A map of our northern travels! (Green shows our stops from this trip, pink shows our stops from the trip two weeks ago)
Monday morning came bright and early as we began our journey north. So early, in fact, that I was dead asleep before we even made it out of London. Four hours later, we made our first stop in Lincoln - e weren’t there very long, just enough time to explore the town and eat lunch. The main highlights were the cathedral, the Victorian prison, and one of the four original copies of the Magna Carta. Mostly we tried to do anything that would get us out of the wind – I seriously thought I might blow off the hill! This wind and bitter cold was only the beginning of what we would experience on the trip. I looked like a marshmallow the entire time because I had to have both my sweatshirt and my jacket!
After Lincoln we were back onto the bus, and three hours later we made it to York. We were all very excited about the hotel we had there – they only had two people to a room, and they were really big! It was so nice to have a little bit more space to myself – I had my own full-size bed! I also had a comforter AND a sheet – amazing.
We spent the evening and the next morning wandering around York. We had lots of free time since our only planned group activity was a tour of the town’s cathedral. (Our tour guide was most enthusiastic about the building – it was very interesting and I enjoyed it, but an hour and half of touring a cathedral is very long, let me tell you.)
My favorite part of the town was a street called The Shambles. It’s basically a street lined with medieval shops, where the top of the building sort of hangs out into the street – kind of like what you see in A Knight’s Tale. I also liked walking on the city wall, as York is the only city left in England that has a wall that goes all the way around it. Again, we were fighting against the wind so that we wouldn’t blow right off!
The Shambles
City Wall
Tuesday afternoon we continued onward to Edinburgh, Scotland. We arrived in the evening, and Professor Crowe suggested eating dinner at The Elephant House. This café is famous because it is where J.K. Rowling came to work on Harry Potter! So pretty much I ate in the very room that Harry Potter came to be. Also, if you want to join Dumbledore’s Army, you can write your name on the bathroom wall, which is now completely covered in names. I love my fellow Potter fanatics.
After dinner we made our way over to Calton Hill, which overlooks Edinburgh and is the perfect place to watch the sunset. It was beautiful – you can see the whole city, Edinburgh castle, the crags (cliffs), and over to the ocean. The hill was very windy and very cold, but worth it for the view! (But hot chocolate never tasted as good as the cup I had on our way home :) )
View from Calton Hill
We started off our day in Edinburgh (pronounced EH-din-bur-uh) with a tour of Edinburgh castle. This fortress, dating back to the 12th century, sits on top of a hill overlooking the whole city and has seen centuries of history. During one part of the tour, our guide was pointing out various parts of the castle and telling us their date of origin. He pointed to one of the gates and said, “That gate is Victorian, only 200 years old or so, so don’t even bother taking a picture.” I love the difference in what Europeans and Americans consider old! Pretty much everything in Utah is younger than that gate, and the Scottish don’t even give it a second thought.
The rest of the day was spent wandering through Edinburgh. We walked for hours and hours, taking in all of the sights. We went through the park where they have a huge clock made out of flowers; down the Royal Mile and through the shops full of plaid; past the Holyrood Palace, where the Queen stays when she visits Scotland; and hiked up Arthur’s Seat, the crags on the eastern (?) side of the city – my favorite view!
Arthur's Seat
After Arthur’s Seat, we had seen a lot of the city, but still had a few hours before we were supposed to meet our other friends for dinner, so we thought it might be fun to walk down to the harbor to see the Royal Yacht. On the map it looked far, but we didn’t really have any other ideas so we just said that if we got tired of walking we would just turn around. The only problem with that plan is that when you don’t know exactly how far away your destination is, it’s really hard to justify turning around because it might be just around the corner. After about 30 minutes of walking, I was starting to think I didn’t want to go too much farther, but it seemed like a waste to come this far if we were almost there. Time kept passing and we had know idea how close we really were, but no one wanted to be the person to suggest turning around and starting the long journey back up the hill. Two hours later – we made it to the harbor only to find out that tours of the yacht had ended a half an hour before. Exhausted, we sprawled out on one of the couches, where Hillary and I just started laughing hysterically. I’m not sure why it was so funny that we had come that way for nothing, but it was. We composed ourselves and took a picture next to the yacht. And then we took the bus back.
The Royal Yacht - this picture is the only thing we have to show for our two hour walk!
(Note: Scottish people are noticeably nicer than English people! It was weird to go into stores and have the salespeople not seem bothered by your presence.)
On Thursday we were back onto the bus (LOTS of quality bus time this week) on our way to the Lake District. I know I say this a lot, but the scenery was incredible! It’s so … green. When we got to Windermere, the group went on a boat ride around the lake. It was pouring on us for the second half, but you have to ride a boat in the Lake District, right? And it was a good way to see a little bit more of the town!
Our hostel for the night was up in the hills overlooking the lake, so we spent the evening enjoying the view and walking along the country lanes for a little while. (This trip is kind of hard to explain, because so much of it was just wandering and taking in the scenery!)
On Friday we started making our way back to London, but not without a few more stops, of course! The first was in Hawkshead, where we were going to go to the Beatrix Potter Gallery (who’s from the Lake District). After waiting around for an hour for the gallery to open, Professor Miller read the fine print on the sign that said they weren’t open on Fridays. It was too bad – I loved Peter Rabbit when I was little and would have liked to see the gallery!
Hawkshead
Next we were going to hike Holme Fell which, according to Professor Miller, was “shorter and easier than the last hike we had done.” This was false. It turned out to be a four hike up a steep, rocky hill, and through marshy, wet grass. But the view from the top was spectacular and it was a fun adventure, so it was worth it! We just weren’t very prepared for the experience. Many shoes were lost that day. And Tony, our bus driver, was very unhappy when we showed up two hours later than expected.
Goldsworthy art we saw along the trail (We're trying to figure out what modern art pose to do next to the modern art)
View from the top
It was nice to get back to London, even though I spent most of Saturday doing laundry and working on homework. In the evening, Alison, Hillary, and I finally made it over to Trafalgar Square to climb on the lions. We also went through St. James Park and Hyde Park again on our bikes, enjoying the beautiful sunset!
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