A long dreary drive from Edinburgh saw us making a late
arrival at a caravan park outside of Scarborough with a pub nearby where we had
a delicious and inexpensive dinner at their carvery, one of the very few meals
we ate out in England.
We woke up to another rare day of sunshine, just a perfect
day for exploring Scarborough Castle and the beach. Once again the serendipity of travel shone upon
us. Scarborough castle was having a
re-enactment of the siege of 1645. The
Sealed Knot group were dressed in wonderful period costumes, demonstrating
working weaponry, medical techniques and cooking authentic meals of the 17th
Century. There were sword lessons for
the kids and battle re-enactments.
Unfortunately we could not stay to see the battle but it was a fantastic
opportunity to see a glimpse of the English Civil War period.
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| Civil War troops marching |
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| Cooking for the troops |
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| The ladies having a modern cuppa |
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| The ruins of Scarborough Castle |
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| Camp followers |
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| Beautiful view on a beautiful day |
We walked along the Scarborough beach soaking up the
atmosphere but not braving the cold waters.
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| Scarborough Harbour |
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| Scarborough beach with the castle on the bluff |
We continued our drive south stopping for a few hours at the
ancient and historic walled city of York. The architecture was stunning
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| Medieval wall |
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| York |
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| York Minster |
Just one more day left before we must return our little
campervan that has been home for 3 weeks.
Our last day on the road trip was spent in Cambridge. I liked Cambridge much better than
Oxford. Oxford seemed a bit grubby and down
and out but Cambridge had a real vitality to it. We had dinner at the historic Eagle Pub, the
site where Watson and Crick announced the discovery of DNA. Quite thrilling.
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| The blue plaque commemorating the discovery of DNA |
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| The Eagle where the announcement was made |
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| Norman church - oldest building in Cambridge built in 1033 |
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| The door of Cavendish Laboratory where Watson and Crick and Franklin worked |
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| Cambridge |
Bob made a beeline pilgrimage to Pembroke College and was in
heaven to be walking in the footsteps of Clive James. The porter kindly let us explore all around this
beautiful college and Bob had a long chat with him about ‘the old days’.
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| Pembroke courtyard |
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| Pembroke Library where supposedly Clive James spent very little time |
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| Pembroke dining hall |
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| Bob walking in the footsteps of James |
On our way out of Cambridge we stumbled upon Coningston RAF
base and joined the plane spotters as the ground crew got the planes out of the
hanger for an air show.
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| DC3 Dakota |
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| Spitfire |
So ended our road trip of England, Wales and Scotland. It only served to wet my appetite to travel
more of through this amazing land, but then I haven’t been to France or Spain
or Eastern Europe or........
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