On Sunday (15/08/2021) we took our leave from Richard (Hilary’s starter husband) and Jill’s hospitality full of full English breakfast and headed north. We drove through Bristol with it‘s iconic Clifton Suspension Bridge.
Our destination was Nottingham where we had booked a room in the Nottingham Riverside Travelodge. Our friends Annie and Ian came along in the evening and whisked us off to Castle Rock Brewery pub the Poppy & Pint (formerly a Royal British Legion Club, hence the Poppy) for a meal.
Annie Ross had mistyped her surname on the online booking form!
Vera went back home with them for a holiday in Cotgrave while we went further north. The Poppy & Pint presented us with an impressive rainbow implying that Nottingham was a pot of gold.
With the pub wifi activated, Steve had an email in regard of a Falcon Nimbus Folding Bicycle that he had bid on in Oxford at the beginning of August. He won the bike with the highest bid of £60 plus £3.95 postage and packing.
The initial response was “Hi Stephen, this is my first venture into selling on ebay so apologies for being naive as I thought that the above sale included delivery in the price but clearly it doesn`t. Frankly, given your location in Somerset it would either cost a fortune for delivery by `parcel` post or in my travel costs. Apologies again and I will of course refund any payments you have made. Kind regards, Malcolm”.
However, ebay was not having any of it and informed him that he had entered into a legal contract to supply the bike to the highest bidder. Steve advised him to use Hermes to send it to Heyford Wharf at a cost of £10. It finally arrived there on Saturday 20th August 2021!
Steve should have realised that Malcolm was new to the game as this photograph on his ebay listing was posted upside down.
On Monday (16/08/2021) we had breakfast in the misleadingly named Riverside Farm adjoining the Travelodge. Here our fellow diners were oafish manual workers who swore heartily as they ate noisily, coughed and sniffed, and talked with their mouths full. One fat fellow stripped down to his wife-beater vest to tackle his full English breakfast buffet.
We took to the motorways and headed north to stay with our friends Mule (Dave) and Katrina in an AirBnB at Rawcliffe in York.
We took the bus into York city centre after settling in to our accommodation. Ancient remains were everywhere tracing the history of York back to Roman times and earlier.
We walked around the city walls after being disappointed that the “Grayson Perry: The Pre-Therapy Years” Exhibition at the York Art Gallery was closed today.
We did a circuit on the top of the old city walls after ascending the stairs to the tower at one of the gates, although the gates are called bars and the streets are called gates!
The walls are punctuated by four main gatehouses, or 'bars', (Bootham Bar, Monk Bar, Walmgate Bar and Micklegate Bar below). These restricted traffic in medieval times, and were used to extract tolls, as well as being defensive positions in times of war.
The original walls were built around 71 AD, when the Romans erected a fort (castra) occupying about 50 acres or 21.5 hectares near the banks of the River Ouse. The rectangle of walls was built as part of the fort's defences. The foundations and the line of about half of these Roman walls form part of the existing walls.
The city was thronging with tourists and open topped tourist buses were doing the rounds with guides explaining the history and geography in York in many languages.
One of York’s not-to-be-missed public houses, the Phoenix, was not open until 16:00 hrs. and rather than wait for 2 hours we went on to Dyls Cafe Bar at Skeldergate Bridge for some light refreshment.
Dyls was based in this tower, which is part of the bridge.
We sat outside overlooking the River Ouse and the old Bonding Warehouse. The idea of a bonding warehouse for York had been discussed since 1833 when merchant traders held a meeting in Merchants Hall, York.
By August 1873, the warehouse was so “busy” and “packed full of goods” that by June 1874, plans had been drawn up to build an adjoining block of three storeys.
There were great old buildings everywhere, many of them now shops.
We had to visit The Blue Bell Inn as it was another unmissable attraction of York. Established in 1798, The Blue Bell is York’s smallest and most beautiful pub. Last decorated in 1903 and retaining all of it’s Edwardian charm, a drink in The Blue Bell is a step back in time.
Sadly their not-to-be-missed pork pies had not been delivered that day and we had to make do with crisps and peanuts.
We wandered through the city centre and back to the bus stop for our return to Rawcliffe. Modern businesses had been spliced into ancient buildings.
Our walk took us in the shadow of York Minster, which dominated the scenic city.
In the evening Mule fed us a fine curry with natural yoghurt and mango chutney and Katrina introduced us to The Brokenwood Mysteries, which is a New Zealand detective, drama television series.
On Tuesday (17/08/2021) we introduced Mule and Katrina to Clarkson’s Farm, on Amazon Prime Video via our Roku stick and their wifi.
Then we were back on the road again to stay at Keith and Sarah’s house in Nottingham. Annie and Ian brought Vera back to us and Keith did us proud with a meat pie while Sarah did our laundry.
After a fine full English breakfast on Wednesday we drove back to Heyford Wharf where we unloaded the van and Hilary took it back to Enterprise in Bicester.
We moved back onto The Duke and got ready to continue our continuous cruising. Vera was keen to revisit the local pub but we resumed eating on the boat, with Hilary manning the galley.
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