The English Adventure continued today with a walking trip to downtown Lancaster for chai tea and a look into Mary and Martin’s favorite bookstore. Afterward we jumped into their very smallish car for a ride East to the lovely hamlet of Kirkby/Lonsdale in York. OK, here’s where I’m not sure if the actual name of the town is Kirky, or Lonsdale, or they’re just two towns right next to each other. It looked like one town to me. Whatever it was, it was beautiful. The town itself has been pretty much preserved from the original so the buildings are the same as they were when they were built ages ago. There are shops and restaurants there and in fact we had lunch in one such place. I had a lovely chicken bacon baguette and a juice of the day. It was very tasty. But, I digress… though the shops and restaurants are newish, the buildings they’re in are not. The combination of the whole thing is terrific. It was an amazing little town. Lovely.

After getting back to Lancaster today we took a quick trip to the University where Mary will study and work and Martin is already working. The sneak peak of that place was followed by a walk from their house to a pub close by called the Water Witch. It’s a great place on a nearby canal. We each enjoyed a beer and some conversation.

This evening, after the Water Witch visit, Mary and Martin made us a lovely Scottish pie for dinner. It’s been a great day. We are still slightly recovering from our long day of travel yesterday. Even after sleeping for 12 hours (yes, 12 hours) I’m feeling a bit tired. Almost normal, yet not. That will come, I’m sure, after another great nights sleep in the guest room.

Stay tuned… pictures are coming. I’m actually uploading them to flickr as I type and will ferry some over here after that job is complete.

Tomorrow… the Lake District. We’re going to drive up, park the car, take a ferry ride, then walk back toward the car along the shore. The lake district is supposed to be the most beautiful area of the country. If that’s true, since everything has been beautiful up to now, we should enjoy it very much.