Sunday, June 14 — Moving Day

Posted on June 14, 2026 by patricia emerson mitchell

Here we go again! Once we lazily got up and got cleaned up we packed. We won’t get breakfast until later: I just won’t pay so much for a B&B breakfast, no matter how good it is. I won’t even do the coffee in the room since it’s instant here … no thanks!

When it was time to leave Dan asked the young woman at the door if she could call a taxi: it’s really too far for us to walk with our roller bags. Would we have walked with packs? Hm. I’m not sure, but I think I would have been willing since it’s maybe a bit over a mile. But anyway, she called. The service they usually use was full, so she called another and we were told 5 to 10 minutes. At over 10 minutes we started to worry so he went back in to ask her about it. She called again, getting no answer. At that point Dan decided to do what we had originally planned and ordered an Uber.

He was shown that it would arrive quickly. At almost the same time both the taxi and the Uber arrived. We hopped in the Uber and let the young woman deal with the taxi driver since he was late and hadn’t responded to calls. Then on to the train station we went.

Having had no breakfast we had a small bite and some coffee. Neither were stellar, but it was no biggie.

I loved that LNER texted me to say not only what platform we were on but where to stand to get in to our car. I wish all companies did that!

We barely had to wait and in to the train we went. We had reserved seats and no one was in them. Sweet! We got situated and I enjoyed some of the scenery but also occasionally just shut my eyes.

After about two hours we arrived. Hello again, London! We got off the train and stood a bit figuring out how to get to the hotel.

I had one route, Dan had another. Me being pushy we went with my route. I was wrong. Dan’s way would have been a much shorter walk. Sigh. When will I learn to let him deal with directions?!

We checked in early and our room was ready, so that was nice. We are in a basement room, but it does have a window so we can watch people’s feet as they walk by. Not that we have the curtains open in any case. This must be a fairly new place as it’s in very good condition.

After sitting a bit we went out to explore the area, and get a bit to eat for lunch. Turned out the “bit” was more than I expected — I thought the pizza slices would be half the size they were. I told Dan we could have shared. He looked at me like I was nuts. Go figure! (Poor shot of where we ate below.)

Then we walked toward Kensington Park. We went in and ambled. We even did a “Sunday in the Park with George” photo. (To those who don’t know, Sondheim wrote a musical by that name and Dan’s first name is George.)

Dan heard music and eventually I did as well, so we went to listen to a brass band play. Memories of muni band (although there were no woodwinds)! I will try and post a video later: so far it just gets stuck near the start and won’t continue to load. (UPDATE: Loaded!)

We then ambled more, ending up at Royal Albert Hall. We have good memories of attending a couple of concerts there, but nothing is happening now that is of interest to us so never mind.

We walked through a flower garden area, but the flowers were mostly behind fences so I didn’t take a lot of photos.

This is our first warm day in eons, and the first one that caused us to stop for ice cream. Well, I wouldn’t have stopped, but someone to my right was sort of pushing me toward the ice cream truck and what was I to do? So ice cream was enjoyed.

From there we wound up at Kensington Palace. Not that we knew that’s where we were going … these random walks just happen!

Finally it was time for some dinner. I ordered a veggie burger and couldn’t come close to finishing. I should have just ordered an appetizer! When will I learn? Can you tell the difference between the veggie burger and the meat one?

Because we knew we had some things to figure out for the next few days we got back to our room and did some research. I also began to listen to some recordings I am to study. And yes, I finished this blog entry.

Stay tuned to find out what we opted for tomorrow!

Cheers!

Saturday, June 13

Posted on June 13, 2026 by patricia emerson mitchell

This was our only full day in York. We woke a tad slowly, having read that it was raining out. I finally looked out the window and saw that everything looked quite dry. Go figure!

When we were ready we went back to the gate we entered yesterday. We knew that the scone shop we wanted to visit (a memory from our first time here) opened at 10:00, so we had a bit of time to wander first.

The scones were, as remembered, quite delicious! Finger licking good, in fact. I’m so glad we were able to return!

We did walk through (in?) the Shambles. As charming as I’m sure it used to be, it’s primarily about Harry Potter and ghosts now and I fear it’s become the Disneyland of York. I wonder if that will eventually change.

Then more walking. We noticed some interestingly dressed people. We stopped to see what was going on. Turned out some Morris dancers were about to begin. There were a number of groups and I did videos of most. I think for now I’ll just attempt to get one to post. Maybe I’ll add others when I have a decent connection.

We walked back to York Minster to see if we could figure out where we were to enter for evensong and to ask someone there how early to arrive (last time we were here we arrived to late and sat in a different space where we could not see the choir and really couldn’t hear well either). The guide said 5:15 for the 5:30 service would work, but I did think that might be a bit incorrect. We decided we’d get there no later than 5:00.

From there we intended to try and get to the Train Museum so I plugged that in to my map. Turned out it was further than expected, but we still started out.

We reached a park and saw that something was going on. Turned out to be a 21 gun salute (with very loud canons — many people had earplugs in and, thankfully, Dan had some I could use and he plugged his ears) to celebrate the king’s birthday. Not that he was born now, mind you, but a man explained that while he had a winter birthday the weather was better now so this is when it is celebrated. It was quite the spectacle. Military were there, as well as a woman who might have been mayor, but the man said she could easily have been in some other position. Dan was mentioning that the woman and man looking militarily important went from group to group of soldiers and whatnot and chatted, and the man suggested they do that and he was a bit sarcastic about them all thinking very highly of themselves. It was pretty funny. He mentioned “all pomp and circumstance”. But hey, it was fun and he made a 30 minute drive to see it with his daughter! The park grounds were lovely, too.

Prior to chatting with him the band played a non-military piece you might recognize (or not) and that man and his young daughter danced along. It was quite cute!

From there we continued on the train museum trek, but again were sidetracked, thinking that perhaps going up and walking the Roman wall might be a better way to get there. Before going up that there were some lovely wildflowers. The sign explained that it was their small bit in trying to deal with global warming. Then up to walk the wall. And no, I really wasn’t scared. Amazing! (But there never was a huge drop off.)

When it was time to take stairs down we realized we were even further from the museum. Oops! At that point we decided we’d have to skip that after all and we went another direction.

Because I’d had something sweet for breakfast I felt a need for something savory. (My sugar levels go a bit crazy if I have something sweet in the morning.) We headed to the Blue Belle Pub, a place I’d read about and we’d looked at yesterday. They only serve pork pies, so that was what we had: when on trips like this I sometimes just have to give up my desire to not eat certain things. The pub was small and I enjoyed sitting there and resting my feet, having a half pint and a pie. We also cheered the Kennedy Center, having seen that it was finally back to what it should be called.

We then walked more and looked around for possible dinner spots (yes, right after our pies!). Our B&B owner had said we might have difficult finding a place to eat if we didn’t make reservations.

We started to really run out of steam. We had to get a cookie and coffee. Now please understand I didn’t want a cookie. It was a need. One must always pay attention to needs. I couldn’t even eat half of the cookie we were sharing. Dan helped with that.

Walking some more, I took a few more photos, including of some “cowboys”. Just sort of funny to see in York.

On our way back to the B&B we I saw some pink hatted women … most likely a hen party. We’ve seen a number of these as well as stag party groups. York must be the place to go.

When we got to the B&B I started this blog entry and then took a 5 minute snooze before we had to get back to York Minster. On the way there I felt something hit my head. Hm. Did someone throw something at me? I reach up to feel it … and … OH NO! It was a bird. Well, a “bird blessing”, if you will. And now my hand was blessed as well. I had tissues so Dan helped clean me up and said you couldn’t really see it any longer, Still, I went into a bathroom and got my hair wet and washed my hands thoroughly. I knew what I’d be doing when we got back to the B&B!

As we walked we saw another interesting group of people. No clue what it was all about.

We arrived a York Minster in plenty of time, and after waiting a bit we were let in. Eventually we were seated and we had great seats! The service was really wonderful, although I sometimes couldn’t understand what was being said and they don’t tell us who the composers of the works are, nor do we get the words in print, which I would have loved. No photography is allowed, so we could only look at the place and admire it. After the service a few people stuck around to hear the organ postlude, including us, which was fabulous as well. I’m so glad we could go this time. (Earlier today we had decided to skip the £20 per person fee to tour the place: we’ve seen so many cathedrals and I figured we might save the final tour for Westminster Cathedral — we have been there for evensong, but Dan has never seen the entire place.)

After evensong we went to dinner at Ye Olde Starre Inne. A tasty meal was enjoyed! Oh … and another napkin drop was recorded.

Finally it was back to the B&B.

First thing for me? A shower! I could finally stop worrying about my hair (I had avoided touching it at all, as you might imagine.) Then it was time to finish this entry. That always takes a long time due to slow loading photos and videos.

Tomorrow is our final moving day before we head back to the states. I’m sorry to see the trip end, but we can’t continue forever.

G’night!

Friday, June 12 — Moving Day

Posted on June 12, 2026 by patricia emerson mitchell

We lazily sat around for a bit after waking — and I woke much later than Dan: sleep wasn’t great last night and my watch said my sleep score was “ok” but that waking up several times “hurt my score”. Well yes, in fact, hacking away tends to wake a person up! (Yep, the cough decided to reappear. Thanks for nothing, Mr. Cough!)

When we did go out to find breakfast we simply walked across the street and headed to the corner and ate at a place called Wreck. I had the smashed avocado with poached egg on toast and Dan had the full Wreck breakfast. His was one gigantic breakfast! Needless to say, it will be a two meal day and I’m hoping the second meal (dinner) will be light.

We went to the hotel and, once again, I did a short video of the art across from the elevator. I had hope to see the swimmer and there she was!

Going back to our room we finished all the packing and had about 30 minutes to spare so we just sat around and did the things we do on our iPads.

Shortly before we left our room I remembered that my hotel key wasn’t out. I first opened my daypack, but then remembered it was in my purse that I had in the suitcase. At that point it was nearly noon, which was our checkout time, so I told Dan I’d pull it out at the desk. At the desk the woman said not to bother — they didn’t need that key. So never mind.

Then we walked to the train station. Now we know we could easily have walked from the train station to our hotel and avoided grumpy taxi driver! While we were seated Dan put his cap on me … I’m not sure I look quite as dapper as Dapper Dan!

We didn’t have to wait too long for our train, but we were definitely earlier than necessary. For PattyTime that is just fine! We stood in front of our coach’s door, but they kept them closed as they were cleaning.

While waiting for the doors to open so we could board a group of young school children walked by with very small suitcases. Hmm. Where might they be headed, and in which coach?

The doors opened and we boarded. And yes, those school kids were in our coach. I told Dan I just bet they were going to our location — I had seen one with a Harry Potter shirt.

At some point I realized the lock on my daypack was missing. I guess it fell on to the hotel bed when I was opening the bag to look for the key card and I didn’t notice. Fortunately I had an extra lock so that one went on. Overly cautious, maybe? But not really, when I read about luggage getting stolen and, besides, I’m married to Mr. Extra Cautious!

The train ride wasn’t spectacular: I found our seats a bit uncomfortable. The kids were noisy, but that’s what kids are like and that didn’t bother me. It was only a bit over two hours in any case. I did take a few from-the-train photos. Not thrilling, but hey, it kept me occupied.

And then we arrived. Hello York! We walked through the station, and then got into a taxi. He drove by Clifford’s Tower, which I remembered more from a TV show than from our last visit. (I was ill on that first visit, so we didn’t do as much as we’d have liked.)

We are staying in a B&B without purchasing the second B. I simply can’t see spending £17.50 each for breakfast. We don’t need that much food! I wish these places had the option to choose a smaller meal, as I’d happily pay for coffee and yogurt. But we’ll just find our breakfast on our own.

Our room is fine. It’s an older place, and there’s a bit of funkiness to it, but it’ll do! We met Durga, who runs this place with his wife, and he’s quite nice (and talkative).

When we were settled we headed out to the closest gate to go inside the walled part of the city, and we just ambled up the street. We are staying a bit further from the more charming part of the city center, but it’s merely a walk away.

We went down a small lane (I got a kick out of the name “WHIP-MA-WHOP-MA-GATE” … you can read about it in the photo below.)

More walking and we stopped so Dan could get water and we both had little snacks. The ginger cookies I had were so hard I had to be careful. I suppose they are intended to be dipped in tea or coffee …?

We walked more, and were also investigating dinner options. Eventually we settled on Guy Fawkes Inn, where we sat in the very back in an outdoor area. It was quite pleasant. And hey … just so you know … the color “olive green” fit our olives perfectly. (Yes, I’m sure you already know why olive green got its name, but yours truly is a bit slow ….!) I had duck and Dan had a steak pie which he said was delicious but very filling!

From there we walked back. Slowly, due to our full stomachs!

It wasn’t terribly late, but we were ready to put our feet up and relax!

Tomorrow we have a full day to explore, and we’ve yet to set our plans completely. The B&B owner did suggest we make dinner reservations because of the crowds, but we’ll see if manage that or if we just try and find a table for two somewhere. I’d prefer finding something that serves very light fare after tonight’s meal.

Goodnight for now!

9,304 steps, 3.60 miles, 2 flights climbed (What can I say? It was a train day!)

Our (Wet) Day in York

Posted on June 4, 2024 by patricia emerson mitchell

We had hoped — or at least I did! — that we left wet weather behind when we left Scotland, but today proved us (me?) wrong.

We spend a bit of time in our room: Dan had the coffee they provided and I splurged and had the cocoa. Sometimes one just has to do that, right?

Then it was out and about again. We ended up on a street very clearly tied to Harry Potter. We also had ~~tea~~ coffee and scones with clotted cream. Sorry, UK, we just aren’t much for tea although I occasionally give it a go.

I had mentioned the tiny alleyways to Dan, called Snickelways. We found a few, and that worked for us (there are a ton and we certainly didn’t need to find them all).

We then searched for the city wall. Hm. Found it, could barely walk it because it was closed shortly after we began, due to safety reasons. Ah well. At least we saw it!

This is out of order … but you don’t know that and it hardly matters, right?

With the rain we headed to an indoor restaurant for lunch. Nothing remarkable. Nothing bad. Just a small meal and a lemonade. (Hm. Lemonade in the rain? Well, it worked fine.)

At some point (maybe right after lunch) we went back to our room. I was tired and just needed a rest. Dan patiently put up with me!

From there it was a glass of something (wine for me, beer for Dan) in the lounge of our place, and finally we headed to evensong at York Minster.

WELL SHOOT!

By the time we arrived we were told we had to sit in the next room (sorry, I don’t know the terms for these places!). We stuck around, but I could barely follow what they were singing. So that was a disappointment. I guess I should have researched. But it was great to see the church — it’s quite a place! We weren’t allowed to take photos, though.

From there it was dinner time and we had a light dinner (pasta) nearby.

Then back to our place again, having passed by another building that was rather questionable … how does it stay standing, I wonder?!

Just a very short hop from our room to this view …

And “home” … for one more night.

The next five nights are elsewhere, and I can’t guarantee I’ll be able to blog with photos each night. Time will tell.

For now … nighty-night!

Hello England!

Posted on June 3, 2024 by patricia emerson mitchell

We hung out at our Edinburgh hotel for a time since our train didn’t leave until 1:00, but eventually it was time to call a taxi, since we had to check out by 11:00.

Goodbye Edinburgh!

Then we had the joy of navigating the train station. It’s a large one, and the first thing we needed to find was the lounge. It took us a while, but we did manage to get there. From there we went to track 9. That meant taking a lift up, and another down. We got into our first class seats, and could then relax. And eat. Food came with the tickets.

The train ride itself was just fine, but both of us are pretty tired at the moment so we mostly closed our eyes. Not sleeping … but trying to in any case.

And then we arrived in our next spot … York! We caught a taxi to our lodging …

No, not where we are staying … just a place on the way there.

… and while the room is tiny I’m happy to say it is a vast improvement over the Edinburgh place. Expedia gets some bad marks for what they touted as a decent place to stay. The smell of mildew really came through once the stuff they spray to try and hide it dissipated. The toilet didn’t always flush well. Twice there was no hot water for showers. And it was just generally in very poor condition. (I know, I know, first world problems and I should just deal!)

But now we are at Middletons Hotel, and while our room is “cozy” (that means tiny), it is just fine and we are here for two nights of cozy comfort.