EIS –Coventry to Newcastle (Day 5)

EIS –Coventry to Newcastle (Day 5)

(8/22/2010) We were able to sleep in a little longer this morning since we did not leave until 9:00am. By the way, our rooms were fantastic, quite spacious. And as I mentioned in yesterday’s blog, as I plugged in my power converter, we lost power to the room. Not only ours but the room next to us lost power also. Fried my power converter, smoke and everything and it didn’t seem to work anymore. We had to get new rooms because the hotel management couldn’t get the power back on. OMG, where are the circuit breakers?

As we prepared to leave, according to everyone in the area and our guide, the forecast for today’s weather, perfect which I take is an unusual occurrence. In any case, the skies are clear and temperatures comfortable as we head to York and then Newcastle.

Leaving the city, the country side becomes farmland growing wheat, barley and hay, with the occasional field of grazing sheep and cows. There are also a number of power plants with large cooling towers. The tour guide tells us that these are coal and oil burning plants and not nuclear plants. In any case, there are quite a few of them in this area.

We passed the once mighty Sherwood Forest, home of the legendary Robin Hood, but it being relatively small, it looked similar to several other sections of woods we past. We did not stop and if you missed the sign mentioning Sherwood Forest, you missed it. Anyway, we continue on our way to the city of York without any Robin Hood sightings.

We arrive at York, disembark and head off with Gordon (our tour guide) to the old section of town. Gordon pointed out the York Minster, although it is so large you couldn’t miss it if you wanted to. Having stopped in front of York Minster, you could see the detail of the huge cathedral. The spires, gargoyles, reliefs are all impressive. And as mentioned, it is the largest in England.

Just outside of the Minster is a bronze replica of the old town including the Minster and streets and buildings. Judging by the scale, I’d say the Minster is quite large.

Gordon also pointed out several directions to famous locations including the birth place of Guy Fawkes. Guy Fawkes is the man who tried to blow up Parliament with gunpowder. He was caught and hung in 1606. Now a day of celebration, Guy Fawkes Day commemorates the failed attempt.  (You can see the house he was born in the alley behind Carmen, yes she's in there some where find her, to the far right in the the sigh half way up the building, is the building where he was born.)

We walked down narrow streets, devoid of vehicle traffic, since all of the streets are now pedestrian; we made our way to the Shambles. Here is where the term “looks like a shambles” comes from. In the old times, this street housed the butchers and such and the blood and such was a mess and ran down the street.

Our tour guide then took his leave and we were on our own. Before Carmen and I walked all over this section of town, we stopped in a bakery for a Cornish chicken pie. Not bad. We were hungry since it was about 12:30 and the bakery was right in front of us. As we ate, a street actor was preparing for his show, but we finished eating before he started so we left; we had touring to do.

We walked all around the maze of streets in this old section of town. The streets in this area are very narrow and many of the building still had to old look to them. Many of these buildings date back to the 1500’s and 1600’s, but most do not look like old ancient dwellings you would expect.

We walked around for a couple of hours and entered a number of shops, chocolate and bakery mostly. We even bought some chocolates at one of them. Mmm chocolates filled with caramel, strawberry, baileys and truffles (this one just for Bob) just to snack on mind you. Of course, we did not buy chocolates at every shop we stopped in, but we did get a brownie at a difference store.

We walked around some more and with time running out headed back towards the bus. We did stop to take more pictures of the inside of the York Minster and also the Catholic Church just down the road.

We climbed atop the Roman fortress wall and walked a short distance (time was getting short). But, looking back towards the direction we came, we had a great view of the York Minster. Quite impressive, climbing high over all other buildings in the area the cathedral commands a striking view.

We returned to the bus, on time I might add, and we proceeded to our next stop. In this, case Newcastle where we will stay overnight.

Until later, Bob and Carmen – EIS.