Our first day in the UK

Tuesday 24 July

I need to reiterate, the trip across the English channel was very smooth. We slept well in our cabin and we woke in time to enjoy more of our cabin munchies. The ride into Hull terminal is a lot longer than you’d think, and we had a good three quarters of an hour manoeuvring time before we final berthed. This gave us plenty of time to check our belongings and have a cup of coffee.

Immigration was also very straight forward and we were soon outside the terminal and hopping into a taxi that would take us to the hire car place. Don’t ever hire a satnav. We found that it was cheaper to buy one, than take 5 days hire (and we are going to need one for the next three weeks we are driving around the UK). We’re  pleased with our purchase…it even warns us about impending speed cameras! …and there are hundreds of them.

We have booked tonight in our first airbnb place. A simple upstairs room owned by a Mrs Gillian Lemon. She was there to greet us when we arrived, gave us a key to our room and a map of how to find our way around York. She did tell us it would be a 10 minute walk to town…it was actually a 35 minute walk to town and today it was very hot.

We enjoyed just wandering for a bit to start with, then found the tourist office and booked a ride on the sightseeing bus and boat ride. Both these were a relaxing way to learn a bit about the town and catch a little fresh air every now and then.

We walked through town some more, thinking we might see some museums. The two we stopped at- the Viking Museum and York Castle Museum were quite steep in price, and we only had 40 minutes left. We walked up the steps to Clifford’s tower, but again they wanted money we were not willing to pay. Instead, we decided to walk the town wall. This was a great choice and it was interesting looking at the rooftops for a change. The museum gardens were also a great place to wander through and watch all the people out enjoying the late afternoon sunshine on the grass.

We decided to stop and have an early pub tea- a salad each, before heading back on the 35 minute walk home. It was still really hot when we got back, and we were more than ready to put our feet up and relax for a bit.