Our Tour of England gets underway again today as we head to the extreme north of our little country for Yorkshire and Northumbria. As usual this is NOT a wine trip on this elongated tour, but rather based on Saxon and Medieval history and culture. We will be visiting such iconic places as Rievaulx Abbey, Bamburgh Castle, Durham Cathedral, Holy Island, taking our fill of Craster Kippers, Fish and Chips, Northern Beer, and staying in places like Whitby, Harrogate, Durham and Alnwick. You can follow us via the daily “Postcard From …” posts, and if you missed how this tour began then read below.
Most of our readers have been very complimentary about us embarking on a tour of our own country, England, not Britain. We have no bias against any other part of our great Union, just a common sense approach that made it easier to manage for 12 months. The Welsh castles and Scottish islands will all get their turn! Not sure about Northern Ireland yet, more research needed.
It all began just before our annual trip to Burgundy in July, a feeling that we had missed something brought on by our grand Europe escapades of 2016 …… Paris, Bruges, Rome, Budapest, Prague, Estepona, Madrid …… each city visit driven by a desire to see something specific ….. The Louvre, Tyne Cot, Ostia Antica, The Danube, The Slav Epic, The El Bosco Exhibition. It was this list of items, venues, events that steered us towards each city and it brought on a realisation that THIS was how we should plan our future travels.
The first list to emerge has 46 items on it, all of them in England! None are in London, the North West or Cumbria. I was born in Cumbria and have completed all of The Wainwrights, visited every lake, eaten Herdwick lamb and occasionally lapse into my Cumbrian accent. We lived in the North West of England for 15 years where both our children were born, worked in three different types of industry, and became deeply interested in The Industrial Revolution. To round it all off we have worked in, visited, and had property in London for 12 years too so had weekend access to theatres, restaurants, museums, sport, with our favourite area being The Embankment between Waterloo Bridge and The Globe.
These 46 items have been chunked into 5 geographic areas: The Industrial Midlands, The South Coast, The South West, Yorkshire Plus, Northumbria Plus. (The “Plus” just means other bits added such as a bit of Durham or a bit of Lincolnshire) Now Read the full introduction
Tour of England: The South West ……. tour end! 
Tour of England: Postcard #8 Rochester and The Medway 
Postcard from England: #7 Dover Castle 
The Two Doctors 
I look forward to reading more about Yorkshire!
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Two of my favourite counties!
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