Sat. Apr. 1st, 2000 Shotley Gate - York
10C/50F Cool in the morning, short burst of rain at York, then sunny.
Len
Got up early and did our final packing. I noted, as I had the night before, that we should take the
9:43 bus to town. Left the flat at 9:35 and stood at the bus stop.
... After 15 mins. we walked down to the other stop with the schedule, which said 9:33. NOT 9:43.
D'oh! Back to the flat til the 10:43 bus. What a pain. Once at the
Ipswich Rail Station we said
our goodbyes to our host for the last week and got on the next train to London.
From there a short underground ride to Kings Cross Rail Station (with a short detour cuz I got East
and West mixed up.. it only happens when we're carrying a lot of luggage). Caught a train right away
going to York and sat in the smoking car. It was a pretty full train. We've come to the
conclusion cell phones (or mobiles as they are here) should be BANNED! The couple across the aisle
had downloaded one of those "personal" rings and would never answer until the entire 2 minute hornpipe
had played through completely 2 or 3 times. And that was only one person. Imagine 5 different
"beepy" songs all playing simultaneously over and over in a small train car. I think that will be our
idea of the 7th level of hell. 2 1/2 hours later we arrived in York. Of course it clouded over and
began raining just as the train arrived. What a BIG station!
Caught a £10 cab to our hotel, The Heworth Court Hotel. The check-in
clerk remembered our [in a panic, last minute] email exchange ;) She showed us around the place
then over to The Sutherland House, 2 doors down, where our room was. On the second floor (3 flights
of steps) of course. It was the biggest room so far. There was lots of room, but I kept hitting my
head on the sloped ceiling ;). Settled in then took a walk into town in search of an internet cafe.
It took 15 mins to get to the city walls. We found a really nice place called
Gateway Internet Cafe-Bar that was mostly iMacs, but a few with telnet on them. And good prices.
£4/hr. + coffee and Guinness available while you type.
Read email for an hour or so and then headed home to the hotel. We decided to have dinner at the
hotel that evening. We went to the lounge a bit early, ordered dinner and had a drink while waiting
for our table. Bit of a sticker shot. We had the early-bird special for £10.99 each. A very good
meal, but a bit too pricey for us. The mushrooms in garlic sauce were really wonderful, and Kels
Steak and Kidney Pudding and my garlic toast and Minute Steak Garni were quite good.
After dinner we rested the feet, read a bit, watched a little TV and decided what plans to make
tomorrow until bedtime around 11pm.
