Out and about in Whitby

York part 2

Quick update to say i'm in york for the next wee while, earning some £'s at nestle in the purchasing team. I will post piccies of my trips to Scarborough and Durham when i can get to a computer.

Manchester, Cambridge, Worthing and Brighton

Its been a while since I posted anything, but I have been out and about seeing the countryside.

I spent 3 days in Manchester, two of which we were spent handbag shopping, drinking too much and recovering from drinking too much. But on the Monday I checked out the cathedral and John Rylands library before getting the train back to York. The cathedral was apparently bombed during WW2, but the only noticeable modern features were the stained glass windows. The decorations are mainly carved  from wood and feature some pretty bizarre scenes like rabbits cooking a hunter. The library was very impressive. Mrs Rylands was an extremely wealthy lady after her husband left her several million pounds (in the 1880's) and so she decided to build a library to remember him by. Its a really interesting building with some really old documents in the collections but unfortunately a couple of the rooms were closed for electrical work so I didn't get to go into the reading rooms.

Stained glass window in the military chapel

Manchester Cathedral.

John Rylands Library - I have no decent piccies of the inside as the lighting wasn't so great for photo taking.

The next weekend I went to Cambridge for three days to meet up with another friend. Although the weather was pretty rubbish we managed to have a picnic, visit some friends of hers, see a movie and go on a half price punting tour (in the rain!), all in 3 days. We were hoping the weather would be fine enough to hire our own punt, but that didn't happen. The tour was interesting, we learned about Prince Charles during his time at Trinity College (apparently his bodyguard sat the same exams and got better grades... oops). The scenery was nice, but it would have been better if we could have eaten our strawberries in the sunshine and not under an umbrella in the pouring rain.

Bridge of Sighs with some interestingly dressed people in a boat.

The "grasshopper" clock. Looks like someone took an ugly deep sea fish head and stuck it on top of a grasshopper. I think it is Kings College reflected on the glass.

Unconscious drag queen ken, aka salt and pepper stand in a cambridge cafe.

Last Thursday I went down to the south coast. I had a job interview in Worthing on the Friday afternoon and decided since it was going to cost me a fortune I would stay for the weekend. Finally I was treated to some sunshine! Three days in a row, I was beginning to think that was impossible for this country. The south coast is really nice. Worthing was fairly quiet but nice. I stayed in a really nice B&B that I would thoroughly recommend to anyone heading in that direction - Camelot House. I had a very impressive range of very tasty food to choose from at breakfast and I was picked up and dropped off at the train station. I decided to go to Brighton for the day on Saturday and was highly amused at the recommendation of an elderly couple at breakfast that I go and see the Ladyboys of Bangkok. They put on a cabaret in Brighton every year apparently and look prettier than most ladies (so I was told!). Sadly they only perform at night so I missed out on that one. But since it was festival and fringe there was plenty of other performances to keep me entertained. Live music, street theatre, markets and the oddball locals (lady pushing a couple of pugs around in a pram etc.) The best was a guy who managed to get 5 men to put silly hats on, dance the YMCA (with man number 5 the exclamation point), pelvic thrust, do forward rolls and generally make fools of themselves. I also managed ice cream on the beach, but I didn't feel the need to pay 2 pound to hire a striped chair.

Worthing from the Pier.

Brighton Pavilion.

So that was me for the last few weeks. I'm back in York now, for another week at least.

York round 1.

Just a quick update to let you know I've been in York a week and it hasn't stopped raining since I arrived. Seen some of the sights (from the outside) but mainly spent my days jobhunting and relaxing. Hopefully it will clear up next week! Manchester this weekend, Cambridge the next and back to York in between so I should have something more interesting to post about next week.

The problem with Edinburgh is that there are too many pretty buildings...

Sorry this is a bit of a long one...

I've spent the past week hanging out in Edinburgh, being a tourist and getting to grips with the local shops. But what I've really been here to do, and at which I have failed utterly, is set up a bank account. Welcome to British bureaucracy! In order to get a bank account I need proof of a UK address... I can apparently use my national insurance number confirmation for this. In order to get an NI number I had to ring a number and request the forms, which they will post to me, taking 7-10 working days. I then fill it out, send it back and wait another 10 working days to get the number. I will be visiting my friend in York (who is kindly letting me use her address) quite a bit I think. So in 3 weeks I may just have a bank account! Watch this space.

So on to my tourist adventures. I've visited the National Museum of Scotland, climbed Carlton Hill and Arthur's Seat, wandered around Edinburgh Castle, looked at the stained glass windows in St Giles, and visited Bobby's grave at Greyfriars.

On Carlton Hill

Inside the Museum

Greyfriars

Greyfriars Bobby

Up Arthurs Seat

Across town from Arthurs Seat

Me and Susan up Arthurs Seat.

This could be anywhere in NZ, but no its Scotland! Gorse in its natural habitat people.

I spent 5 hours wandering around Edinburgh Castle. There is the national war museum on the grounds as well as a number of exhibits in the castle. Although it was £15 to get in, it was definitely worth it. There was a lot of security around the Scottish crown jewels, but their value probably lies more in that they are the oldest crown jewels in Europe rather than their actual jewels. I suspect the London ones have a bit more bling, but will need to go check those out to confirm.  I went on the 30 minute guided tour and basically the history of the place largely revolves around people being held prisoner, executed or various factions trying to win back the castle. Our guide also told us the story of Private McBain, whose wife gave birth and decided shortly afterwards to go back to England. She gave her husband the three week old baby and being sent out to fight immediately and with no one to give the kid to he stuck it in his knapsack and carried it into battle. Apparently they both survived and the kid grew up ok. I was also surprised to find out that they have a dog cemetery for all the army dogs since Queen Victoria's day. There are a lot of cannons around, but apparently the majority have never been fired.

Edinburgh Castle

Mons Meg

One o'clock gun - fired at 1pm, followed by the time ball on Carlton Hill dropping.

National War Memorial - contains the names of the 148,000 Scotsmen killed in the first world war.

Argyll Tower - named after some guy they held prisoner there for a few months before they chopped off his head.

St Giles.

Not sure if it is the same seagull but there was one on top of this statue every time I walked past.

I've also seen some interestingly dressed people doing a half marathon and seen enough scottish kilts/scarves/accessories/tourist junk shops to last a lifetime (there are at least 10 along the Royal Mile to the Castle alone). Highlight of the week was watching a dalmatian running around the top of Arthurs Seat. A kid in front of us was eating lunch with his dad. He put his sandwich down on his bag and the dog came running over and scoffed it in about 3 bites then stuck its nose in the bag looking for more food. The poor kid didn't know whether to laugh or cry but the kid's father thought it was hilarious and yelled out to the owner "you owe me a sandwich!" The boy did get a chocolate bar out of it so probably not a bad trade, but highly entertaining watching the owner try and grab the dog.

Off to York tomorrow.

London town

Far too many hours on a plane and a tube trip later I made to Earl's Court McDonalds and met Susan as planned. While waiting I discovered the wonders of 99p porridge with pancake syrup. I've now been to Maccas several times in a week... Over the next few days we jumped on the tourist conveyer belt and checked out the main tourist sites and museums around Westminster.

Houses of Parliament

Westminster Abbey

Slavery abolition monument

Big Ben! Plus a clock tower.

Tate Britain - everything opens at 10am...

At Buckingham Palace

How do they see? @ Buckingham Palace

View from the Observatory at Greenwich

London is an interesting place, but there are far too many people for me. Greenwich and Soho were really nice and had a much nicer vibe than the area we were staying in. I will of course have to go back, as we only covered a fraction of all the things you can do in london. Highlights were as follows:

• The National Maritime Museum, which was really interesting and very well laid out. Considering that we only intended to stop to use the loos on the way to the observatory we ended up staying there for several hours.

National Maritime Museum

• Patisserie Valerie, an amazing french cafe/pastry shop. Lunch was BLT triangle sandwiches with a side salad, raspberry tart and peppermint tea. We bought a lemon tart to take back to the hostel with us! 

Om nom nom nom

• Les Miserables, an awesome show (if a tad depressing given most of the characters die) with an excellent cast. Most enjoyable.
• M&M world and Hamleys toy store - so much unneccessary stuff! So many things to photograph...

Susan meets her knight in shining armour @ M&M World

Meeting Lego Queenie at Hamleys

A breakdown for the interested:


Wed 4th: Arrived, found hostel, wandered around Battersea Gardens and scoped out the local shops. Weather - overcast, freezing.
Thurs 5th: Tate Britain, V&A, Natural History museums.Weather - overcast, freezing.
Fri 6th: Leceister Square to get theatre tickets, tubed to Greenwich (Maritime Museum and Royal Observatory), back to Soho - saw Les Miserables at the Queens theatre. Weather - sunny, freezing.
Sat 7th: Wandered from our hostel in Westminster up to Buckingham Palace, down the Mall to Trafalger Square. Wandered around the National Gallery and through Leceister Square (visitng M&M world) to Soho shops. Spent several hours in the wonderful Patisserie Valerie then checked out Hamleys toy store. Weather - overcast, freezing.
Sun 8th: Train to Edinburgh.