Edinburgh/York

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Travelling day from Edinburgh to York, called in at a shopping centre on our way south for some essentials before heading to Selkirk in search of some tartan for Rylies kilt.

Selkirk seems to be a town that spins tartan and deals in fabrics of all sorts. We found the address we were looking for only for it to be a large tin shed all closed up in an industrial area of town. Tried ringing the phone number that we had been given but it just kept cancelling out, obviously there is an area code we arent using and we don't know it. On the way past we had spotted another fabric barn type place with a cafe so stopped in for lunch and a look around, they did have tartans but none with the colours we needed. Asked one of the young girls who appeared quite knowledgeable about Dalgleshes who we had been looking for, she went away to find out any info and found they were by appointment only....of course that wasn't going to work for us so that was the end of that.

Carried on our way until I spotted a little shop in the middle of nowhere which said The Celtic Gold Jeweller, well every word was a magnet, would have been rude not to stop! It was a family business where mum and dad ran the shop and son in law was the designer and jeweller. He had some really lovely jewellery everything with a story behind it, some of it obviously way out of my league but I found a couple of nice pieces I could consider and purchased a beautiful silver and rose gold St Ninians (or presbyterian) cross, which is a cross with the circle of light around it. Stephen meanwhile starting chatting to the older gentleman who was running the shop, who was a published author and a very interesting man. He told him about a church a few villages away where if he actually existed would be the place that King Arthur's head would be buried. He gave us vague directions and sent us on our way.

Whilst looking for this church we found another beautiful old gothic church and stopped to take some pics, couldn't get inside but the outside was just beautiful. Carried on and saw a little sign pointing down a side road which simply said church, after shooting past it we had to do a U turn, took the turn and sure enough about a mile down this little lane was a truly ancient church, there was an old covered notice board outside with an A4 sheet of paper telling the story of the church and the relationship to Merlin and Arthur. The churchyard was full of oversize very very old gravestones which in themselves were a reason to stop. Spent about 3/4 hour just wandering around taking photos and reading the gravestones, the only disturbance being two massive military helicopters screaming past just above the level of the trees giving us the fright of our lives.

Our next stop was a mill town where we watched them knitting up cashmere garments on huge great knitting machines, before buying a couple of beautifully soft cashmere scarfs.

Eventually arrived in York around 7pm and checked into our hotel and what a hotel it was. I remember thinking all those months ago when we booked it that I wanted something close to the attractions and as it was going to be nearly our last hotel I would like somewhere nice. After searching through all the hotel sites like booking.com etc I picked a few hotels and checked out their websites, this one gave me a really good book and pay early for bed and breakfast. This hotel was 5 star, there were doormen in beautiful old posh suits, and a very grand entranceway. We were given a luxury upgrade and our room was massive, with a massive bathroom, entranceway all very grand.

Decided as would be easiest to eat at the hotel that night, so booked in there. It was an English version of tapas was ok but got to say the spanish do it way better.

Next day after a very full breakfast we walked down the road to Yorkminster and spent an hour or so having a look through yet another beautiful cathedral. Spent another half hour in search of an Atm with no success and found ourselves an ice cream, gave up on the Atm and just went for a walk exploring all the little shops in the little narrow streets, particularly interesting was the shambles with its very crooked and higgledy piggledy shops. Accidentally found the Atm, then found Jorvick the Viking experience. I would like to say it was awesome, but let's settle for ..... it was alright. They have tried really hard, with a theme park style car travelling through 'the village' but was probably more relevant to 8-12 year olds or family groups.

We stopped next at a cafe for lunch, Stephens pick...enough said!

We then visited the train museum, if you love trains this is the place for you, those of us who have been on and off trains for the last 8 weeks it was a bit ...ok , nice but we are over it.

Returned to the hotel, had a swim and spa in the hotel pools, had time to do the Edinburgh blog ....weren't you lucky ...before heading to a little pub round the corner for dinner. A walk along the city walls and home to bed after a fairly full day. Would happily spend more time in York in the future if the opportunity presented itself as it is a beautiful city and we didn't even skim the surface of the available tourist attractions.

I had booked in for a pedicure in the morning so I had a lovely relaxing morning giving my poor aching feet a treat while Stephen went and had a look at the museum, which he really enjoyed, both of us happy with our morning activities we hit the motorways for what the GPS said was just over a 3 hour drive.....5 1/2 hours later we arrived in Worcester to have tea with his aunt, very weary and sick of the sight of the motorway!

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Photos

York
Stephen with Percy