A Taste of Britain

Four days, three countries.

Back on the coach to London Victoria, we chose to sit near the back again, thinking the discomfort of last time was just an isolated case of a malfunctioning aircon system. Unfortunately, this one was worse. We sat in the three seats at the very back. Our neighbours were a couple from Cheddar. She was very talkative and dramatic, and when the heat hit, she wasted no time in making several trips to the front to speak to the driver who didn't seem too concerned. We endured the two-hour journey in the sweltering heat and we learned the lesson that it's best not to sit anywhere past the middle of the bus.

In London we stopped for a cool down before heading the few blocks to our hotel. I had booked us in at the Limegrove the previous week. The booking process seemed to be overcomplicated by the hotelier, so I was a bit nervous that our room wasn't there. In any case, I knew this wasn't going to be the Ritz. We really just needed a place to stay for the night. The room was there for us, but as predicted, it was nothing fancy.

We took a stroll in the evening to find the Trafalgar Tours station, where we would be walking to at 6:00am the following morning. It was here we would board our bus for the four-day Taste of Britain tour. We had booked it before Mom and Dad's arrival. It would take us up to Edinburgh and back, stopping at some key spots. We found the station before stopping for some food and then headed back to our five-star accommodation for a game of cribbage and an early night.

In the morning we made the journey again, checked in for our tour and waited with all the others. There were several tours departing that morning, so the room was full of people. Within an hour or so, we were on our bus, and our guide Andrew was briefing us on our journey while pointing out a few things in London as we passed.

Our first stop was Stratford-upon-Avon, in the Midlands, home of course to William Shakespeare and the Royal Shakespeare Company. Andrew gave us a brief tour and then set us walking on our own. Mom, Dad and I headed down past the main theatre, currently being renovated, along the River Avon and over to the church which holds the tomb of Mr. Shakespeare himself. There was a service on so we did not venture in, but headed back toward the High Street and past the old Tudor buildings, one of which was Will's school. Before long we were back at the bus, on our way to Coventry.

Coventry was one of the worst-hit targets of the Nazi bombing campaigns of 1940. The city was almost completely destroyed, and as a result has a lot of post-War buildings (some not so pleasant). The cathedral itself was bombed out leaving just the outer shell of the building and the tower. These ruins were left intact and a new cathedral was built next to it in the 1950s. Coventry is also home to Lady Godiva, who legend has it rode naked on horseback through Coventry Market in protest of her husband's taxes on the town.

We stopped for lunch here, grabbing some pasties from Gregg's the Baker, and sat waiting for the hourly chime of the clock across the square, which features Godiva on a horse, riding past the clock face, while the legendary Peeping Tom looks out of his window, causing him to go blind. Sure enough, as one o'clock struck, Lady Godiva and Peeping Tom appeared. We headed back toward the cathedral soon after, and re-boarded the bus, bound for York.

York is a wonderfully old. It has all of the Old World charm of a city like Prague. It is surrounded by a wall, one of the most intact walls of any city in Britain. There was a food market in the centre. We managed to get a few samples before the stalls were closed. Andrew showed us The Shambles, a street that was once full of butcheries. Many of the Medieval buildings have remained, and that, combined with the slope and angle of the street, create a very caricaturised image of Olde England. From there, a few blocks away, we visited York Minster, the giant cathedral. This one is definitely one of the largest we had seen thus far.

From there we headed further into the Northeast of England toward our first hotel stop near Darlington, another two hours drive from York. We had travelled nearly five hundred kilometres. The hotel, Redworth Hall, certainly exceeded our expectations. It was a luxurious country estate and very roomy. Once settled, we proceeded to the restaurant for our included welcome glass of wine and three course meal. So far so good.

In the morning, after a breakfast buffet, we loaded up and hit the road again, bound for Scotland. Our first stop was in nearby Newcastle-upon-Tyne, to see a small piece of the remnants of Hadrian's Wall, which once stretched across the throat of England, marking the upper boundary of the Roman Empire. The piece in Newcastle is only a couple of hundred feet long, and no taller than knee height. A few photo snaps later, we were rolling down the motorway once again.

We ascended into Northumberland National Park, into the area that both the English and Scots call Borders. At the top of the hill there was a lay-by, where we pulled in and parked the bus. This was the Scottish border. It was marked by a tall stone that said England on one side and Scotland on the other. A piper was playing to welcome visitors. The view from up there was quite spectacular.

After a short stop in the town of Jedburgh, we continued up the road to Edinburgh, the Scottish capital. The position of this city, coupled with the stone of its buildings makes it look like it grew out of the rock. We were let loose on the city after a briefing from Andrew on key spots. We crossed over the bridge and onto the Royal Mile, intent on finding some lunch. We walked down the slope, which has the castle at the top and Hollyroodhouse at the bottom. We decided to stop in at the Tolbooth Tavern, near the bottom of the Royal Mile. It had a nice atmosphere, good food and local beer. And apparently, as our tour guide would later tell us, it was once an actual tax collection point, court and jail during its four hundred year existence.

We were just a short walk away from the new Scottish Parliament, so I had to take a look. This building cost a whopping £500 million. It sits in a prime spot, at the bottom of the Royal Mile, across from Hollyrood Palace and overlooked by Arthur's Seat. We spent some time walking around there, before taking what I thought was a shortcut back to the bus. Luckily they didn't leave without us.

Back on the bus, Keith, a proper Scotsman with kilt and all, joined us as a local tour guide. As we drove up the Royal Mile, he pointed out the sites and told us the stories of the city in his thick Edinburgh accent. Soon after, we parked at Edinburgh Castle, where Keith led us through, regaling us with more stories and Scottish humour. At the top of the castle we were let loose once again, and braving the cold spitty weather, we wandered through the very intact buildings, viewing another set of Crown Jewels, and enjoying the great view of the city from the castle walls. Back in the car park Keith rejoined us and the tour continued all the way to our hotel, just north of the city centre, which I can confirm is the most northern point that I have ever been on the Earth.

Some of the tour group were attending a Scottish show that evening, an optional excursion offered by Trafalgar. We opted out, but decided to catch a ride with them back into the city for the evening. Along the way, a passing truck clipped the bus's mirror, damaging it. Our driver John appealed to us to get a photo of the number plate on the vehicle, and after turning a corner the driver pulled over. Lucky for him, John's a bit of a handy man, and decided to fix it himself, saving the guy potential points on his licence.

In town, we stopped in at a little restaurant just off the Royal Mile and enjoyed a very strange meal of bacon waffles with maple syrup and salad. It was rather quiet in town, being a chilly Monday night. We wandered further down and stopped in at a chippy so we could try the stereotypical Scottish dish of a deep-fried Mars bar. I ordered one and shared it with Mom and Dad. I honestly don't think I could have stomached the whole thing on my own. Fish batter and chocolate make a strange combination. We managed to catch a city bus back to the Holiday Inn, without any trouble and put our weary feet up for a bit.

In the morning there was again a breakfast buffet, but being in Scotland, it also included black pudding and haggis. I missed out on the haggis, but finally took the leap into trying black pudding. Not bad, but not my first choice for protein. We were joined at the table by fellow tour-taker, Amanda, from Virginia Beach. She had eaten haggis the previous night at the Scottish show, but had not seen black pudding before. I informed her that it was made of coagulated pig's blood, and she didn't seem too keen to try it.

Once we were loaded onto the bus, we headed west toward Glasgow, and then turned southward, eventually coming to Gretna Green. This small border town was a famous eloping spot for English couples too young to legally marry in England. Many of the weddings would take place at the blacksmith's shop, since he was the nearest person able to perform a marriage ceremony. Today the blacksmith shop is a tourist stop, with a restaurant and gift shops. We stopped briefly there for a coffee before bidding adieu to Scotland for the Northwest of England.

We turned off the motorway and entered the Lake District in Cumbria. The narrower, winding roads brought us deep into the high hills with lakes at their base. The rain was really coming down now, which hindered good bus window photography. Our stop was the small village of Grassmere, once home to the great poet William Wordsworth. This was a lunch stop for us. We found a nearby cafeteria and stepped out of the torrential downpour. It was a bit unfortunate that the rain was so fierce, but after all of the good weather we had had thus far, it was okay to get a bit of precipitation.

We continued on, back toward the main road, past Windermere (the largest of the District's lakes) and the town of Kendal, home of the Kendal mint. Our next stop was Liverpool, where a handful of us were joined by a walk-on guide, who has been doing Beatles tours for a long time, and has even gotten to know Paul McCartney. He guided us through the city, which is the European Capital of Culture for 2008. We alighted at the Anglican Cathedral, a fairly new structure that has a very prominent place in Liverpool's skyline. We stopped briefly at the Albert Docks and past the new Liverpool One shopping centre. We swung around and picked up the others and then made our way south toward our hotel in Runcorn. The Liverpool leg was quite short. It would have been nice to explore the city a bit more on foot, but with a four day tour, brevity is a natural reality.

At the hotel at Runcorn, we had our farewell dinner, a five course buffet affair. A Brasilian couple from our bus didn't seem to understand the protocol and helped themselves to the buffet. They had created some interesting dramas on the tour. Like most tours there is a seat rotation policy which gives people a chance to sit in a different spot each day of the tour. All but this couple seemed to adhere to this policy, and there were squabbles nearly every morning of the trip between this couple and Andrew about where they should be sitting. It was all quite amusing when viewed objectively.

After supper we joined Amanda and some of the Australians for a drink at the bar. It was nice to relax and mingle with our fellow travellers a bit. Unfortunately with the trip being so short, we just started to meet new people the day before it was over.

The next morning, we headed south to Chester. Another optional excursion into North Wales (which everyone opted into) brought us winding across the hills and valleys, stopping once along the Horseshoe Pass to take in some of the beautiful scenery, and interact with the local sheep. Eventually we came to Llangollen, a charming Welsh village that's a popular stop. We marvelled at a shop with a very long Welsh name, enjoyed the picturesque river and grabbed an ice cream cone from a local vendor.

We headed back to Chester where we were on our own again. We strolled through the city centre for a bit, along the rows, raised walkways along the storefront; something uniquely Chester. We didn't have much time to spend there. We grabbed a bite and headed into the market for a quick look around. Before long we were back on the bus heading into the Midlands.

Our final tour stop was at Wedgewood near Stoke-on-Trent. This factory still makes Wedgewood pottery, as the company has done since 1759. I had seen some Wedgewood pieces before but was unaware how diverse the company's work was. It was a nice little museum that even included a stop into a workshop where Wedgewood workers were creating pieces and interacting with visitors. We stopped for a cup of tea and a scone at the cafe and then got back on the bus for the last leg back to London. It was a very full four days indeed, but I think we all enjoyed it.

Back in London we checked back into our luxury hotel, and ordered ourselves the English Breakfast. Dad and I went back to the bus station to grab some coffees, and then we played some cards before calling it a night. In the morning our "English Breakfast" arrived. Two pieces of bacon, an egg, and toast on mouldy bread. We kind of just had to laugh about the place. It was after all just a place to sleep. We would soon be back on the bus to Bristol for Mom and Dad's last weekend in Britain.

The journey continues west.

Cheers.