Sara has posted she wants all to know

Sara and I made it home today. Sara put up a post about Gay Paree, so check her blog if it isn't showing up. I still need to blog about our last days in England and I will do so when I recover from my most harrowing experience almost ever. Talk about LOSER!

Another Abbey, Another Day in England.

We started the morning in Edinburgh and drove south toward the Tweed Valley and Abbotsford, which is the name of Sir Walter Scott’s home. He lived in both Edinburgh and at Abbotsford.

Above is the Victorian monument that was erected in honor of Sir Walter Scott in Edinburgh.  Our hotel was just across the street from it and I actually took this picture from out hotel room window.   I also took this one below of the Edinburgh Castle, up on the very top of that volcanic hill.

But I digress.  Back to the Tweed Valley and Sir Walter Scoot.  The Tweed valley is named after the river Tweed from which the woolen fabric gets its name. It runs along the back of his estate (the river, not the fabric ), and can be seen from the windows of his home. It was a beautiful setting and I would live there too, if I could. As we were going along we got some good history on Sir Walter Scott, the man who did so much to romaticise and popularize all things Scottish. Scott chose this area because it was so beautiful along the river.

He bought the place after he became famous and could afford to tear down the farmhouse there and build a new home.

A funny thing about Scott, he was a collector of all things, especially if they had any historical importance. He wrote his poems first and was enormously popular but then when poetry became not so important, he decided to write a novel and wrote the historical novel, Waverley, and again was very popular as a novel writer too. Below are pictures of his hall with crazy collected stuff from everywhere.

One of the beautiful windows in the home.

 A picture of the ceiling in his main library.

 A clock that was owned by Marie Antoinette above a beautiful fireplace.

The tile inside the fireplace.

 This was the drawing room and had handpainted Chinese wallpaper.  Original from the 1820's.

 This is the front door.  Sorry it isn't a better picture.

A beautiful china serving set.in the dining room.  By the way, Scott died in his dining room.  He was so sick before he died, he had his bed carried down to the dining roon and stayed there until he died.  He had a perfect view of  the river below the house and he wanted to see it everyday before his death.

Another beautiful set of china was in this pattern.
Now for pictures of the beautiful gardens and the rhododendron bushes that were gigantic and surrounding his home.

Then we left Abbotsford and headed south toward Jedburgh and then Newcastle. Newcastle was built on coal. Coal was king and everyone in England needed coal to heat their homes and use for engines and factories, especially the textile mills. Well, everything really. So that’s what was important about Newcastle. Just below Newcastle we stopped at Durham for lunch, which is the place, Sara informed me, from which our great-grandmother and the Mitchell family came. So that was cool. We didn’t see much because we were busy eating and then were immediately on the road again, but it was good to think about.

As we traveled south again we were told to look out toward the east and we would see the York Moors. They were afar off to the left and I could just barely make them out, so I didn’t get any pictures of the famous moors where the Bronte sisters lived. On the east were the York Dells, which were also far off and so once again – no pictures of the dells. Then we were headed toward the city of York and got a good history lesson on that city as well. York is where we are staying tonight and we got to go in the original city walls and see the sights there.

York is surrounded by a complete city wall. The only city in England that has a complete wall midievel wall. I was excited because I particularly wanted to see the shambles which I have seen before in photographs of England. The church there is called the Yorkminster Abbey. When a church has minster in the name, that means that it was a church used for teaching. Young men would go to that church to learn how to become monks and priests and learn about the church. This church took over two hundred years to complete and it has beautiful stained glass windows in it that rival any in France.

 We didn't go inside because we had to pay.  All of these old churches and cathedrals expext you to pay for going inside, unlike in Rome or in the US where you can visit for free.  It is because these churches here are not getting their members to come to church anymore, thus the church donations are down, consequently they have no money for the upkeep of the church, thus they have to charge tourists like me for my visit.  Aren't you glad you pay tithing?

We then walked off into the old city toward the area with very narrow streets called the shambles. On the way there, we found Betty’s, an amazing little shop selling sweet things for tea and farther along, another Betty’s which was a place where you could sit down and have tea as well as shop.

Sara bought one of th cute little cakes as in the picture above.  It was soooooo yummy!  Yellow sponge cake, raspberry jam, sweet buttery cream inside and on the outside some kind of delicious fondant, but not fondant.  It was much better than fondant, but it wasn't a frosting either.  I don't know, but it was heavenly.
Then we found the shambles and the streets were actually named “Shambles 1” and “Little Shambles.” There were really cute little shops there and funny houses atop. Notice that the houses almost touch in the middle of the street. They were so picturesque. There were sweet shops, leather shops, knitting shops, a roasting meat shop, numerous tea shops, everything you could imagine.

This one was not a sweet shop as I originally thought, I was lured across the street by these cute little cakes, and found out after I read the sign that they were in reality soaps. Cute enough to eat!
Then it was time to head to our bus, but we stopped by the York Museum Gardens.  Beautiful is all I can say.

It began to rain while we were in the garden, and we sat down on a little wooden bench.  After awhile we started to smell like old musty abbey smell, I think from the wood.  My camera batteries had given out at this point, and so I had to quit my photography.  We had a good day today, seeing some wonderful places and sights. 
We all ate together tonight in our hotel dining room.  I had sombrosa with salad, which was some kind of Indian turnover/empanada ee thing with field greens, Yorkshire pudding with beef, pototoes, carrots, and beans and a raspberry cheesecake for dessert.  The Yorkshire pudding was the best I've ever had - sorry Tenny and Lizzy.  But afterall, I am in York in Yorkshire England.  It's what they do best.  Laters!

We Made it to Scotland!

On Wednesday am we were in Chester and stayed there for most of the morning. Apparently, Chester started out as a very old Roman encampment so there are quite a lot of ancient things round about; as in walls, buildings, castle walls., etc. I'm getting to the point where I have heard so much information that I think my brain is saturated and it's not letting too much more in. We walked around a bit and saw the church which is only a little less old than the cathedral at Salisbury which was built in something like 1260. So that makes the church is Chester built around 1300? I don't really know for sure, I just know it is old.  I was walking around thinking of one of the books I read by Roberta Gellis, I can't remember the name but I know Chester was in it.  It was a pretty good book.  So now I may have to borrow it from Lizzy and read it again.


 

We went up on the old wall that was built around the original much smaller city. Surprisingly, there was still much of the wall left and they let us walk right on it. I can't imagine doing this in the US. That's the great thing about Europe, the are so good about letting you see and touch their old ruined parts. These are some of the pictures of the wall.

We walked around on this - it was up about two stories high.

Sara on the wall between two buildings.  When they started to run out of room in these old cities, they just started to go up higher. 

Above is a picture of the wall going across one of the main thoroughfares.  I think this was either water gate street or something like that.  The funny Victorian thing on top of the wall was put up in honor of, who else? Queen Victoria.  There are so many Victorian monstronsities all over these countries.  It's a shame how much they get in the way of all the old walls, buildings, etc.

Below is a picture of a Roman amphitheater, I think.

 and this is a Norman Arch ?  I really should have been paying better attention.

Below are pictures of the architecture in Chester.  There are a lot of very old buildings, but some are not as old and have been built to fit in.  I think this one below was 1660 something?

While we were waiting for the bus, Sara and I went hat shopping.  We wanted to get one of those cool fascinators like we saw so many women wearing at the Royal Wedding.  This is the inside of the hat shop.  There were hundred of hats!

So then we were off to the Lake District.  Yay!  I was thinking the Lake district would be very wide and open and different than it actually was.  There is actually only one lake in the Lake district and then many meres.  So, Windemere and Grasmere are towns that are situated on those lakes.  Mere means water.  You know mar in Spanish means sea.  I'm sure it is related.  The lakes are situated between and amongst fens.  Fens are not tall enough to be mountains, nor short enough to be hills, thus they are fens.  And the fens are all bald and rocky and rounded on top.  At the bottoms of these fens are the meres and the one lake, and it is the most beautiful area I have seen here in England.  I can see why everyone in England wants to visit there.  It was greener than green and just beautiful.  Inside I just kept thinking,"I can't believe I'm seeing this." 
Even though I think Utah and Idaho are beautiful and gorgeious and breath taking, this place is opposite to them and I love it.  It's kind of a yin yang thing.  We stopped in Grasmere for about one and a half hours for lunch and to see the village.  Wordsworth lived and died here,  Beatrix Potter moved here and wrote some of her little books from here.  The church graveyard is where Wordsworth is buried and Sara and I found his gravestone.  It is one of the most picturesque little villages ever.  I wish my pictures did it justice.

 This is a picture of Lake Windemere.

 This is a picture of the little stream that flows through Grasmere.

 This lovely arrangement was planted atop a fence ending.

The bridge over the stream.

 Below is the church and churchyard where Wordsworth was buried.  And then the gravestone of William Wordworth and his family.

We could smell the most amazing butter smell in the churchyard. So, we followed our noses and it led us to this quaint little Gingerbread shop.  Cute front window and little gate that led into it. 

Inside was this lady selling her wares.

Sara outside the shop glad we didn't purchase another sweet thing,.  I've been indulging a little too much.

Sorry this one is so blurry, but we were whizzing by as we left Grasmere.  Then we were off to see Scotland.  We climbed up and up and saw lots of stone fences.

Lots of sheep in the fields and on the hillside.

Lots of gorse on the fens.  That's the yellow brush plant on the side.

 Then we saw the Atlantic ocean to the left of us and turned to the northeast toward the other side of Scotland to get to Edinburgh.  That's the Atlantic out there.

 Then we came to a place that is very famous in Regency literature.  There was this wee beastie in a field next door.

 And some beautiful heather, which wasn't on the moor, thank you very much, Catherine and Heathcliff.

 Yes, we had arrived at Gretna Green and the village blacksmith's place of business.  Too bad I was here without Alan.  Maybe we could have renewed our vows. 

Very little and very touristy.  They were selling everything.  Then we were on our way to Edinburgh.  We finally got there about 5:30 and I will let Sara tell you about Edinburgh, since I've taken up way too much time.