and had lunch at a sign-posted 'Picnic Place' just out of town. It had 3 bins, but nothing else, but a nice view of some power stations.
We went over the Humber Bridge,
and on to York, where we parked at the Park-and-ride, and caught a bus into town. The tourist office found us a B&B, where we checked in, and then we went off to the cathedral. We wanted to buy a souvenir, but went in to see the carvings in the Chapter House first.
Then it was time for Evensong (second in 2 days), and a bit more photography before tea. The choir screen shows 15 English kings from William the Conqueror, seven on one side and eight on the other. Steven is the one with knees.
The tourist office had told us about a free WIFI cafe, so we went there, and spent the time alternately eating and uploading photos, but then at the last minute, the whole blog went blank, and the photos had disappeared. I don't know what happened, because I had been saving the whole thing at every step. I guess we'll go back there tomorrow. We caught the last bus back to the Park-and-ride, and drove into town to the B&B.
Sunday 3 August London to Ely
We left the hostel soon after 9:00, and caught a better bus than yesterday, but got to the Avis depot to find that their computers were dead, so we would have to wait for a while. It wasn't too bad, and we got away in our next Citroen at about 10:30.We had a smooth run through the north-western suburbs, not knowing exactly where we were on the map until we hit the M25 (the outer London ring road). From there we went to St Albans, which was the Roman town called Verulanium. I have always had it on my list to see the Roman ruins, but it was a bit disappointing. Most of the site of the ancient town square etc are buried under present-day buildings, and the museum did not open until after lunch. We did walk across the park and looked through the window of a building put up to shelter a large Roman mosaic floor, so at least we saw something.
From there it was on to Ely and its cathedral.
We had bypassed it on a previous trip, but wanted to see inside. We had a quick look, had some lunch in their cafe, and it was 14:00. We then found out that Evensong service was at 16:00, and it would be followed by an organ recital, so we went off to the tourist office to find a B&B for the night. We looked around the cathedral for a bit longer, then attended the service, walked around the Lady Chapel, listened to the organist, and it was teatime.
Although the cathedral is huge, Ely is not, and there is not a huge choice of eateries open on a Sunday night. There were no tables free at the pizza shop, so we decided to go out into the countryside to find our B&B. It was just as well, because we got rather lost, and it took over half an hour. But we made it, went back for pizza (D) and pasta (K), then came home for bed.Saturday 2 August London
We paid for internet to look up hostels for the next few nights, but had no luck. We will have to find somewhere when we get there. But then we tried and, after two weeks....
SUCCESS!! We uploaded some photos to our blog. David says it just must be luck, but I wonder whether it has something to do with the external hard drive, and getting rid of stuff from the internal system of this little computer. But we will try again when we don't have to pay so much.
We went on a big bus ride to Knightsbridge, which was longer than usual because of some road works and diversions, but we haven't been down that way yet this trip, so it was a good view from the front seat of the top deck.
We spent all afternoon at the Science Museum. This is a hands-on place for kids (from 8 yrs), and there were lots of them.
They had some interesting exhibitions,
buttons to push and handles to wind, models, dioramas,
the original 'Rocket'
and other old machinery. It was similar in style to the one in Munich, but this time we could read all the labels.
We cooked sausages and veg for tea, and started packing up.
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