September 15, York

oh the grand old duke of York
he had ten thousand men
he marched them up to the top of the hill
and he marched them down again
and when they were up they were up
and when they were down they were down
and when they were only half way up they
were neither up nor down.



street in York

Up bright and early for our breakfast in the Hall.
We are so glad that we decided to stay at a college.  It has been a neat experience.  Had breakfast with a man who has just come to Oxford to get his PhD in Risk Management.

As we decided to leave early rather than at noon we thought it best to call Alamo and make sure they had a car for us.  Nope, no Alamo in the phone book.  The porter at the lodge opened a brand new yellow pages for me but it wasn't there.  He did find it on line.  Europcar (Alamo is run by Europcar in Britain).  They had a car, the porter called a cab for us and off we went.  The cabbie, Asian descent, was upset with people from Eastern European countries for taking all the jobs.  Bit of irony there.

The moment of truth, would the car rental take Roy's temporary license. " No, sorry, can't be done, it is against policy. Do you have a license maam. "  Well yes, but I said it would be much better and safer if Roy drove.  They were sorry but their hands were tied.  Damn!  Then, though I knew I could do it, I really didn't want to drive.  One of the fellows went off with his cell phone and I thought, "well he's had enough of us"  We had explained what happened and that the license was a temporary one.  The plastic one would be with us in 3 days.  " We need a plastic license".  They were very nice but the rules were rules.  The man with the cell phone came back and said he had talked to their boss and it was okay.  I was ready to kiss them.  Maybe Roy was too but he stayed cooler than me.  Maybe it was good that I was a little over the top - we did get the desired result.  If I had just said, "okay, I'll drive"  that's what I'd have been doing.

The car

We got an orientation on the car. It is a tiny, silver hybrid Toyota Auris.  The boot is so little it won't hold our luggage.  I bought a black blanket at a service stop on the M1 to cover the bag that has to live on the back seat.  It is about 1 inch too long.  After the orientation we pulled a few feet away from Europar's door and went over everything, got out the GPS (Andromeda) and the map. Off we went, I missed the exit on the first Rotary (roundabout) so we went around again and got going toward the North.  It was a long drive but Roy was great and so was Andromeda.  It's a long way from Oxford to York.  193 miles and about 4 hours.  We stopped half way at a route service stop and had a pee, a bite to eat and bought a fleece security blanket for the duffle bag on the back seat.

Andromeda took us the long way to our B&B - Linden Lodge, 6 Nunthorpe Ave.  We both had decided that we were miles from York and had been taken in by the internet.  Nope, we're a 5 - 10 minute walk to the city.  It is a walled city and it is only about a 2 mile walk around the perimeter of the wall.  We headed straight to York Minster for the evensong service.  It was disappointing last night when Keble College Chapel was closed and there was no service.  We were a bit early so one of the ministers or priests entertained us with facts about the place. 

Evensong was beautiful, very moving.  The choir voices made you tingle.  The acoustics were so good you could understand every word and the sound was amazingly wonderful.  They sang the 69 and 70th Psalms as well as other things.  How they keep those little boys interested and quiet is beyond me.  Some of them looked Vanessa's age.  How do they read the words, let alone the music.  It is very high church so there is a lot of ritual.  They know what to do and when to do it.  The front rows are all young boys and the back rows are grown men (probably been doing it all their lives).  They have a service every day.  Hope they have more than one choir.

I have been rattling on and haven't left much for Roy so I will shut up now.

The evensong was a very moving experience.  Glad we able to get here for the service.  After the service we went to the oldest Pub in York for supper.  It was very nice but I liked the ones in Oxford better.  We went for a stroll through the older part of the city and that was really cool.  All the old buildings and short streets, like a maze.  The best thing was that the streets were empty.  Tomorrow we will have to go back and see them in the daylight.  Its quite a bit cooler now and some showers are in the area, but not on us yet.