We started the day with a loey drive along the coastline. One of the fellow campers at last nights stay said we should see Bamburgh Castle. Now this massive castle jumps out of the landscape sea side. The former stronghold of the ancient Kingdom of Northumbria, it is an impressive structure to lay your eyes on. We were early so it was not open and our main target today was York, so we decided we didn’t need the inside tour and moved on.
We soon spotted a perfect spot for a morning swim in the sea. A nice stretch of beach just before the town of Seahouses. You see when we started this trip, I made a list of things to tick off and swimming in the ocean was on the list. Wayne had already ticked all the boxes on this list and effectively won the challenge, but I was one swim away from equalising albeit in second place.
Tanya and I put on our togs, climbed over the fence at the stiles (always wanted to do that!) and made our way through the dunes to the beach where quickly made ourselves ready and ungracefully jogged into the water. I kept waiting for it to get deeper while my feet were bloody frozen. We soon realised it wasn’t going to happen before our feet snapped off, so had a bit of a lay down and splash and then we were out of there much to the entertainment of the husbands. Tick (sort of) ✅️
A quick shower to wash off the salt and back on the road towards York. It turns our our last weekend in the UK was a long weekend for the Spring Bank Holiday. This meant last minute accommodation for our vans had become a bit of a challenge. Even the first pub stay carpark was full when we got there. Thanks to a Facebook group for pub stop overs, I soon found another recommended pub for a park up and gave them a call. They said yes, come on over and thus we parked up at the Hogshead Hotel. I paid £10, the Reis crew were not charged. A good deal as we knew we would be back here after exploring York. Parked up and ordered an Uber to the Shambles and soon enough we were dropped into the midst of tourist madness!
Tip #18 Check how local public holidays might affect your trip. I knew we would be in York on this day, I could have secured accommodation for the vans in advance if I had bothered to check before we came.
As I said, we hit a long weekend so not doubt what we experienced in York was probably as busy as it gets. The old buildings were hard to capture with all the fellow explorers filling the lanes and alleys. Nonetheless, it was an experience to see these buildings some dating back to the 14th century. Harry Potter fans know this place as where they created Diagon Alley and there was plenty of fans of the series around. The Shop That Shall Not Be Named had a line up where they only let a certain number in at a time. Of course I lined up, but if I’m honest, the shop in London was better.
Exploring the nooks and crannies of this place led us to the York Minster. This impressive gothic Cathedral of St Peter is something to see. We didn’t go inside, but standing outside the walls, the size is quite overwhelming. I don’t know how it compares in size to Westminster Abbey, but it seemed bigger. As with many of the ancient building we have seen, there was restoration work going on at one end, but that didn’t detract from the sight of it! Impressive architecture.
Once we had our fill of the crowds we ordered our Uber back to the Hogshead where we settled into a few drinks and game of cards in the beer garden. The spectacular weather continued into what I am sure the locals were calling a heat wave, but for us, was a lovely early spring day. I can say that the beer garden was the place to be and clearly the locals agreed as there was noone inside the pub, all outside getting their dose of sun!
My Happy Travels 