Cathedral, Castle, Abbey - A typical day

We stayed at one of the nicer B&B's in Durham with beautiful views out the back.

But one of the things that we can't get used to is how late it stays light here.  The next picture was taken about 10:30 at night.

The next morning we went into Durham to see the Cathedral because the people at breakfast said it was really great and we shouldn't miss it.  We must be getting jaded (I think this is the ninth one we've seen on this trip) so we really weren't that impressed, but I had to take at least one picture because of the steep hill we had to climb to get to it.

After that it was off to Jedburgh in Scotland.  Jedburgh is a cute little town, with something you don't see in the States, a gramophone company!  

The main thing we wanted to see was Floors Castle.  It's not really a castle, but more of a manor house.  If you saw the movie Greystoke, The Legend of Tarzan, it was filmed here.  It's very impressive from the outside.

But even more impressive to me were the grounds on which the castle is situated.

Unfortunately, we couldn't take any pictures inside the castle.  It has an American connection in that the 7th Duke of Roxbourghe married an American woman who had a lot of money and not only added onto the palace, but also bought a lot of Louis XVI furniture which is still in the house.

When we got back to Jedburgh, we still have some daylight left, so we quickly toured the Jedburgh Abbey.  The Abbey is in ruins, but there were several interesting exhibits about what life was like as a monk.  What got to me is that they got up at 2:30 AM, and went to bed at 6:30 PM.  Not the life for me!

As you can see, it's not exactly in the best of shape.  But then who needs a roof or walls?

Then it was back to the B&B to get ready for another day of adventure.  

Sheep, Goats, Cows, Chickens and a Really Big Wall

We woke up to an overcast day, so we decided to drive around the Lake District.  Our host gave us a tour bus brochure that had their route, so off we went.  Unfortunately, since there appear to be only 3 street signs in England (and they're all in London) it took us quite a while (most of it on what appeared to me to be goat paths, and for small goats at that) to get on the correct road.  But along the way we were treated to some magnificent scenery.

Plus we got to get up close and personal with some goats

and sheep

This one appeared to us to be a regular sized sheep, wearing a very large brown overcoat.  Look how small his head appears in relation to his body.  Clearly a pinhead!  

Now you have to picture this: it's 50 degrees, cloudy, drizzly and extremely windy.  And what do we see but a group of back-packers!! 

The only thing I'd be packing would be a heater!

We kept trying to get a picture of this kid with her mother, but every time we got close, they ran away.  I guess this isn't the petting zoo after all.

And this brings up the age old question, Why did the chicken cross the road?

And then there was this rooster, who stood in the middle of the road, even when I pulled the car up to within inches of him.  I'm quite sure if I could understand rooster talk, it would have been, "Hey mate!  This is my road, find your own."

Given how much it had been raining, there were "waterfalls" galore.  It reminded us of Hawaii where you see these all the time on the rainy side of the islands.

We passed this chapel along the way, so I stopped in the middle of the road for Susan to take pictures (it's not like we were on a super-highway).

This sign should be on 80% of the roads we've traveled on in England!

Then we headed to Hadrian's Wall, a wall built by the Romans to keep the northern tribes from attacking their lands to the south.  On the way we ran into a cow traffic jam.

Luckily they weren't quite as stubborn as the rooster, when you pulled  the car up to them they politely moved out of the way.  I'm not sure I could have talked Susan into getting out of the car to shoo them away like she did the rooster.

When we first got to the Homestead Roman fort on Hadrian's Wall, the wind was howling and it was raining and it was COLD, so we decided that discretion was the better part of valor and went to have lunch first.  After lots of tea and coffee to warm up, we came back and at least the rain had stopped, so we soldiered on.  However, can you tell I was still a little cold?

But after a 10 minute walk up a steep hill, it warmed up enough to at least lose the hood.

There's not much left of the fort itself, and we didn't walk down to the wall (it was still cold) but you can get an idea of the scale of it by the people in the picture.  When the romans built it, it ran all across the island and had forts and watchtowers ever mile or so.

After leaving the Wall, we headed to Durham and our next B&B.  

If This is Wednesday, It Must Be Keswick

The weather has gone from chilly to very chilly with the temperature varying from around 50-60 degrees Fahrenheit, with strong wind at times and rain.   But we haven't let a little thing such as being cold deter us from our adventures.  Dan and I are bundling up with almost everything we have that is warm.   If latitude has anything to do with it, the area we are around is about 54 degrees north and Juneau, Alaska is 56.  

We left Cambridge for a four hour drive to Skipton in the northwest of England, on the west side of the Yorkshire Dales, almost in Scotland.   Our destination was  a very well preserved Norman castle which was originally built in 1090.  

Having been to Ireland before, I could have sworn I was there again with the rolling hills as green as the emerald isle, patchwork stone fences, old farms, cows, and sheep along the roads as we rode along in the rain.   Again, there was no place to stop for a picture, so I'll give you directions, if you're interested. 

Dan and I thought that Skipton was well worth the time it took to get there as it has survived basically unaltered since it was last modernized by Lady Anne almost 300 years ago.

    Everyone huddled under umbrellas

When first entering the grounds, we were overwhelmed by the size of the massive drum towers which were added on in 1310 by new owner, Robert Clifford, who had been given the property by Edward II. 

 

 

 

These drum towers, with a wall thickness of over twelve feet were built to fortify and protect from the invading Scots to the north.

Lady Anne Clifford, whose family was still in possession of the castle in the 1500s, planted this still thriving Yew tree in the courtyard to mark its restoration which began in 1559.

 

Arrow hole

Dan Deep Down in the Dark Dungeon

The well placed windows in the interior allowed great views of the courtyard

(or from the courtyard inside) 

the guard gate surrounding the castle,

   and of the town below.

We couldn't believe the size of the rooms, including the great hall and one of the fireplaces which was big enough to fit me.

Skipton castle has its own chapel as well.  Obviously, it's been a long time since it was used.

After our tour of the castle, we made our way through the sea of umbrellas in the town of Skipton to our three hour drive to our B & B at Keswick where it was colder yet. 

Cambridge

As we took to the streets of Cambridge, we were looking forward to finally getting to see the inside of one of the colleges.  First we headed off to Christ College, and when we got there it was closed!  We talked to the student at the gate and he said that they were preparing for the May Ball (I wanted to ask why the May Ball was in June, but thought that might be rude).  We asked if the other colleges would be closed, and he said that he thought some of them would be.  As it turns out all of them were.  So we may be the only tourists ever to visit Oxford and Cambridge and never see the inside of a college (and not even a tee shirt from here).  We did get pictures of the outsides of several of them.

But the weather was nice so we decided to go punting on the River Cam.  Our "punter" was Toby, 23 years old, graduating from Cambridge, but didn't really know what he wanted to do.  In his words, "right now I just want to relax and have fun".  Wise words.

There was one other group in the boat with us, and they were Americans as well.  We told them that we were from Scottsdale, Arizona and the woman in pink said she was from .... Memphis!  Bartlett actually.  Such a small world.

There were lots of punts on the river, but last night as part of the May Ball they had fireworks by the river and Toby said the river was totally jammed with punts.  He said you could have walked from one side of the river to the other without ever getting your feet wet.  We had heard some booming last night at the B&B and didn't know what it was.  Toby said that some of the May Ball parties cost as much at 200 pounds ($400) per person to attend, and that they were all at least black tie, and some were white tie (which means tails).

One of the things that I wanted to see was the chapel at King's College.  Here it is from the river.

If this is a chapel, one could only imagine what they think a cathedral would be.

Then at the point where the punt turned around, there were two guys fly fishing in the middle of the river.

After having punted down the river, I don't think I'd eat anything that came out of it.

Then we passed by this pub.

which is where Pink Floyd played their first gig.

After that we headed back to the room to do some laundry, catch up on these blogs and plan out the last part of our trip where we're making some changes.  It looks like we might go to Interlaken in Switzerland and go up on the Jungfrau.  If we do, be prepared for some incredible pictures!      

Lavenham - A Tudor Village

Lavenham, a small villiage on the way from Oxford to Cambridge, has over 350 house built in the 1300 and 1400's.  The first one we stopped at was an art gallery called "The Crooked House".  I wonder how they came up with that name?

We saw several houses in town with this problem.  It's not clear to me whether they were ever built on the plumb.

Then we had lunch at "The Swan".  You find lots of these in England.  Here all the swans are the property of the Queen.  But we did find out in Cambridge that there are three places in England where they are allowed to eat swan (I can still hear Susan gasping).  One of which was in Cambridge.

We found a public footpath that took off through a very pastoral setting.

To the top of the ridge for a view of the village, plus what appeared to be a WWII vintage airplane heading to the airport (where American GI's were stationed in WWII.  In the pub at The Swan there were walls with signatures of the GI's who had been stationed there).

And then it was back down the hill to the village.

As we were walking down a random street, we came upon this garden in someone's back yard.  The English do love their flowers.

We visited the Guild Hall (or gild hall as they spelled it back then) which had a very interesting exhibit starting with the prehistoric inhabitants over 100,000 years ago up to the present.  Lavenham was a very prosperous wool town, at one point the 14th richest town in England.  Of course now the most important industry is tourism.

There was another place nearby, Melford Hall, an Elizabethan manor house.  However after driving around on cow tracks for about 15 minutes, we decided to give up and just move on to Cambridge.  Looks like it would have been interesting to see, but maybe next time.