4 Travel Tragics and a Scottish Wedding

The break in the fierce weather of yesterday meant that a walking tour of Oxford was on the cards. So off we headed, driving through picturesque countryside through stunning little Cotswold villages such as Lower Compton (not sure where Upper or Middle Compton ended up). An impulse decision by Chris saw us pull into the Park and Ride at the Oxford parkway where we could leave Harry the Galaxy safely parked for our commute by the 500 bus which dropped us slap bang in the centre of Oxford! Yes!!! The walking tour point was right near the bus and we met our guide Anna, who was a wealth of knowledge. Anna explained that there is no one place in Oxford that is the university campus, but rather that Oxford is the university. She also explained that the university grew up as a place of religious study and has only become “secular” comparatively recently in its history. The system is very different to uni in Australia. To study at Oxford you apply to a particular college and you do the b...

It was drizzly early this morning in York and perhaps we should have taken that as an omen.  Martina was catching up with Carina and so Enid, Chris and I headed off to the Shambles area, in search of coffee, to fix up some financial business for Enid whose card had been hacked and to wander York for a bit before heading off. We even had to buy a new umbrella from the local Superdrug as it started raining and we felt that if we had an umbrella it would stand us in good stead and the rain would not come back. Hmmmmm! It was lovely in the early morning with not too many people, but we felt that there were far too many vans and cars making deliveries and clogging the lanes. Still, it was a great meander, back up to the Minster, along the really rickety part of the shambles and even through the Shambles Market... hoorah, a real market town experience. We met back up with Martina, played car Tetris again and said goodbye to Carina before driving out of York, destination Chest...

Today the weather turned bleak. Low cloud and drizzly rain meant that the view across the  North Yorkshire moors was going to be limited. Martina took the wheel this morning as we headed out of York, destination Goathland. Ok, so you haven’t heard of Goathland? What if I told you it was the Harry Potter Station and if I also told you that it was the small town that was used as Aidensfield in the series Heartbeat which was one of my faves!! We found Goathland and waited to board the steam locomotive, destination Whitby.  Chris, the train tragic, was in his element and there were many pictures taken along the way, including a spectacular viaduct. Once in Whitby it was apparent that this was a real seaside holiday  tourist town. We wandered along the harbour foreshore, peering into shops and watching the mist hang further and further down on the hills, obscuring the view of Whitby Abbey and the Castle for a time. But we were on a mission, lead by the fearless Enid, a...