Day 3 - York

Hello there,

Today, less news about sightseeing and more about the joys of the British rail system.

Early this morning, we set off from King's Cross, taking our first train journey (unfortunately not from Platform 9 3/4). After three hours of waiting in the middle of the track due to a lightning strike (plus the planned 1h50 travel time), we arrived in York, a wonderful small town with a nice old town and a view from the city walls. After a walk on the city walls, some shopping, and chilling on a park bench, we headed back to the massively overcrowded train to Newcastle. However, this time we had a very humorous driver whose announcement made the whole train laugh: 'We probably can't hear it anymore, but he sincerely apologizes for the delay... he assumes that we should reach Newcastle at around 18:00, although he himself no longer knows why he even bothers with the time indications... he will get off at the next station, envious, isn't it...'

Well, a very nice fellow traveler from London was fortunately kind enough to offer Christine a seat after he saw her knee brace and gratefully accepted a few oat cookies in return. From him, we also learned that such disruptions on this privatized route are not uncommon.

All in all, though, a very nice and peaceful day with a lot of card playing, city-country-river, and reading.

Tomorrow we will head to Edinburgh, hopefully with a better train connection.

Until then,

Veronika and Christine