Lake Country, England: York Arrival May 16

We planned on walking to the bus stop in time to hop on the 1645 bus to the San Francisco Airport. We waited 45 minutes. Fearing we had made an interpretive error of the bus schedule, we called our dear friend, Mary Joyce, who without hesitation, offered to pick us with the stipulation, if the bus came, we would take it. Of course, the bus arrived first.

Thank you Mary!

I checked with a fellow retiree, a fine English Chap, John Searles, the best course to take once landing at Heathrow. We followed his advice to activate our Britrail pass at the airport, take the express train to Paddington, take the underground to Kings Cross and finally load ourselves onto a fast train to York.

There is no way he could prepare us city neophytes with the huge dimension of a very big city transportation network. I was fortunate to speak the language. I just kept asking questions of everyone. When the train to York came up on the leaderboard and the platform 6 announced the rush was on. We just joined in and passed all the first class coaches to gain two seats near the foodbar..

I am writing this while speeding through fields painted with spring yellow flowers. Upon arrival in York we will walk to our hotel, whose tariff was greatly reduced, by applying air miles. If you find your hotel through the united airline web site, you can slide an indicator that reduces the dollar costs as it increases the mileage points. The hotel is the Marmadukes hotel 4-5 St. Peter's grove. Very fancy. We will stay in York for three nights.

Upon settling into our hotel we were informed the best fish and chips were served at The Old Star Inn on Seagate Street. A suggestion to the older wanderers who haven't been physically active during the day: buy one meal and share it. Just look at Joan's portion!

York is a must see city. For the next two days we will traipse around the back allies. The breathtaking Cathedral took 250 years to build and contains England's greatest concentration of medieval stained glass. more tomorrow