York

We woke this morning with the best weather we have had since we arrived in England. It was sunny. Although we have seen the sun pretty much everyday, it usually isn’t until 2 or 3 in the afternoon and doesn’t usually stick around for too long. It has rained on us every single day since we arrived in England as well. So for us to wake with such gorgeous weather, it ended up taking us longer to get going. We ended up leaving for the city of York around noon. It seems that most of the campsites in England play host to various animals. Rabbits and ducks are pretty much the norm, and once in awhile a new creature we haven’t seen before. The drive to York was uneventful, but it was through the remainder of the Peak district. This section was the most barren of them all. I have to admit, if we had more time, it would have been a great place to go for hikes. The campground we intended on staying at had a bogus address. We ended up in a very posh neighborhood just outside the ring road surrounding York. I made the decision to go to a Caravan Club site (mentioned in our European Camping Guide book) despite the fact that we would pay a non membership fee of £7. The location of this campsite couldn’t be better. It is right on the river and only a 20 minute walk to the tourist office. It took us no time to walk around York’s city centre, as it is so small. We learned of a free tour and decided to take it the following morning at 10. We had also planned on visiting Scarborough via the Hogwarts express steam engine train. Once again, traveling off season has its downsides. This old train only does the run in the summer months. With this off of our schedule we had much more time to explore York at a leisured pace. Maybe this is why we actually missed the morning tour by 10 minutes. We had already seen the York Minster the previous day and decided it was a good place to start our walk today before the 2 pm tour. I spotted a market on the way to the tour meeting point and decided to bring Julie there in hopes that she would find something to buy. To our luck, she was able to purchase a skirt, shirt and light jacket to wear on warm days such as today. Today was another bright sunny day, with lots of warmth. Many people walked around town proudly showing their sun burns. After the market we made our way to the Jorvik Viking center. Underneath York’s streets a Viking village was discovered and now they have a tour to simulate the village’s way of life. This is a slow ride through the village streets as they assume they would have been, complete with sounds and smells. This was a discounted tour because of our EH membership. It was interesting to view the Viking skeleton with all its battle scars but even discounted, it wasn’t really worth it. Julie told me it was more for kids. We packed our lunch today and had a picnic of sorts in a park just outside the York Minster. We laid in the sun for about an hour before making our way to the tour meeting point. While we were waiting a lady started a conversation with us, turns out she was from Halliburton and visits England every year. She joined us, along with two young women for the tour. Our guide was a retired history teacher and had volunteered to do these tours for the past few years. There are over 60 volunteers that do these tours. For a walking tour, we managed to walk only one small section of York’s centre, but the areas we did walk were all the old areas. It was extremely informative and history packed (For example; Mel Gibson, a.k.a.William Wallace, never sacked York although our guide only used the actors name). The tour ran the length it said it would, but for some reason, it felt like it was dragging on. I guess I wasn’t the only one who felt this, as the other people in the tour bolted as soon as it was over. We did enjoy the tour. I guess we are just used to more energetic people doing the tour and much more walking. York is a beautiful city and we really enjoyed visiting it, although we think the weather played a small part.

Sherwood Forest, Bolsovar Castle and Hayfield

We left the Nottingham campsite early enough as we had a long day ahead of us. Our first stop of the day was Sherwood Forest Visitors Centre. We did the recommended walk, passing by the “Great Oak”. It wasn’t what we expected, so we moved along to our next stop of the day, Bolsovar Castle. Once we arrived at the castle we were redirected to alternate parking as it was full. A few kilometers away we parked in a field and followed the small crowd to the Castle. This was supposed to be a free visit for us today, as it is part of the English Heritage sites. Today is a Bank Holiday though and the Castle was hosting a Jousting Tournament. Because we are EH members, we paid half price (£10) to get in. Once inside the castle’s entrance there were many families scattered about watching the various entertainment. The main stage, was by far the largest and had the most viewers. Here, the knights would perform various tasks to gain points, including sword fights etc. Nothing was going on at the moment though, as it was a musical intermission. The 3 piece band was walking around the square stage amongst the audience. We sat down knowing an event was about to take place but only managed to stay for 10 minutes before deciding to leave and visit the castle before the hoards of spectators did so as well. Julie’s highlight was getting up close to various birds of prey they had on display and were using in an upcoming falconry event. The castle was decent, although needed plenty of work. What we enjoyed most about the castle was the room layout. We wandered around the site a bit more, enjoying the splendid panoramic view of the surrounding countryside before calling it quits and making our way back to the van. We passed by a grocery store and decided to pick up some much needed supplies. After buying my beer and Julie’s Smirnoff, and a few hamburger toppings we continued our journey north. This leg of the drive was the longest we have done since being in England. This drive is through what is considered to be England’s “wild land”, the Peak District. The name of this area is deceiving, or just plain wrong. There are many hills, and sometimes they might be jagged enough to make a peak (we think we saw one). Despite the obvious lack of mountains, the area is beautiful. It is mostly farm land and there are areas that have been left unclaimed. The small town we stayed at for the night was Hayfield, near the top of the Peak District.

Nottingham

We originally planned on staying at a Certified site while visiting Nottingham, but we couldn’t find it so we ended up spending two days at a campsite just outside a major water park. It is also a bank holiday weekend (long weekend), making it harder to stay in popular campsites. However, this campsite was massive. It only had 20 pitches with electrical and every other “pitch” was located in a large field (about 300 pitches). Julie and I decided to park close to the toilet buildings, but further away from the tenters and in a somewhat level spot. Our intention was to head into town today, but the bus that comes by every 10 minutes didn’t show even after 30 minutes so we decided to go on tomorrow (Sunday May 4th) instead.

Once again the campsite staff were incorrect about the bus schedule. The bus itself only came by once every 30 minutes, rather than every ten like they informed us. They were however, right about it making stops in front of the campsite today. The first 15 minutes on the bus were awkward though. We got on, we sat, then the bus driver pulled over, shut off the bus and started to read the newspaper. We did ask him if he was driving into the town centre, to which he simply replied “yes”. After his break, we were on our way into town. Nottingham is much larger than Julie and I expected. We also thought it to be very modern. Once we visited the tourist information office, we learnt that what we had come to Nottingham for, was actually located a fair distance away. We decided to visit Nottingham’s Castle, the castle grounds were okay, but the remainder of the self guided tour was a waste of time. We then made our way to the oldest pub in England, hopping for a seat and a pint. “Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem” is said to be the oldest pub in England, opening its doors in 1189AD. We walked in, saw how much a half pint was (£6) and left. With out much more to do, we decided to do some window shopping in a mall and have lunch before heading back to the van. We came across a game store in the mall and purchased the British edition, travel pack version of Monopoly (it was only £4.99).

Cambridge

The campsite is located a fair distance from Cambridge which forced us to use the bus. It didn’t take us long to get into the town centre. The weather was fabulous today, which made it a great time walking around. We made our way to the tourist office, passing a market along the way. We decided to visit the market after we got what information we needed at the tourist office. A town map was 30 pence, which you don’t really need. It did help out, but what it really showed you is that there is not much in Cambridge. Touring the colleges is the main attraction here, as well as in Oxford. But, it being exam week, touring was impossible. The colleges were closed to tourists. This was sort of disappointing, so we made the best of the weather and walked around town before stopping on a bridge watching people go by on punting tours. I suggested to Julie for us to go out on one, but it was too expensive so we just ended up taking the bus home. What we did by mistake though, was take the bus in the wrong direction. It wasn’t a total loss though, as we managed to find a very cheap grocery store along the way. So we had groceries, finally, from a store that wasn’t too expensive. The grocery store in Oxford was prohibitively expensive and we ended up leaving without much food. It took us under 20 minutes to get into town and closer to 2 hours to get back to the campsite (without the stop for groceries). We were both exhausted by the time we arrived at the campsite. My knee was particularly bad today, which always makes matters worse.

Oxford

We spent two nights at this campsite due to our late check in the day before. There is really only one reason we came to Oxford. It was for Christ Church College’s dinning hall. This hall was used in the Harry Potter films, as was the staircase outside the hall. It was much smaller than we both imagined, and we wondered if it was based off of the hall, and not filmed in it. After seeing the college we went back to our van before we went to visit Cambridge, another popular university town.

Old Sarum, Stonehenge and Avebury

Old Sarum turned out to be located just a few kilometers from our campsite and was on route to Stonehenge. The aerial photo we saw made the place look awesome. Before we could find a ticket booth, there was a man who worked for English Heritage blocking our way further into the site. He asked us if we knew anything about English Heritage, obviously we don’t, so he went on to explain everything. He also asked us where we were heading in order to further promote his sale. Julie wanted nothing to do with the guy (her usual reaction towards sales people) but what I learnt was valuable, at least I deemed it so. If we were to join up with English Heritage, all English Heritage sites would be free for us, in addition we would receive discounts on participating English attractions, 50% off on Scottish Heritage sites (like Edinburgh castle which we intend on visiting) and half off of some sites in Wales. It also came with a guide book and map which allows us to plan day trips along the way to our already planned stops. The cost to join was steep though, £73 for a two person membership. I decided it was worth the expense and purchased the membership. With this membership, Old Sarum was free, as well as Stonehenge and Avebury as they are English Heritage sites. Julie was still doubtful after I purchased the tickets, so we have ourselves a contest now. She believes I will not be able to make up the £73, and will have spent more money on the membership than if I just paid each time at the attractions themselves. I think the opposite.

Old Sarum is a very ruined castle. Actually, it just looks like small stone walls on a hill. It wasn’t overly exciting; Julie was more interested in the small bunnies living on the side of the hill. It did offer great views, and from the hill top we could see Salisbury’s Cathedral. Old Sarum is probably best viewed from the sky, the many small airplanes flying by the site attests to that. It would have been £3.50 each to get in.

Stonehenge was another short drive and parking was surprisingly easy. The wind has picked up considerably making it feel much colder than it is. Our membership got us onto the Stonehenge site with an audio guide for free, it would have been £7.50 each without. Julie and I learnt nothing new with the audio guides, as we have both watched TV shows on Stonehenge. The site itself was nice although the stones were not as large as they make them out to be on TV. It was cold, windy and threatening to rain but it didn’t stop us from doing a complete circuit of the stone circle while listening to our audio guides. I would have liked to have been able to walk amongst the stones, but I am glad I couldn’t at the same time. There were so many people there it would have ruined the experience. The entire site is an open field, making it feel solitary. If I was bumping shoulders and waiting to take a photo without anyone in it, it wouldn’t have felt as it did. It was worth stopping at, and even walking around. If I had to pay for it, I would only do it once, because its just one of those things you got to do.

Avebury has another set of stone circles, one of which surrounds the entire town. The site is free to visit, but the car park is £5.00 for the day, but free for EH members. The stones were located in a nearby field and just as Julie and I started to walk towards them it started to pour. Because it was raining so much and still cold, we didn’t spend too much time here. We left shortly after for our next stop, Oxford.

Salisbury

The drive from Winchester was rather long, due to some traffic and an accident we encountered along the way. Rain was the main factor for the accident as it was a sudden down pour. It appeared no one was hurt, but it looked like 3 cars were involved. We found the campsite with little difficulty and since the day was getting late and we were tired from the drive and our short stop in Winchester we decided to just hang out in the van and do some research and play some games.