5: Moving On..

Up early today and off to Euston Street station to get the London overground out to Watford where we pick up the hire car - Pete thought he traffic might be a bit easier to handle abit further out of London.  Seems like trains here have the same issues as at home, and the train that was supposed to go al the way didn't and we had to change and lug everything up and over to another platform where the waiting train decided it had had enough and the doors closed just as Narelle was getting on - with the bag with her boots stuck in the door and her on the platform calling "help - help'' - well the doors opened (no guards anywhere to be seen), so the others got on, but just as I'm getting in, doors closed again around me!  Lucky Pete was there to force them open.  We had been very complimentary about London trains up until now...

Anyway, picked up the car and off we head to the A1 and up to Yorkshire very uneventfully.  We stopped for lunch at Knaresborough, a great little town with origins back to the 1000's built on the banks of the Nidd River. 

We had a good walk around the town, checked out the ruins of an old fort, and walked down to the river.  The viaduct in the photo was built as a railway bridge but collapsed before it was finished - must have been finished later on as there are trains running over it now.  Walking back up the hill to town we passed a gorgeous church and when we went inside there was a guy auditioning to sing at a wedding next week - great voice, but the acoustics were amazing and combined with pipe music and the atmosphere of this beautiful old church, was just beautiful.  I took a little movie and will try and load it on later so you can experience it too.

I think this is a hare - too big for a rabbit

Back to the car and a lot of phoning around to find accommodation - it's really busy here on the weekends and not easy to find three rooms in the one place, so we ended up backtracking to York, to the Alhambra Hotel - a great find at 75 pounds a room for B&B.  Had a quick walk around town, but it started to rain, so found a pub instead where the boys sampled a few of the local brews - I think this might turn into the beer tour of the UK!  Back to the hotel for dinner - only 12.95 for two courses.  It's a little like an upmarket and well run Faulty Towers; we expected Basil, Manuel or the Major to shuffle out from the bar at any time!  We'll be back in York at the end of the walk, so probably won't spend much time here tomorrow.