The location of the conference/retreat we were helping with was an old country manor house in Hertfordshire which had been expanded to become a large Christian conference center. I enjoyed some morning walks in the countryside before responsibilities began each day! We had unusually hot weather for the area, in the 80s mid-day. The mornings and evenings were lovely for lingering on the lawn in conversation or a game. The company was even better.
After my responsibilities with the church were finished, my mom came to join me for personal vacation the following week. We met at the London Heathrow airport. Because most of the trains from London to York (our stay for the night) were sold out, we ended up taking an Uber several hours away. I know, I never thought I would be one of those people who would take a taxi to another city. It ended up being cheaper for us to split the taxi fare than get two train tickets at last minute notice. Though we only had a few evening hours to enjoy York, the sun didn’t set until close to 9:30, giving us more daylight hours for exploring.
York is a very old medieval, coastal city. We walked around York Minster (the cathedral) and while there, saw this statue of Constantine the Great. There was a plaque that explained that Constantine had been declared emperor near that site in 306 AD. That surprised me a little and I wondered if it meant it was the where the British nobility affirmed him as emperor while he was in Rome. After researching it, I found out that Constantine himself was actually on the spot! He was with his father, the emperor, in York when his father died. The army immediately declared him emperor even though he wouldn’t have been so by succession rights at the time.
We also enjoyed walking down the old medieval shopping streets like the Shambles and got fish and chips for dinner. We ended the day by going up on the medieval city walls (a section of which was right by the Air B&B where we were staying). It was drizzling just a bit, I suppose so we could have some proper English weather. We thought it was interesting to note that despite the off-and-on rain, everyone seemed to have their windows open, including skylights.
For Mom’s first full day in England, we took the train from York to Kendal in the morning. The train ride was an experience itself. On the first leg, there was a group of retired people on a special outing. They were a jolly party, loudly talking to each other in different parts of the car where they found seats, swapping quizzes to do, cracking jokes about their pensions, the men asking for their picnic lunch (sausage rolls) from their wives a few hours early, etc. “Doris, where’s my chocolate bar?” (said loudly in a Yorkshire accent) is now a favorite phrase of mine. When our train got running behind, one woman asked her husband to ask the conductor to hold their next train for them. He said they didn’t do that anymore. I’m not sure if the group made their connection or not, but I hope they had a wonderful outing! We did make our connection just in time!
We spent three nights in Kendal with a sweet family who was kind enough to let us use two separate guest rooms they had, which made our time there so restful. After our train ride, we took the first day easy. We walked from the house down a steep descent into the town and up the hill on the other side to Kendal Castle. Only the ruins remain, but this was where Catherine Parr, the 6th wife of Henry VIII, was born. It was open like a city park with trails, nice views, a few historical plaques or markers, and lots of people walking their dogs, running, etc. Walking back down into town, we got dinner at an “Italian” place that was run by Afghanis and served halal food. We got very tasty gyros. The young man behind the counter told us his story as a refugee. He showed a lot of warm middle eastern hospitality and generosity, offering us bottled water and generous samples of things we didn’t order, etc.
We enjoyed our gyros on the back porch of the house and then walked in the other direction, away from the city on a public footpath toward Scout’s Scar. This area had a very scrubby, wilderness appearance. There were lots of barrows, so you had to watch your step not to trip over them. We also encountered some very shaggy cows (the cows were all dark brown and the calves were all white). The sky was very overcast (which was beautiful) but we unfortunately cut our walk a little shorter than we would have preferred for fear we would get caught in a storm (as our host had recently).
Over the next few days, we would explore the Lake District more fully. I’ll post more next week!
Welcome To The Carriage House 