Jun 15, 2011 - Scotland, the Sinclair's & York

I was up bright and early to catch the ferry to Orkney. The journey out was uneventful but coming back was a different matter as a storm had started to brew so it was a very bumpy ride home. Once on Orkney we boarded our coach for the drive across the Churchill Barriers that link 3 of the many islands to the Mainland. They are named after Churchill as they were built during WWII to protect the British fleet anchored in Scapa Flow. In 1939 before the barrier was complete a German submarine sneaked into Scapa Flow with orders to destroy the...

May 25, 2011 - Air museum and York

Today a visit to the York Air Museum – a massive museum on an old world war airfield. Supposed to be about 40 aircraft on display. Quite impressive. Also a lot of information on the bomber commands and their success (or lack of) during the Second World War. Certainly enough of interest to keep us busy for more than three hours. Then for a quick trip into the city of York. Initial impressions a bit untidy but some of the old cobbled streets quite quaint and filled with upmarket shops. Not impressed at there being a charge on viewing the...

May 10, 2011 - York - One Fine Town

As I rest from a long bike ride through the Scottish countryside I thought I would provide an update on York, England. We spent two days in York sleeping in the very nice Avondale B&B. York is a very nice city with a huge Minster, postcard perfect downtown, a wall around the city and a picturesque river. We took a walking tour and learned all about the history starting as a Roman garrison through the Saxons, Vikings, Normans, the Civil war, blah, blah blah. The Minster is amazing and apparently the stained glass windows make up half of all...

Jan 22, 2011 - Graduation 2011

Hello Everyone: Well, it's finally graduation day :)! So far it has been a nice trip and I have enjoyed walking the streets of York again, particularly with my family. Unfortunately, I think we over did it with walking on our first full day here -- walked about 6 hours -- maybe just a little to long. I went just a little overboard showing my family all the sites. We ended up taking the bus most of the next day. Too many aching muscles. For this blog post I want to give you a taste of the graduation activities through pictures. Enjoy! God...

Nov 4, 2010 - York

YORK Our hotel decision was whether to stay in the heart of the historic walled center of town at the Hilton or about a mile away at the Marriott. Both were lovely hotels, but we chose the Marriott for the spaciousness of the room we chose and the incredibly beautiful view of the York Racecourse directly out of our window. Besides, we love to walk for both enjoyment and health reasons and this gave us the necessity of at least a two mile walk to the center of town and back as there is very little parking available there. Fortunately, the...

Sep 22, 2010 - Where's Helperby?

Chesterfield was a comfortable place to catch up on sleep. I had another gigantic English breakfast then loaded my still-wet laundry into the Ford Focus,taking advantage of every available surface for drying. Judging by the looks I was getting I gather the English don't commonly dry three pairs of underwear in their back windows while traveling 70 mph north on the M1 through Leeds. I found my way to a parking lot outside the medieval city wall in York and then walked up the river to York Minster, where I took a two hour tour. It involved a...

Sep 20, 2010 - York Minster, North Yorkshire Moors, Barnard Castle & Gamblesby

We drove out of Barkston Ash and headed through Yorkshire on our way to Gamblesby. We spent the morning in York marvelling at the beauty of York Minster and the Tower before wandering through the streets of the old town. Some of the lath and plaster buildings lean so far over you cant believe they are still standing. The upper floors often slope away so that anything dropped always ends up in the corner. Hundreds of years ago, whilst being persecuted by the locals, a group of Jews barricaded themselves inside the Tower and committed...

Sep 20, 2010 - The York Minster

This morning we were up early and forgot that we had to get our suitcases out at 7am, and put them out at 7:40am instead. They made their way onto the bus, though. For breakfast I didn’t feel like anything heavy so I stuck to toast, croissants and fruit. We paid for our internet bill at the counter and realised as we were walking towards the bus that we were the last ones to board, and that the bus was waiting for us. I don’t think we were late, though. Everyone was pretty quiet on the bus, probably due to the late night the night before....

Sep 18, 2010 - Bristol to Wetherby

Another Early morning, Headed to Liverpoole, the home of the Beetles!! The depity PM was there and so there were problems with parking. Had lunch at the beetles museum and did a bit of shopping. We had a beetles tour was great adn i got a photo at Penny Lane! Next we were off to York, Stopped at Cliffords tower, has a facanatig history, 150 jewish ppl starved themselfs rather then face the angry mob outside. walked down the shambles, where many a movie has been filmed, Harry Potter...... Then the York Minster, another beautiful church. had...

Aug 7, 2010 - The 4th of July and Bath, England

Hello Everyone, Sorry for the delay in posting, have been extremely busy with my dissertation. I am progressing fairly well, but I am looking forward to completing it very soon. Earlier last month of course we celebrated the 4th of July. Although it was kind of weird celebrating in England, everyone enjoyed themselves and had fun learning more about U.S. history and culture. A friend and I were able to travel to Bath last week and Lacock (a National Trust village) where Pride and Prejudice, Cranford, and a few other period movies have been...

May 6, 2010 - Day 22 - Heading south to York

Thanks to the chocolate croissants that are part of the breakfast at this particular hotel chain we managed to be packed up and heading off by about 10am today. The kids are addicted to the chocolate croissants but missed out yesterday as we were up too late and by the time we got to breakfast there were none left. Lewis and Bella were up and dressed bright and early this morning ready to load their plates and managed to get their fill before we headed off. I was sad to leave Scotland as I really enjoyed it and there is so much more that we...

Apr 21, 2010 - Back Home Again

Wednesday 21st April – Home one week later Well we were up early this morning and having a cup of tea... not on the balcony because sailing up the estuary towards Southampton was freezing.. welcome back to Britain. We had been awake early, and packed our hand luggage. Going for our breakfast before 7a.m. we felt quite excited at the prospect of meeting the family. Elvis, had brought us the procedure for disembarkation, including priority cards for 8.30a.m. We proceeded to the lounge, where we collected a newspaper – what luxury! We chatted...