Barry got all the practice he'll ever want driving country roads today! We decided to take the scenic route to York through the Yorkshire Dales and saw some wild countryside. Gone are the manicured, perfect roads and instead the trees and bushes grow where they will. We enjoyed the drive, though by the time we got to Thirsk, we were ready to find a major road again. Before arriving in Thirsk, Barry inquired into where James Herriot's house was and didn't get much of an answer; but when we got lost trying to leave Thirsk, we pulled up to a curb to check the map, looked out the window, and discovered we'd parked directly in front of the famous writer's house and museum. Funny how things turn out.

Hitting a main highway was a nice change and we made great time to York. That time was wasted, though, when we arrived and found ourselves totally lost within the walled part of this great town. We asked for directions, and then asked for directions, and then asked for directions and when we'd been honked at several times, we finally pulled out of the walled city to collect ourselves. The problem? Well, the people of York give directions this way:

"Oh, that's easy. Take the first left; you'll see a building across from a little fountain that will have a lot of people walking on it; then you'll see the lights, so don't take that left, but the next left; then follow it around a bit and you'll see another bridge, so you can take that one or keep going and go around it and then it'll be up on the second right, but not the "little right" because that's a turn-around... but I'm not really sure that's the hostel you're looking for. Cheers!"

Needless to say, we were a little frazzled but relaxed once we discovered we'd driven right past the hostel 20 seconds before we started looking for it. We ended up in a lovely room, 10 minutes walk from the oldest part of York. There was a free walking tour, so after dinner in a pub called "The Punchbowl" (built 450 years ago), we took a two and a half hour walking tour all around the city. Our tour guide was brilliant and we had a nice small group so we could hear everything and we learned much history with a few ghost stories to boot.