England is funny

We drove up from Canterbury to York yesterday... via Norwich. A bit of a diversion, but we did get here eventually.

I saw the funniest thing I ever saw yesterday. A guy was riding his bike up the wrong side of a busy street, no helmet, a fag hanging out of his mouth, shouting "#&$^# it!" into his mobile phone. It struck me as the stupidest, silliest and most hilarious thing I have seen. Had to be there I guess.

English people swear a lot, too, by the way.

There were painted elephants all through Norwich, too. Great big ones.

When we were at the Cathedral in Norwich we bought a CD of choir music based on the "shewings" of Julian of Norwich and we listened to that in the car all the way up here. It was absolutely beautiful.

Now we are in York, we are amusing ourselves with finding out how many things end in "-by". Whitby, Kirkby, Brawby, Helperby, Roxby, Slingsby, Whenby, Newby, Duggleby... they go on and on!

Today we crammed as much into York as we could in one day. This morning we went through the Minster, and I even joined David to climb the 275 steps up to the top of the centre tower. Wow! What a view! What vertigo! The Minster is beautiful, and what is most special is that they have preserved parts of the Roman undercroft so you can see column bases, bits of wall, and even some beautifully painted plaster.

Then we wandered down the tiny medieval shopping precinct in York. There is one street called "The Shambles" where there are lots of boutique stores. We went in the Teddy Bear and Tea Rooms, where there were all sorts of collectible bears, and we had a cream tea upstairs.

After we went back to get the car, we drove out to Howard Castle, a stately home which would have been even more beautiful if the sun had been shining. We've had lots of rain today so we couldn't enjoy the grounds.

We tried after walking a mile through a farm to reach a deserted medieval village but we decided the reason it was deserted was that everyone who lived there got lost on the farm going back after going to the shops and decided they couldn't be bothered, just like us.

Then we drove home and got lost in York, which was rather funny, too.

I have been a misery guts today. Because of the humidity, or the washing powder, or something, I have horrible prickly heat. The only thing that will stop the prickly heat is Benadryl, which also makes me feel a bit sick and sleepy. So this morning I was sick and sleepy (not good when you are climbing up 275 steps to the top of a tall tower) and then this afternoon because we got stuck in the rain and the breeze, my shoulder froze up and I've been grumbling about that too.

Sproggies, I miss you so much. We have bought you some lovely presents (and for others too). We're going to visit Auntie Marie and Uncle Bob tomorrow, before going to Bath.