a breather after that so we headed back to Hart Street for a quick rest via the Royal Mile. This took awhile as we poked into and out of shops, including a nice sweet shop! Dinner was just around the corner and a small restaurant called the Olive Branch. Like many other establishments in Edinburgh, children are not allowed in after 8pm. Lucky for us, it was only 6:30 so we had plenty of time. The menu was small, but appetizing. In the end Jeff and I wound up getting the same thing - Chicken Ballotine -  a delicious chicken breast that was filled with meat and stuffing, then wrapped in prosciutto - complete heaven. It came with fried polenta sticks that were perfectly crispy and delicious. Another quick breather and it was time for the main event.

The Edinburgh Military Tattoo is one of the large military festivals anywhere I think. It is comprised of pipe and drum bands from different regiments in the Scottish army and commonwealth. Other nations also take part in the festivities. More impressive is that it is staged on the esplanade in front of Edinburgh Castle - what an imposing and impressive backdrop! This years theme was the seasons throughout Scotland with music and in some cases, dance performed around each of the four seasons. To describe the whole thing would take pages it was so detailed, but there were definite highlights. Josh's favorite was a precision motorcycle team called the Imps. These are children ages 5-16 that performs amazing tricks on their motorcycles. They were supposed to represent the midges in springtime. They were frenetic and full of energy. They saved their best for last with a stacked pyramid driven around the area. Really cool! I (Karen) also enjoyed the Koreans with their synchronized drumming and fun lion dancers as well as the Mexicans who were so vibrant in their dancing and playing. The New Zealanders were also fun to watch. They appear very lighthearted and seem like they would be the life of any party! The finale was so very impressive - at the end all the drums and pipes come back to play together and there are fireworks going off above the castle and it is really incredible. Then there is a lone bagpiper who stands in the dark atop the castle rampart wall, lit only by a spotlight that plays a tribute to the fallen soldiers. Very touching. Finally everyone comes back to the esplanade for the final few songs and they all make a grand exit. What a spectacle! By the time we got home it was 11:15pm and we were ready to drop!

Edinburgh Castle

Edinburgh Castle

Edinburgh Castle

Edinburgh Castle

Edinburgh Castle (Pet Cemetary on bottom)

Camera Obscura

Camera Obscura (Josh is taller than Jeff?)

Oink BBQ Pork Window

The place that will forever be remembered..

Military Tattoo -- Closing

Military Tattoo -- Fireworks

Scotland - Day 7 - Inverness & Edinburgh

Caramel Heaven Sundae. The name speaks for itself

Culloden Battlefield

Memorial Cairn at the Culloden Battlefield

Cawdor Castle. Someone still lives here!

Look mom - a cannon!

Lovely gardens at Cawdor Castle

Our delightful B&B in Edinburgh

Another photo of the room

In Edinburgh's New Town, looking toward the Old Town

Three??!! I can only handle one as it is!

Josh on the Royal Mile

Today was another transition day.  We had our last breakfast at the simple but sufficient Strathness House in Inverness and headed out by car down the highway.  We stopped at two locations on the way out of Inverness before continuing on the long (3 hour) drive down to Edinburgh.  We had a long stop at the Culloden Battlegrounds -- where the last great battle between the Highlanders (Scotland) and Britain.  The museum walked you through both vantage points so you could get a good sense for the differing viewpoints.  The battle happened in the late 1700s and up until this point, the Highlanders (supporting the Jacobites who were trying to gain "rightful control" of the throne) had one every battle against the British. But not this one.  They were crushed by the British in less than 1 hour.  Their plans of a surprise attack were foiled by torrential rains and fog.  They had to call off their surprise attack in the middle of the night because they realized they wouldn't make it to the British's camp in time.  By the time morning came along, the Highlanders were exhausted from lack of sleep and food.  When time for battle came along, they were not prepared for the fight of their lives -- not like the well-rested and well-fed British.  After the battle, the British made sure there would be no more uprisings and tried their best to root out all vestiges of Celtic culture and support.  One of the many reasons why (probably) there is still some resentment by the Scots of the English.

Right down the road was the Cawdor Castle -- one that is still being used to this day! The owners let people tour a large part of it even with them still living there.  Josh liked walking around and seeing the old rooms.  What was amazing is that the place was never built with a real kitchen!  It was added over time.  The most recent kitchen addition looks very good and is quite large.

After that, we headed down the long highway down to Edinburgh.  It was Sunday afternoon and the two lane highway was quite crowded for half of the trip.  They didn't have consistent 4-lane highways until about 30 minutes before Edinburgh.  It was a bit frustrating but we got there nonetheless.  This was my last day of driving in the U.K.  I may have looked the wrong way a few times (and cut it close a few times when I did) but in the end, it was a fun experience.  The car was quite large and wide for these country roads.  But it fit our luggage well and was quite sporty.

We arrived at the B&B (14 Hart Street) in Edinburgh around 6pm and checked into our room.  All the rooms are downstairs which makes it seem like they are just renting out many of their rooms.  But it is quite well done and the room is fairly large.  It's in a residential neighborhood in the "New City" but the main old center is only about a 10 minute walk from here.  We headed out for our dinner at an Italian restaurant (Vittoria on the Bridge).  Food was quite good.  The caramel ice cream and sundae were outstanding for dessert.  The best tasting caramel ice cream (Josh's) and sundae (Karen and I) have ever had.

We had a nice stroll around the old part of town which was quite bustling with the "Fringe" festival ongoing.  Lots to see.  And the sun doesn't go down until around 9:15pm and is twilight for at least an hour after that.

Tomorrow we need to do some much needed laundry.. visit the town and have a fun night at the military tattoo. (festival)

I'm not sure if it's the fact that we speak the same language -- or the type of trip we're taking so far -- or a combination of both, but I have felt a stronger connection to the people we've met so far than in any other place on the European mainland.  They are totally connecting with Josh, especially at the restaurants.  I already mentioned how the Torridon restaurant went out of their way to make him his favorite flavor of gelato -- Mango -- for dinner. And at Cafe One in Inverness, the manager was having a great time with Josh.. and Josh got the cook to make him mashed potatoes with his meal even though it was not something they had on their menu.  The manager suggested he go over to the kitchen and say thank you to Chef David.  Which of course Josh did -- promptly getting up and walking over there.  He said thank you again to him and shook his hand on his way out of the restaurant.  That was awesome.