I forgot to mention a couple of traffic related items in the previous day postings. The drivers in London are patient. We heard no honking of horns by irritated drivers when things did not go their way.  Another observation occurred while in the cab heading out the other night. We did get stuck in a bit of traffic and I wondered why the delays at a stoplight. What I discovered was the stoplight had only an eight second (I said second) green light for our lane while giving the opposite street a full 60 seconds. As a result only one or two cars made it through the intersection each light cycle. Our driver said that was the way the system operated. Bloody awful if you ask me!

Back to today’s story.

This is a short tour compared to many we have taken-only 12 days and there are many one night stays but it allows us to get an decent overview of the English countryside, parts of Scotland and Wales.

 

Normally you meet the tour director and fellow travelers at a reception the night before the actual tour begins. This tour was unusual in the sense we first meet everyone at 7:30 AM the day the tour leaves London, which is today.

We were asked to have luggage out of room by 6:30 AM and meet in the lobby at 7:30, ready to roll.  There was a bit of chaos in the lobby as there were two separate groups leaving , so the amount of people and luggage was a bit daunting but John Jennings, our English tour director, efficiently sorted out the people and luggage and soon we were off on our “Best of Britain” tour. There are 40 people on this tour, the maximum number Insight allows on their tours. Other tour companies usually have a maximum of 53. Insight Vacations take some rows of seats out of the bus giving people more legroom. Our bus left the hotel right before 8 AM and headed north.

Our first destination of the day was Stratford on Avon, the birthplace of William Shakespeare. I was never a fan of his writings but was eager to see his restored home. I imagined a small little village with thatched roofed homes in the middle of a meadow. Boy, was I wrong. The home is smack dab in the middle of a pedestrian shopping street in a good sized town/city. I guess I am a few centuries too late. The home in which he was born is actually larger than I expected. I believe I heard that his father was mayor of the town. It is a lovely site, complete with young people quoting Shakespeare in the garden to the delight of visitors. Shops along the street provided a lovely opportunity to have a late morning “cream tea” once again before we boarded our bus for our final destination, York. We did our usual comfort stops and had lunch at one of the highway road stops, which featured several fast food options, including McDonalds and Krispi Kreme.

We arrived in York about 4PM and John led us on a local walking tour of the area to acquaint us with the city. York was a pleasant surprise. It was founded by the Romans in 71AD and  was later occupied by the Vikings who named it “Jorvik”. It has a population of about 200,000. We stayed right near the old section of the city where we walked. We learned that the Vikings had played an important role in the history of the area.  The streets in York are called “gate”  e.g. Canongate, as gate means street in the Viking language. And “bar” means gate. Confused now? Guy Fawkes was born and educated here. Walking down the narrow cobble stones streets was a delight. A very popular street is called the “shambles” and is lined with shops and tea rooms. Unfortunately we arrived too late to enter the York Minster (cathedral), the 2nd most important one in the UK.

Our “welcome” dinner was held at the hotel and we had an opportunity to meet some of our travel companions. Most are from the US , but we also have several people from Canada and a couple of people from Australia. Surprisingly there is no one from New Zealand; there is usually a Kiwi along as they are big world travelers.

Day one is done and we head to Edinburgh, Scotland tomorrow.