Weather forecast was fairly promising - overcast with 30% chance of rain. However, I was assuming that this would be a 'Canberra' 30% chance - basically, just a vague chance that somewhere a bit of rain might fall.
Wow, was I mistaken. It poured. And poured. And then rained some more.
And of course the worst thing about these tours is that if the plan says that you'll get off the coach and explore the York Cathedral then you'll get off the coach and explore the cathedral - rain, hail, shine, earthquake, tornado......
Actually, York looked like it was probably a lovely old city, but I only saw the vast majority of it peering out from underneath the hood of my raincoat. A surprising number of us took refuge in a nice big warm Marks and Spencer store before too long....
After we left York we headed out to a nice pub in the country which is right by the only easily accessible (to coaches) piece of Hadrian's Wall. Some of the Americans had a learning experience in the pub - we'd had to choose our meal the previous day - soup, or soup and sandwiches, or carvery. Only three people chose the carvery and it turns out that in part this is because it's not a word generally used in America. So, now they know :-)
Anyway, after that we strolled around to have a look at the wall. Lots of it is gone now of course - much has been taken and used to build houses and farm buildings over the centuries - but it used to stretch for 80 miles from coast to coast.
As you can see, it had finally stopped raining by this time. Paul picked up his hat at a street market in York!
We then headed off to Edinburgh, with quick stops along the way to see the ruins of Jedburgh Abbey (Henry VIII has a lot to answer for!) and at the England / Scotland border.
Once we got to the hotel we had free time, and we (stupidly as it turns out) walked up to Edinburgh Castle - stupidly because (1) we couldn't go in (2) it's a long hobble uphill for someone with a sore ankle and an even longer hobble downhill and (3) a formal tour there is on our agenda for tomorrow! Anyway, we saw lots of shops and pubs and cafes and old buildings of all sorts. By the time we got back we decided just to have dinner at the hotel - not cheap but the best fish and chips I have ever eaten!
Oh, and by the way, if you look at the photos of me and think that I'm wearing the same clothes over and over - it's not quite that bad - I have three identical tops and three plain black skirts :-)
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