North by Northeast

We left Edinburgh first thing this morning for the 3.5 hour drive south to York. The route took us close to the east coast at times, with really nice views of the North Sea across rolling green fields. Every time we've traveled along the highway we've passed bright yellow rapeseed fields and I haven't been able to get a good photo- but managed to snap one today from the car window. The color is stunning, especially when you see a square field of yellow surrounded by lush green. Once in York we went promptly to a pub to figure out a plan. York sits on the River Ouse (pronounced "ooze") and like Chester and many other English towns was a walled Roman fortress in AD 71.   Roman Multangular Tower and section of fortress wall   In the fifth century became an Anglo-Saxon settlement and by the seventh century the York Minster existed. Today it is an amazing gothic cathedral, one of the largest in northern Europe, and as incredible on the outside as it is on the inside. S...

Today we planned to hike up to Arthur's Seat, which sits 251 meters (823 ft) above sea level and at the eastern end of the City. We walked to the eastern end of the Royal Mile to Holyrood Palace- formally the Palace of Holyroodhouse - and, since the 16th century, the monarch's official residence when in Scotland. For those of us who know most of our British royals history from The Crown , Balmoral Castle, also in Scotland, is about 100 miles north and is a private property of the royal family. The Queen spent time at both places in Scotland: Holyrood was used for formal state occasions.  We didn't plan to go in for a tour, a good thing because it was closed because some royal with about 8 words in his or her title is staying there today. Had we been able to go in, we could have seen Mary, Queen of Scots bedroom from 1566. The Palace name dates back to 1128 when King David of Scotland, hunting in the woods below Arthur's Seat had a vision of a stag with a cross (known...

Today we took a bit of a neighborhood tour around Jen and Kate's old school areas. That included walking through the University of Edinburgh and around some of its buildings that are centuries old. We walked through The Meadows, another beautiful park which was green and vibrant on yet another sunny day. Pub Number One today was the Canny Man's Pub in the Morningside neighborhood. Like most (all?) of the pubs we've visited, this was one of Jen and Kate's regulars when they lived here. This place really looks (and smells) like an old locals pub and even at noon we weren't the first ones at the bar. Mates! Second pub stop was The Doctors located just across the street from the University medical school buildings and built in the 1870s when the Royal Infirmary was opened. There are medical odds and ends around the bar including some very old looking vials of weird medicines and a life-size replica spine and pelvis hangs on the wall. Another pint and a little lunch and...

Today was not as sunny as yesterday, and despite cloudy skies only a few raindrops actually fell. We're staying at a hotel in Edinburgh's Old Town which became Scotland's capitol in the 15th Century and together with New Town (only slightly younger, dating to the 18th century) forms the City's UNESCO World Heritage Site . We started off the day with a walk up the Cowgate, a street that was named in the 1400s probably because it was used to move cows to and from the Grassmarket. Still a weekend market, but also home to a row of pubs! We wound our way uphill to Edinburgh Castle, which sits at the westernmost end of a long volcanic plug; Holyrood Palace is at the eastern end and the Royal Mile connects the two. The Castle has served intermittently and sometimes concurrently as a royal palace and fortification, and the views across the Old and New Town sections of the City are amazing! The Castle on its volcanic plug from below And from above All this walking up and down s...

We were all up early this morning, and after breakfast headed north for Edinburgh.  Several road closures and extra traffic due to a rail strike made the trip a bit longer, but about 4.5 hours later we pulled in to our hotel located right off the Royal Mile in the oldest part of the City. The ride from Chester into Scotland was beautiful. Since it's May everything is green and lush and we passed many, many sheep pastures filled with the cutest little lambs! 😍 Apologies that I have no pics to post- once we got off the highway we were on a two-lane road with nowhere to pull off. I'll try to get some pics on the way back. Did manage to snap a few landscape photos as we were whizzing along the highway: We spent the rest of the afternoon walking around some of Jen and her friend Kate's hang outs from their time at the University of Edinburgh. This included stopping at a number of pubs along the way. We ended up at Greyfriar's Bobby for dinner (fish and chips for me!), named...

The sun! Again! All day! Yesterday we saw lots of people (mostly millennials) decked out in their finest, day drinking on their way to the Boodles May Festival horse races. Today we walked to the track, called the Roodee, and learned it is the oldest racetrack in the world with a fascinating history. These are all real names, by the way. More fancy clothes, more day drinking, and lots of excitement! We didn't stick around for any of the afternoon races but saw plenty of very drunk people teetering around town after. And had a late morning pint of our own because hey, every pub was open first thing in the morning.   We visited the Chester Cathedral which is an amazing thirteenth century Gothic church built of the same red stone used to build the Roman walls and lots of other structures in town. A choir group happened to be practicing while we were there which really made the whole experience surreal.  Sound on!      The cathedral has lots of people buried in, b...

Back on the road with my trusty travel companion, this time to spend a week in northern England, Wales, and Scotland visiting one of Jen's best friends from grad school. We had a smooth overnight ride across the Atlantic on Aer Lingus (flying right over Nova Scotia and Newfoundland!) after a not-so-smooth car ride to the JFK airport. Gray and dreary in Manchester, England but by the time we took the train to Chester the sun poked out and we had a mix of blue skies and rain showers for the rest of the afternoon. First pints of the day (10:30 am) with Kate and Simon We decided to push through the lack of sleep and roam around Chester, a town that sits on the English/Welsh border and was first occupied by the Romans 2,000 years ago. Ruins are still visible all around the city center along with a wall that completely surrounds it. One of the Chester canals from the Roman City Wall.  Chester also has a huge collection of Tudor buildings and if it you look up and screen out the pedestria...