Edinburgh to York

We left Edinburgh around 9:30am and drove south east towards Berwick upon Tweed. Dark clouds rolled overhead as we drove an hour to the Scottish/English border! Soon we driving along the coast as we pulled into the historic village of Berwick upon Tweed! We drove down the main road and found people lining the sides and police directing traffic! We figured some sort of parade was about to happen so we quickly parked our car and joined the crowds! Sure enough a parade of horses soon came marching down the main street with police escort. They stopped at the town hall steps and there was a ceremony of sorts between some official looking people there and the horsemen. Afterwards they started singing what must’ve been the town song and then there were cheers of hip hip hooray! We had no idea what they were cheering about until we asked a little old lady who explained that it was the May Day celebrations! Sure enough there were some kids nearby who soon started dancing around a May pole! We figured this must be kinda rare nowadays so we were really fortunate to witness it!

We walked around the town a bit and after an hour there our parking time expired and we set off again! We drove 2 hours south, stopping just once for lunch at you guessed it, Burger King! We pulled into the town of Thorganby around 3pm and Paul promptly came outside to greet us! Helene it turned out was working an overnight shift and we didn’t to meet her but we managed to say hi on the phone. Paul warmly welcomed us and made us feel right at home! We had a cuppa tea in the conservatory where it was nice and warm! Paul explained that his house was subsiding and that 12 weeks of repairs would need to be done! Then it was time for a short nap/break and we managed to use his recently acquired wireless internet!

Around 5:30pm, we drove to the outskirts of York and then walked along the river Ouse towards town. As we had both visited York before, parts of it became familiar! We walked along the walls - something I missed out on last visit - and then through parts of town with Paul as our personal local tour guide! With the sun setting and our stomachs rumbling, we headed back to Thorganby and ducked into the Ferryboat Inn for a drink! Di had the local apple cider which turned out to be alcoholic unexpectedly and she felt lightheaded after! We returned to Paul’s place around the corner and he started preparing our Spanish dinner-bread and sides for entrée, Basque Tuna for mains, and fresh garden grown rhubarb for dessert! All were really yummy and we were so full afterwards!

We retired into the cozy living room and Paul played us a selection of his favourite English folk rock music on CD, some of which he played along to on his guitar and harmonica! We enjoyed this until just past midnight!