England/Scotland Itinerary

Driving? Public transport?

Strange as it may seem it's Castle Howard (not t'other way round 😉)

Sorry about that. I will be using public transit. Also sorry I knew it was Castle Howard and mistyped.

Whitby/Robin Hood's Bay are worth visiting if you have time in Yorkshire. It's a busy schedule though.

Hi Katsrad -

Leicester? Richard lll, right? Otherwise I’m puzzled as to why Leicester. I have spent a fair bit of time in Leicester and it’s perfectly pleasant, but unless you have some personal connection there it’s hardly a crucial stop off.

And yes, I too would substitute Whitby, Robin Hoods Bay, Staithes or even Runswick Bay over Scarborough, which has its castle and Ann Brontes last resting place, but little else to recommend it. It’s a bog standard seaside tourist town, and it’s glory days are in the past. If you insist on going to Scarborough, please avoid the Grand Hotel. Looks magnificent, but frequently gets appalling reviews. It’s a long time since I entered its hallowed portals, but suffice to stay we took one brief peek and left. We did not tarry, because if you didn’t keep moving there was a danger you’d stick to the carpet!

Ian

Leceister is definitely for Richard III. I have a Masters in History and my focus of study was War of the Roses through the end of the Tudor Period. Richard III is one thing I could not skip.

As things currently stand, you have to isolate until you get the results of the day 2 test and you aren’t meant to cover half the country before you are tested. Obviously, things could change before your trip. We have had some form of Covid arrivals tests for nearly 2 years, so I can’t see this disappearing.

Plan B in case you test positive?

A too would swap Scarborough for Whitby or head to Pickering and take the heritage railway for a different day out. Alternatively, there is enough to keep you occupied in York for two full days.

My plan is to test prior to even leaving the states and if positive cancelling my trip. I have looked and can test at the airport so will probably try to do that or have a home test delivered ahead of time. If positive when I arrive in England I will figure out if I can extend my hotel stay to quarantine at and then do the testing as required.

At this point I plan on a week before my trip being home and isolating as much as possible so I have less of a chance of contracting COVID. I am vaccinated and boosted and if recommended will get an additional booster if needed. I am one of those people still masking consistently in my area.

I will look at Pickering or Whitby.

I see you zigzagging in your first few days.

While there are various possible routes from the West Midlands to York by train, I think you are spending more time on trains than you need to.

Unless you have a particular reason to zigzag - maybe for particular events - a much simpler order is Coventry (by the way why Coventry - having lived more than 10 years very close and my wife working in the centre - I can say with confidence that Coventry is not a place that most people make a beeline for - and please tell me you aren't staying at the Britannia up by the ring road and the university?), then down to Stratford-upon-Avon, (if you are Tudor, why not the centre of Warwick?), Kenilworth, and lastly Leicester. From Leicester a train to Derby and change for one for York via Sheffield is easy. Going from Stratford-upon-Avon to York means taking the slow train from Stratford-upon-Avon to Birmingham Moor Street or Birmingham Snow Hill and walking to Birmingham New Street for a Cross Country train to York.

Also, having spent more time than was actually desired attending conferences in Scarborough, the general level of accommodation in Scarborough is not high (honestly at most of the places I stayed at it did not even reach the level of low) and I wonder why you are drawn there.

I won't knock your choices because I am sure you have good choices for each, but as a local (and we have several more here) if we understood your motivations and desires we may be able to help you avoid falling into a hole.

Is this a repeat of the highlights of your 2018 trip (I wrote similar comments about Coventry and more about Kenilworth in that post) or did you miss Coventry/Kenilworth/Warwick for some reason on that trip?

I'd love to help but I'm confused....

I do agree with Jennifer that using trains and buses after you arrive without having taken the arrival covid test isn't good for the other passengers.

The Lateral Flow Test as it now is for the Day 2 test is very easy to do, cheaper than the previous PCR and very fast - 15 to 30 minutes for a result. I'd suggest that you do it on arrival.

Fair play that you'll take a test before you fly for peace of mind. Not required at the moment but a very good idea.

Hello again -

If Richard lll is an interest you might like to try and visit his original home of Middleham Castle. Now a ruin it is managed by English Heritage and dominates the village (which is also a centre for race horse training, oddly. No lie in of a morning as the clip clop of hooves serves as a - very - early alarm call). Without a car it’s tricky to reach. You’d need to get from York to Ripon (close by so fairly easy I imagine) then there is a very infrequent bus service from Ripon to Middleham - check times carefully before committing! It might be easier, if schedule will allow, to arrive on the evening bus, stay overnight and depart next day. Again, careful with those timings! Nice ride through the Dales to get there though!

Last time we stayed over, we overnighted at The White Swan. There is plenty of accommodation in the village as it’s a popular walking area and the terminus of the increasingly popular Six Dales Trail. There is, if memory serves, an office of the Richard lll Society in the village. If it is open, be prepared to be told “we wuz robbed!” Particularly on the Leicester burial and the whole ‘evil king’ reputation in general!

How do you plan to get to Castle Howard from York? Again, it can be awkward on public transport. I think there may be specific tours organised from York.

Ian

P.S. while noting and agreeing with Nigel on the whole testing thing, everything could be much different by July (he said hopefully) and the government seems to be putting a toe in the water as regards scrapping the testing thing from March onwards. Whether this is wise or not remains a currently unanswerable question but it would seem we are planning on changing from pandemic to endemic. What that will look like in July from this far out is anybody’s guess.

As if yesterday, you no longer have tobisolate while waiting for your day 2 results.

But that is moot as the rules will change many times between now and July.

So my thought with Coventry is that it will be my base to travel to Kenilworth, Leicester, and Stratford. I don't plan on changing hotels during that time. I chose Coventry based on the transit times to those places as it was fairly central.

Scarborough was a last minute choice because I thought some pictures looked nice. Obviously based on the response it will be a no go.

My 2018 trip I did miss Coventry/Kenilworth/Warwick so I want to see that.

What would be good options for a place (or places) to stay outside of London. I love London but want to see more of England than just the city, York is high on the list but I would take suggestions for other places. I don't want to drive because I honestly don't think I could or would be comfortable doing so.

I am looking for places to do the lateral flow test on arrival I am unsure if it is not open for booking yet but Heathrow doesn't have any openings.

Nobody is going to be offering testing bookings for June/July in January. You are looking way too early. By then the regulations can and probably will change several times. No good booking and paying for a PCR when you only need a LFT or maybe - who knows - nothing.

Start looking around maybe a month out, if that.

I get settling in and not uprooting every couple of days, and you can as you say get to Kenilworth, Warwick, Stratford-upon-Avon (less easily), and Leicester (also not trivial) from Coventry. Even places which are not great like Coventry have some good spots. There is the old and new Cathedral of St Michael. I've never gone into the new one because the architecture doesn't appeal to me but I do love the bells in the old bell tower. When the physical cathedral was destroyed in the bombing of the night (my father's family saw the colour in the sky all the way off in Cheltenham) of the 14th November 1940, the spirit of the bombed city lived on and the bell tower and the bells survived. These bells are still rung in changes and have a lovely tone. The ruins are well worth some devotional and contemplative time. Two of the fire charred beams fell in the form of a cross during the fire and is now on the ad-hoc altar. A very moving place.

The approach to the station has changed since I managed the traincrew there but will still include crossing the ring road on the way from the city to the station. You can either go over the ring road on a bridge or under in a subway (tunnel under the road). My wife used to walk through the subway as she walked to work (and home) but was only happy doing that when enough people were around - in fact she took later trains on holidays and weekends. I'm sure it is fine but more pleasant with others. There used to be rough sleepers under the cover (harmless) but years on I don't know now.

Also Scarborough isn't a total loss either. There are two (!!) funicular cliff lifts to get down to the sand. And there is actual sand, unlike many English beaches. You can have an ice cream and walk along the front and enjoy the seaside atmosphere. Just protect your chips or cone from the seagulls! Down the coast at Whitby you can search the shore for Jet, especially after a storm... that's where the term, jet black, comes from...

I think I mentioned in your previous post about the Lord Leycester Hospital in Warwick - fits into the period you study with parts of the building going back 700 years and then the Elizabethan improvements, and up through the centuries. Unfortunately the Hospital closed to the pubic at Christmas just past for major restoration and won't reopen until summer 2023. https://www.lordleycester.com/

The contemporary glass in the new Coventry Cathedral is lovely.

It sounds as if your historical focus is much earlier than mine, but I managed to stay in Coventry and day trip to Bletchley Park to see the codebreaking center.