(this narrative began from when I first landed in London on September 3, 2016)
Monday
September 26, 2016:
Today, we had to wake up early (for me, 6:15 am),
have breakfast at 7:00 am, and leave Edinburgh, Scotland at 8:00 am. We are headed ultimately toward York,
England. John Hood, our tour director,
has a walking type of tour planned for the city of York. I really would have liked to see York in more
detail other than from our bus, but I was way too tired from a sketchy night’s
sleep last night. Oh well! Story of my life! So, I told him I wasn’t going on the tour and
he pretended to be hurt.
Before we got to York, however, our first stop was
at Floors Castle, the largest inhabited castle in Scotland. Located in Jedburgh, Scotland, the Duke and Duchess
of Roxburghe (not Royals, real blue-bloods), and their extended family inhabit
the entire west wing of this gigantic castle.
Of course, that’s not the part we saw.
We were taken through the part that is only for tourists and displays
the beautiful antique furniture, tapestries, and paintings belonging to this
very rich family (I can’t remember their family name). There are many other antiquities as well that
belong to this family. Of all the
castles we have seen on this tour so far, this one appealed to me the most and
that’s because it has a lived-in feel; that is, it smells, feels, and looks
lived in. The other castles we saw
before all had this musty smell and drafty feel – not the kind of place you’d
want to live in at all. This castle is a
place I, personally, wouldn’t mind moving into if I had the money to afford it
and it was offered to me for that purpose.
I loved it.
The next stop we made was a very brief stop at the
Scottish-English border to take a few pictures.
A bagpiper was there, in full regalia, playing his bagpipes and, of
course, we all took pictures of him. He also
had some stuff on sale displayed from his vehicle and, on the honour system,
you were expected to select your stuff (souvenirs) and pay for them in cash. So, I selected some items and paid twenty
pounds for them. This border crossing
was in the middle of the Scottish Highlands on top of a lonely, grassy hill. We were only there for a few minutes.
The next stop we made was for a coffee / tea break
at a roadside café just off the main highway in England. It’s not meant to be a tourist stop except to
get some brief refreshments and carry on with where you’re going. Forty-five minutes later, we left this café
and proceeded toward York, England.
At around 3:00 pm, we finally arrived at our hotel,
the Novotel (York Centre) for an overnight stay. What I really like about my hotel room here
is that it’s relatively large! My last
two hotel rooms were very small, just large enough for me to move around
in. This one has a lot more room, thank
God! I’ve learned to appreciate more
space whenever it’s available in the hotels of Great Britain. If there’s anything I’ve noticed that’s
different about Great Britain from Canada is that, in general, the houses and
buildings are much closer together, and the streets are much narrower and take
up a lot less room. I’m sure I could get
used to that fact, given time, but there is no additional time on this
tour. We’re almost at the end of it. Still, I love Great Britain, all of it, and
if I get the chance to visit some part of it again, I definitely will!
Tomorrow morning, we are scheduled to wake up early
again (for me, 6:15 am), have breakfast at 7:00 am, and leave York and head
first for Coventry, then Stratford-upon-Avon, England at 8:00 am. After tomorrow night in Stratford-upon-Avon,
we will be heading toward London again. That
will be our ultimate destination and our tour will end three days from now, on
September 29th. It’s been a
terrific tour, with terrific travel companions (all forty-two of them,
including John Hood, and Joe Brenan, our driver), and I will never forget the
time we’ve spent together touring Great Britain in detail!
copyright 2016 - Anne Shier
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