goodbye Scotland, hello York!
We awoke typically early and thus had time to finish packing and getting ready for the day. After saying our goodbyes to our hosts, we hauled our luggage out to the street and grabbed a cab to the train station. Upon finding our platform, there was a little confusion as to where we needed to be for our reserved coach, but we eventually made our way to the appropriate waiting spot. Once the train arrived, finagling our luggage to fit with little room left in the common baggage area was a bit of an ordeal. Unfortunately, most people had stowed even their small little carry-on size pieces there (when they could’ve gone overhead), but eventually we got it sorted and were on our way. The train ride was relatively short, only about two hours, and we were soon rolling into York. Unfortunately, after a week of surprisingly un-British weather (i.e. not raining), we arrived in town to drizzle. Nevertheless, we hopped in a cab and headed to our B&B, Brontë Guesthouse, a cute townhouse not far from the city centre. The owner met us and walked us through a map of York before helping us haul our bags up three flights of stairs to our room.
After settling in, we braved the mist and set out to explore the town. York definitely was a change a pace from Edinburgh, feeling distinctly smaller and less hectic. It was not long before we were faced with the utterly massive York Minster…I had not realized the scale of it, it’s huge! There was a large memorial service taking place, so we decided to save the inside tour for another day. We wandered through the largely pedestrian streets that were just packed with shops, mostly commercial with some mom-and-pop ones thrown in as well. D was reminded of Tuëbingen, while I thought of Rouen, as we walked through the cobble-stoned streets lined with distinctly leaning buildings. By fluke, we stumbled across a continental market, which was essentially a food market with selections from continental Europe. We hadn’t eaten lunch yet, so we grabbed a French crepe. D was lured by the saucisson sec and exchanged a little French with the seller before grabbing several different types. In search of food, we came across Betty’s Café Tea Room, a cute, very English place that had tasty offerings. D sampled a delicious lamb and rosemary pie, and I became absolutely stuffed (and subsequently very sleepy) from a raclette pasta. We waddled out and picked up a pocket knife (so D could cut his saucisson and my cheese) before walking back to the B&B, in the hope of getting a little work in.
