Today was the York to Norwich, Norfolk leg of the trip, and the highlight of the day was visiting Belton House, the house used for much of the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice (and yes, I did get a pic of Mr. Darcy’s desk and chair. Sadly, Mr. Darcy wasn’t to be seen anywhere). As you can imagine, I took lots of pics here, firstly because it was one of the few mansions where you could take pics inside, and secondly because it was bloody amazing!). So, here we go:

This urn was just in the courtyard entrance:

The grand entrance on the south side of the house leads into a marble hall, which in turn leads into a formal procession of rooms, including the saloon, which is the third pic:

the mansion private chapel area:

a 17th century Italian cabinet that is worth well over a million pounds:

the blue bedroom and Mr. Darcy’s desk!

The hallway staircase and chandelier:

The library

the Queen’s bedroom, so called because Queen Adelaide used to regularly visit

The chinese bedroom

some of the ceilings in this place were amazing. Here’s one:

another staircase, with an amazing light:

The red drawing room:

and finally, the kitchen:

Outside pics, including a couple from the estate’s church:

We also stopped at briefly at Stamford, yet another pretty town we didn’t have enough time in. Here’s some pics:

this is the hospital of William Browne Merchant that was built circa 1483, Nowadays it seems to be an old peoples home

Tomorrow we explore Norfolk!

Today, sadly, we said goodbye to Edinburgh and headed for York, in Yorkshire. We did a brief photo stop at the border, and I actually managed to get a pic with a real live piper!

and here’s yet another pic of heather on the hills:

Our first stop was Durham, which is a very old city set on the bend of a river. We headed for Durham castle and Cathedral, but sadly, the bloody castle was closed. The Norman built Cathedral (or as some of the guys are starting to call them, ABC’s – another bloody church) was open. As is the case for most of these cathedrals, it was stunning. The church door had a massive knocker–apparently all sorts of criminals used to find refuge here by knocking on the door, and as long as they stayed within the church they couldn’t be arrested.

You could actually climb the tower in this one—although it was 383 steps or something ridiculous like that. Two of us did climb it, and it was worth the effort—here’s a couple of pics taken from the stop:

and here’s the cloisters at the cathedral:

We arrived at the hotel in York, and basically dumped our bags to go on a walking tour of the city. Which didn’t stop me from taking some shots of our amazing hotel:

The walking tour took us to the York Minster (ABC ), which I think is one of the biggest yet. The stained glass here and the ceiling were features:

Then we had a look around the city, on our way to the Shambles, one of the oldest streets in the city (It’s medieval, I think).

some of the other houses were cute (and again, straightness was not always a feature)

Then it was off to see York’s walls, which are apparently considered the finest medieval walls in Europe. They were pretty damn impressive (although I only have 1 shot of them on this camera):

We also saw the ruins of an old abby (the name of which escapes me)

Then it was dinner time—beef and Yorkshire pud in Yorkshire!–before we took the long way home, looking at more of the magnificent buildings:

Okay, after much frustration and cursing, I downloaded a photo editing program to crunch the size of the photos to see if that made any difference to uploading them. It apparently has, although it’s still taken me over an hour to upload these pics. So frustration continues–and it also means that I’m now way behind on updates again. But onto the blog…

The 1st of September started with a magnificent Scottish sunrise, as seen in the following pics taken from my bedroom window. I could see the sea!

A Scottish cabbie hard at work…

Our first stop of the day was the Palace of Holyroodhouse, the Queens official residence when she’s in Scotland. As one might expect, it was quite spectacular, but once again we were only allowed to take outside shots. Here’s a couple, starting with the rather glamorous gate

The palace grounds also contained the remains of an abby (I took a pic of the name so I’d remember it, but it’s on theother camera and I really can’t be bothered fishing it out right now). Here’s a couple of shots:

The grounds were quite extensive and very beautiful, but I’d stupidly forgotten to charge the battery on my small camera (the one I use to take all the shots for this blog), so I ended up having to nurse it the entire day, which meant not taking as many pictures as I would have liked. So, no garden pics but I did get this shot of an on kirk on top of a hill above the palace (it’s part of the palace grounds):

Then it was on to Edinburgh castle, which was an amazing place but totally packed to the rafters. Here’s a pic of the entrance gate, which you got to through the tattoo parade grounds. Which, by the way, are absolutely tiny. The TV lies when it comes to size!

Here’s another castle pic:

A couple of shots of the old abby inside the castle. I can’t remember the name, and again, it’s too much hassle to drag the other camera out (it’s late and I’m tired!)

We also checked out the Scottish crown jewels, did a tour of the various museums, watched the one o’clock canon be fired (rumour is they don’t fire at 12 because that would cost too much in ammunition. By firing at one, they’re saving themselves a fortune. They’re canny when it comes to money, these Scotts. ), and walked through the dungeons underneath the castle. Here’s some shots of where they kept the prisoners:

On the way home, we saw the Elephant House, the place where J K Rowling sat to write Harry Potter—as they proudly proclaim in the window:

And that was the end of our day. All I can say is, I will be back! I ADORE what I saw of Edinburgh, and would love to be here when all the festivals are in full swing (we hit the end of it, and most of the good stuff—like the book festival and the comedy festival are gone.)

Tomorrow we hit the road for York, in North Yorkshire

Today we packed our bags and headed for Edinburgh. Our first stop was Gretna Green, and I have to say, I was very disappointed. Talk about a tourist trap! Of course, it didn’t help that three bus loads of Japanese tourists arrived the same time as we did, and just about bought half the shops out (and I would have thought the Gretna Green people would have been used to bus loads of Japanese tourists coming though, and would have had more staff on standby for the buying frenzy, but apparently not. They just got surly about it all. Lol). Oh, and I did succumb to the tourist trap—there was tons of cashmere here, and I bought myself a couple of scarves

Here’s a couple of shots I took (as I said, I wasn’t inspired so I actually haven’t got many good ones)

From there, we headed to Edinburgh. Here’s a shot of heather on Scottish hills:

Our bus driver detoured slightly so that we could see the firth of Forth bridge (try saying that fast!) This is a monstrous steel railway bridge that spans the Firth of Forth and connects Edinburgh with Fife. It’s also not to be confused with the Firth of Forth road bridge, which is nearby, more modern, and less spectacular. Here’s a pic:

Then it was on to Edinburgh itself. I managed to take a couple of shots from the bus. The first one is a pic of a school, the second one of the amazing churches here, and the third a glimpse of Edinburgh castle:

It was nearly 5.30 by the time we arrived at the hotel, so we basically just dumped our bags and did a walk around the nearby shops–but really, we were just sussing out where to spend our money tomorrow. I have already decided were my visa card is going—there’s a stunning little jewellery shop just down the road….

Monday arrives bright and sunny, a good omen for the day ahead. Our first stop for the day was a leisurely cruise on Lake Windermere—the largest natural lake in England. I did get some lovely pics of some of the big old mansions and castles that line the lake, but they’re on my other camera. So you’re just going to have to be satisfied with this pic of swans. It does have the lake and some boats in the background:

Next up we joureyed to Grasmere, a picturesque little town where the poet William Wordsworth spent the early part of his married life in a little house called Dove cottage. I have to say here, I am so glad I live in the century I do. Dove cottage might have been pretty, but the rooms were small, dark and bloody cold! And let’s not forget the lack of bathing facilities or the habit of not washing more than a couple of times a week (although I guess you really wouldn’t notice the smell given everyone else was doing—or not doing—the same thing. But eewwww…)

Here’s some pics of Dove cottage (we weren’t allowed to take pictures of the inside, so there’s just outside shots)

While we were in Grasmere, our bus driver just happened to mention the fact that the best gingerbread in England was made here. So naturally, we had to test this claim out (much to the horror of our guide who really doesn’t understand our need to taste test our way across Britain ) The gingerbread met with the seal of approval from all but one who partook it (it was very different from our gingerbread—much softer and with real bits of ginger in it)

here’s a pic of the shop;

Then it was a tour through the Western Lakes district as we moved on to Ravenglass. Along the way we saw some pretty scenery—here’s a couple of shots I managed to get from the bus.

At Ravenglass, we hopped on the Ravenglass-Eskdale railway. It’s basically a miniature railway and it was quite lovely steaming through the countryside on it. The trip was supposed to be one way, but they discovered the bus was two feet wider than the roads going up to Eskdale, so it became a two-way trip. You have no idea how delighted our bus driver was, because it meant he got to go on the train trip as well.

here’s a couple of shots of the little steam engines, as well as a picture of the passing countryside:

Then it was back to our hotel on Lake Windermere. Our hotel here was, once again, stunning, but this time we had extremely quiet neighbours–the hotel was sitting right next to an old church and graveyard. Here’s a couple of pics I took:

Tomorrow it’s on to Edinburgh!