York

The decision to visit York came after much deliberation about how to best travel from London to Edinburgh. We explored the options: Car? Too long a journey. Train? Expensive for the 4 of us. Plane? Also too expensive with our luggage. Murray decided to look into a BritRail pass and it was much more cost effective than regular fare on a fast train. To make full use of the 3 day pass we decided to stop in York to break up the journey and give us the opportunity to visit another English city.
Who knew that the biggest horse race of the year was to take place that same day and York would be flooded with visitors taking in the race and the party that went on throughout the night? Obviously not us!! We spent a small fortune on one of the remaining hotel rooms in the city (negating most of the savings from the Rail Pass), but enjoyed our visit to York nonetheless. It was fun to watch people getting on the train at the stops near York decked out in their finest. I haven't seen that number of fastenators since watching the last royal wedding!
We walked along the wall of the old city, took late lunch in a pub, participated in Evensong at the Cathedral, and then tried to walk back to our hotel in a downpour complete with thunder and lightning. We finally ducked into another pub for a pint and to wait out the storm. The next morning, Murray and I woke early to get in a final walk around part of the city before a full English breakfast and then the train to Edinburgh. York is a beautiful city!