Topdeck Time

Shereen and I arrived at the hotel departure point for our British Isle Topdeck tour with slight apprehension. The day would be awkward, no doubt. You are on a bus with 22 other people of different ages, from different countries and backgrounds and your all listening to the guy at the front of the bus promising you will all soon be best friends. We passed the first hurdle easily enough, getting up in front of all these strangers and talking about yourself for a minute (which felt like talking for 10) and as everyone went up and made a few jokes or had jokes made about them by their traveling buddy, we all started to loosen up a bit. We had a fair way to go as we were bound for York that evening, but we made stops in Oxford and Stratford-upon-Avon on the way. Shereen and I were thoroughly disappointed that the Christchurch grounds (where a lot of Harry Potter was filmed) weren't open to visitors at that time of day, but we went and got some breakfast (the tour had started very early that day) and tried not to wander too far so that we weren't the late ones back at the very first meet-up. We arrived perfectly on time, but everyone else had been early so we still felt the little pang of embarrassment at being last. This feeling wears off quickly on tour and people start caring less and less about being late and more and more about sleeping in! In Stratford-upon-Avon we visited Shakespeare's birthplace and grave, and wandered along the bank of the Avon river before grabbing a quick lunch.

We arrived in York that evening with a few hours to freshen up and explore before meeting for dinner. Our dinner gave us our first chance to mingle properly which we wasted by all sitting with the people we had been near on the bus. But it was fun watching people start to relax more, which was probably aided by the jug of Pimm's we decided to get for the table.

/Pimm's O'clock /Massive meals

/Private Shop in York

After dinner the whole group went on a Ghost Walk around the streets of York. Our guide was fantastic- really creepy but funny at the same time. We heard some of the more sordid history of the town and although we didn't see any actual ghosts it was a really fun night.

/Shambles

The next day we hit the road again to make our way up to Edingburgh. We stopped at a couple of roadhouses where a few of the boys on the tour bought kilts, as well as stopping to hike up to Hadrian's Wall which offered beautiful views of the countryside. In the afternoon we made it to Edinburgh and went on a short walk with our tour leader Tim who gave us a little bit of direction around the city.

We walked up the Royal Mile and got our first glipse of Edinburgh Castle, then we visited the site of the old gallows which are now surrounded by pubs named after people executed there. Tim told us this pretty remarkable story about Maggie Dickson who was sentenced to be hanged at the gallows but woke up as her body was being transported to the cemetery. Because her sentence had been carried out she was allowed to go free, but the wording of the hanging sentence was subsequently changed to "until dead".

/Missoni Hotel staff uniform

Next we visited Greyfriars church where we heard the sad tale of Greyfriars Bobby, a Skye Terrier who's master died and was buried in the church cemetery. Bobby sat by the grave of his master every day until he died as well and is the only animal buried in the cemetery. The story certainly didn't help lessen the amount that I was missing my own dogs.

/Bobby

After another group dinner and our first Haggis opportunity we headed home to bed.

/Haggis fritters

This post is in danger of becoming overly long again so I will wrap it up. More on the rest of our Topdeck tour next time xx