Want to hear a confession? I briefly considered telling the travel director that I'd tested positive for Covid, just so I could be left behind in Edinburgh. LOL! But, there was so much more to see and do on this trip, that the thought was only fleeting, and onward we went!
The morning started with the now-familiar bright-and-early routine:
7:30am bags outside the rooms, and breakfast in the hotel
8:30am we were on the bus, rolling out of Edinburgh
The trip between Edinburgh, Scotland and York, England is not short. We had a few stops on the way to break up the drive, stretch our legs, and grab some lunch. The first stop was in a town next to yet-another-castle, both named Alnwick (prounced: al-nik)
This one was used for the outside shots of Hogwarts during the quiddich games in the Harry Potter movies, so, that was kinda cool! This wasn't a tour, though, it was just a place to grab a snack, take a bathroom break, and putter around the town for about an hour. On our explorations, N and I found a back entrance into the castle grounds, and made our way around some gardens and a mini-golf course before we had to get back to the coach. We even met a mamma duck and her babies taking a lovely stroll.
We would have loved to play this course!
From here, we stopped in another local pub for lunch of soup and sandwiches, and afterwards we were given a tour of a small church across the street, St. Andrew at Heddon on the Wall. The church's caretaker was quite proud of the building, and clearly loved to talk about it! We adored the unique bits of architecture here, and the old graves.
And finally, just before arriving in York, we got to see the "Most Viewed Art Installation" because it sits right next to a gigantic highway and anyone driving past really can't miss it:
I think it's supposed to be an angel?
An Evening in York
We arrived in York right around 4pm, dropped off and taken into the center by Darren.
This...this is what I always believed that all of England looks like.
Once again, we found out we had arrived too late to get to tour inside anything, like York Minster, which made me a little grumpy. But, we took a (long) walk around just 2 sides of York Minster, which is just *gihungous*...and by that I mean, the word "gigantic" doesn't quite cover it. This building took over 250 years to complete - meaning it took longer to build it than our country has been a country. 🤯Currently there is scaffolding around a section where they are putting a statue of the queen! That's pretty neat!
(Play the video to hear the bells!)
And from here, we entered "The Shambles", the oldest original medieval street in England, and supposedly the inspiration for Diagon Alley from Harry Potter.
We also found out that the Ghost Walk portion of the evening's "Optional Dinner and Ghost Walk" had to be canceled because the guide had Covid. Our family elected to skip the "Optional Dinner and...", and explore York on our own. We left the tour group and did a bunch of shopping in The Shambles area. There were a ton of Harry Potter themed stores, as you would expect!! A lot of "similar" items, but we realized there's basically one UK-based company that makes aaaalllll the Harry Potter merch...and they sell online. Saved us some suitcase space, and now we have lots of gift ideas for later! After shopping ourselves out, we went back to see more of the York Minster Cathedral, and then finally decided we were hungry. We wandered past this restaurant, which turns out is on the shortest street in England (with the weirdest name!)
We ate at trio
When we told Darren about this, he informed us that the street is best known for smelling like urine! LOL We didn't notice any such thing, thank goodness!!
After dinner, we knew our rooms would be ready at the hotel, so we made the 1-mile walk. On the way, our bus driver passed us and we gave him a wave. Arriving at the hotel, the bus driver managed to meet us in the street right outside...he had realized when he saw us in town that he had our room keys with him! He handed them over to N, and we went in to find our rooms and bags.
N and I still had energy and the desire to walk some more. The trusty internet told us that there were several options for ghost walks around town that did not require tickets or reservations in advance. So, we put on our Brave faces, and ventured out to see if we could find one of these tours on our own in a completely unfamiliar city.
We backtracked through many of the streets we'd wandered before, somewhat losing our way, but always able to see the ginormous cathedral to keep our bearings. Finally, we made it to the steps of the cathedral, where we thought there was at least one, maybe two, ghost walks meeting.
However, we saw no signs or indication of exactly where to go. N noticed someone sitting on the steps of the cathedral. Her observation: "He looks ghosty." She suggested we - meaning I - go ask him for help. 🙄 I worked up the guts to go over, and said "Hello there. We are tourists, and we were hoping to find a ghost walk tonight. Do you happen to know of any?"
He gestured to himself, and replied "You've found one"...turns out, he was indeed ghosty. 🤣
The tour was just over an hour long, and utterly enjoyable. The gentleman, Ghostly Graham as it happened, was funny, and spooky, and a great story-teller, and N and I had a blast. Completely worth the £20! Plus, it was even cooler to see the buildings with less crowds:
And let me remind you, this picture was taken around 10pm!! It was just so odd going back to the hotel around 10:30, with the sky making it feel like late afternoon. Luckily, all the walking we did today made me exhausted enough that sleep was easy.
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