23rd to 26th August - York I must admit the transport systems in the UK are brilliant. I utilised the train network to travel up across to York, getting a lovely view of Leeds on the way through. York is a stunning city surrounded by sections of an ancient wall, a wide river and loads of beautiful gardens. As always I did some exploring and sightseeing, however some of this was with a friend - YAY. I was grateful to have a friend to be with, catch up with and just have some fun seeing the sights with someone. Daniela, from Contiki, was in York and we spent a day together. Civilised morning tea at Betty's Tea House, exploring part of the city wall and generally wandering and taking in the pedestrianised cobbled streets and lanes. I took myself of a tour of Roman York. It was very interesting and the guide was full of information, however he is right in saying that most of the information he gives is lost in the ethers of our heads as we tend to only take in a third!! He's right :) But I do remember that the old part of the city wall was constructed in 71A.D. Now that's pretty impressive, and that there is many different walls built around the city, some over/on top of the old walls, others inside parts of old wall. Oh and he took us to this amazing old church - the Trinity Church. It's not been used for centuries (I think not since the 1500's). It was built in the 1300's, has no running water or electricity, it's floors are wonky as are the pew boxes. It's just stunning. Naturally I did a little shopping, managing to walk home with not too many things each day. I even resisted buying a teddy at the Teddy Bear Shoppe. Actually there wasn't anything there that really caught my attention. My visit to York ended at the train station were I passed a mass of people crowding one platform and the walk over bridge. So I asked why everyone was standing here. Her response "The Flying Scotsman is due into the station at any minute" "Oh, I see. Well then I might stay and look", despite having hardly the vaguest idea what this 'Flying Scotsman' was, aside from a small hunch it might be some train. *smile* And low-and-behold it was an old steam-engine train. So I took some pics and quickly made my way to my platform so as not to miss my train.