Day 16 – York, England

Today we woke up early and drove to York. It took about 1.5 hours to get here from Durham. Durham was nice but full of “older” ladies dressed up for a night on the town. Basically they were acting like drunken idiots at 6:00 PM. Good times!

Anyhow, when we arrived in York we dropped off our Mercedes rental and Alex said goodbye to driving on the left forever… Until we return someday that is.

We hadn’t had wifi access in 24 hours so we had no idea how to find our B&B that we reserved. After about a 1/2 mile or so we found a Costa coffee shop and a nice young lady who helped us out by using her phone. We’ve found most people very willing to help out with directions and have been very thankful for them. All it takes is a very lost look on our faces and strangers come out of the woodworks to help us.

When we finally found our B&B we checked in to our lovely room and started out on the town.

First stop was the York Castle Museum.
A very well put together story of how people fought and lived during times of war in the 1940’s. There were rooms decorated as they would have looked back in the 20’s , 30’s, 40’s all through the more modern times like you might see today.

There was even a whole street decorated with shops and a horse carriage with sounds of thunder all about. Easy to imagine how it might have been back then with this set up.

After the museum we walked about the Shambles, a shopping district here in York. This is where we sit and drink our beer and write these posts.

The enormous church here is called York Minster. So large in fact that we couldn’t fit the whole church in our photos. The bells were chiming as we passed by, I was able to get the sounds on video. Quite an amazing sound to here from such a beautiful church.
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We spent quite a while today walking around the city and up onto the old city walls.
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Tonight we head out for a ghost walk tour about York. I’m excited but I don’t think Alex is as into it as me.

It’s 10:15 PM and we just finished our ghost walk. Our guide was pretty good. He knew lots of tales of haunted York. York is supposedly the most haunted city in Europe. His stories were good and he gave me a fright and a few others too. We lucked out with the weather, it was a bit rainy before the tour. We walked all around the town listening to stories of murders and hangings. There’s a bar called the Golden Fleece that was featured on Most Haunted, a tv show. York is in the Guinness Book as most haunted city.

The tour was £5, pretty worth it considering the length was over an hour. It was not cheesy like some others we heard were. All in all, a good time.

Day 17 – The Golden Fleece

I find stories of hauntings interesting. Whether the tales are far fetched or not I can’t say for sure.

Today we stepped into the Golden Fleece pub for a beer and a snack.
This pub is full of atmosphere. Lots of pictures and drawings of York and many, many ghosts encounters posted on the walls. The floor is slanted to the right and the tables are packed in tight. The light is dim and the door is creeky.

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This pub is considered the most haunted pub in England.

This excerpt is from the Golden Fleece Web Site:

“Possibly the most famous ghost is Geoff Monroe, a Canadian airman who was staying at the pub in room four when he died in 1945, by throwing himself or falling out of one of the windows. People staying in his former room have been frightend in the night by his figure, in full uniform, standing over them, his icy touch having woken them from their slumbers.
Customers have complained of bedclothes being removed, clothes had been taken off the rails and thrown on the floor, the sound of footsteps were frequently running across the passage ways and The Lady Peckett’s Dining room.
During a ghost hunt in 2002 a number of people including a (now former) skeptic, saw a man walking through the wall of the front of the bar, Dressing in late 17th century clothes, he walked of a wall adjoining Herbert’s House, across the corridor to the Shambles bar. The most chilling aspect of the sighting was that the ghost paused as he crossed the corridor and looked straight at the horrified ghost hunters.”
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Pretty crazy huh? While I didn’t encounter a ghost here, one that I know of anyway I did have a creepy feeling while I was alone in the restroom. I crossed my fingers hoping I wouldn’t get an icy touch or slap on the butt when I was in there. Definitely creepy, but a fantastic stop on this amazing journey we have had so far!

TOTAL STEPS WALKED 16,396
TOTAL MILES 6.46

Day 18 – London (AC)

Travel days are quite crazy. Not just the hustle and bustle of going from a place that you’ve just finally mastered to a new, unknown animal. At the end of the day, the place you left seems like a dream you just remember bits and pieces of.

We hopped on the train in York at 10:25 – which was a bit later than we’d like, but that express train to London was literally half price (£50 vs £100 each).

Once in London, there was a sense of “making it.” We purchased our London Passes (multi-attraction discount card) and Oyster Cards (tube/bus pre-loaded fares), then hopped on the Tube for a 15 minute ride to our hotel in the Westminster area.

20120918-212139.jpgAfter checking in, we shot out and like little ball beatings got sucked in by the magnets that are historical and iconic sights.

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Westminster Abbey.

I wasn’t supposed to take these and even feel a little guilty.

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We toured the Churchill War Rooms and Churchill Museum. Both are amazing exhibits. The history of WWII just never gets less staggering. This was just one piece of that time in history.

The museum was phenomenal. So many pieces of information, artifacts and interactive displays on the man’s life.

20120918-214410.jpgSeeing Big Ben was similar to The David or the Statue of Liberty. These are places you learn about from a young age. When you see them up close, they consume you. It’s hard to stop taking photos. You just stare at the detail, soaking in the fact that you’re actually seeing it.

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On the other side of the south bank, we poked around the London Eye. We bumped into an arcade that was part of our London Pass. £3 in free tokens each was enough for us to play a giant PacMan game and some air (hockey) soccer.

I won three games in a row. I played the fourth left-handed. After taking a 4-2 lead, Kari tied it up 4-4. Then I went up 6-4. She again tied it up. The machine’s air turned off and we had to play the final point without air. Lame. Left-handed and without air, I finally lost. May as well have used my foot!

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And one more pic of Big Ben!

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TOTAL STEPS WALKED 17,954
TOTAL MILES 7.08