“This channel is not available. Please select another channel” Phew, so to continue — the most likeley and safe food choices turn out to be both odd and unsettling. I had a BLT one day — a safe and likely bet — and it turned out to be untoasted bread, butter, no mayo, almost no lettuce and it was limp, and great hot greasy slabs of ham. May have mentioned this, but it will probably haunt my memory and dog me in my dreams. David had curry one night that was almost all right except that all the ingredients were…

September 25th, Grassington. “…That day was a Saturday, which wasn’t the best day to arrive, since all the local buses that serve walkers only run on the weekends, and we didn’t walk on Saturday or Sunday; we explored Grassington (up a steep hill from the B and B) and got some lunch at the Dales Kitchen, then returned for some relax time. As David wasn’t feeling great, I went out later to the “supermarket,” which we would call a small neighborhood convenience market, and foraged for some stuff for sandwiches and stay-in comfort food.

On the Train to Skipton, September 20th I added notes on the stations on the Settle-Carlisle line because they compete for prettiest railway station, and are also part of the “Most-Charming-Stile” award for stations used by English footpath walkers — heh, not really, but almost. Armathwaite Station: lovely red sandstone. Lazonby/Kirkoswald Station: more Victoriana Langwathby Station: “Brief Encounter” cafe! Appleby Station: Red brick Victorian. Yet another film set. Kirkby Stephen Station: buff stone Victorian Garsdale Station: grey stone Victorian (with chimney pots) Dent Station: high lonesome gritstone Ribblehead Station: gritstone – emerald green dales and long, black tunnels. Horton-in-Ribblesdale Station:…

On to Scotland: 15SEP-19SEP The next day, we had a long, boring travel day. It was either 6 hours on a train and getting in really late in the day, far from a rental car location, or 5 hours waiting around for a flight to Glasgow, picking up a car, and driving no more than an hour to our first night’s B&B near Loch Lomond. In retrospect, we should have spent more time around York and fewer hours at Leeds/Bradford (LBA) airport (we went earlier in the day in the hopes of getting an earlier flight, but no such beast).…

On the Train from Carlisle, Northumbria, September 20th Once again, not enough time there to do more than a quick look round, but its a pretty city and our hotel was a Best Western affiliate, the Cumbria Park. Very comfortable old antique four-poster in the honeymoon suite — disturbingly, all the framed art in the HONEYMOON SUITE was of newborn babies or young children! Eeeeyaaagh. However, it had a full sized tub/shower and room to swing a very small and cooperative cat in the bathroom… and also the biggest one on the trip thus far (the Tower Thistle bathroom remains…

York was 2 nights in a very comfortable and nicely decorated, but very small (VCANDBVS) room at the Water’s Edge. Julie turned out to be a very pretty brown-eyed blond who offered to do our laundry for L5 a bag. Well, we didn’t stuff the bags as full as we should have and apparently British washers and dryers are very small. So that was L20 for the lot — but they were all folded. The B&B was on a river walk and next to the St. Mary’s Abbey/Museum Park and so we thought it would be lovely and quiet. Wrong.…

On the York Train, Sept 13th, 2003 Not long after this (writing the last entry), we arrived at Oxford station and grabbed a cab to our “private hotel,” the Falcon. This was basic accomodation for “only” L70 including breakfast — it was 2 converted townhouses, very mazelike, with a number of inconveniently placed firedoors. The room was largish with a four poster. Once again the shower was a cramped afterthought and the toilet was a gusher. Then after dumping stuff we started to wander around Oxford, (such as stopping for a beer at The Head of the River) but stopped…

Sept. 12, 2003 Stow-on-the-Wold Wow! Just two days in the Cotswolds and we’re already planning a return trip. We arrived by train in Moreton-in-Marsh and immediately saw one of the oldest curfew towers (a bell was rung to warn residents to cover their fires) in the country. We had to drag the rolly-pollies to the bus stop, and very soon the bus dropped us off in the square at Stow-on-the-Wold, and then we were welcomed at the Unicorn Hotel. It was authentically creaky, and appeared to have been built in Tudor times (or soon after) — typical honey-colored stone with…

September 10th, 2003 Today we head out from London and got the Cotswolds for 2 days, then Oxford for a day, then York. Yesterday was spent mostly lazing around (tourism is hard work) and then we sat at the British Tourist Authority and then the Scottish Tourist Board to make B&B/hotel reservations. I hadn’t been able to settle on anything from home, and then I usually couldn’t make reservations via the Web, but we’re sorted now, I hope. David is worried that the hotels/B&Bs won’t be any good — that is, worse than this one, which isn’t that great but…

Right. Well. We’re on vacation. Yesterday was a long day of dedicated tourism, capped off with an enthusiastic consumption of ale and wine. All in all, much fun. It started with our setting out all fresh and peppy for the Tower of London. We had vouchers that needed to be exchanged for the Tube passes (magnetic strips, not Oystercards), and we could do that at nearby Paddington Station. No problem, except that the desk that did that was permanently closed, and we’d have to go to Piccadilly station to do it, with the permission of the Tube dude at the…