The Cotswolds & York

February 22^nd, 2026 

Naomi flew into England on the same day that I took the ferry back from France, but she spent a night in London with her cousin before hopping on the train to Weymouth.  The following day, my aunt Shirley, my cousin Sid and his wife Sonia and their two kids, Naomi and I took the dogs for a walk in the woods.  It was a bit rainy, but not too bad.

At the end of the walk, there was this "dog washing" station near a cafe.  We decided to give it a try...although I'm not sure if the dogs were crazy about the idea.

Naomi working on Sid's dog, the springer spaniel Rico.

On the right is my other cousin Gemma's dog, Nala.

Somewhat clean dogs back in the car for the ride home.

The following day, Saturday, Auntie Shirley, Naomi and I went to see the 12:30 showing of the Alice in Wonderland dance show.  Gemma’s three girls, Pippa, Annabel and Rose were all participating in the event.  They have been regularly attending a dance school for years, learning ballet, tap and some other types of dancing.  The show is biennial and Naomi happened to be with me in England at their last performance which was based on the Wizard of Oz.

 

The girls were brilliant, with Pippa playing the role of the White Rabbit.  She and Annabel were in somewhere between 10-13 dance numbers and Rose was involved in 3 or 4.  Unfortunately, no filming or photography is allowed during the performance, so I don’t have anything to show of their show.

At the crack of dawn on this day, Sunday, Naomi and I set off for York, about 5-6 hours north.  We made a few stops along the way, and our main one was in the village of Bourton-on-the-Water in the cute region of the Cotswolds.

The River Windrush flows through the town.

We didn't bother visiting the Cotswold Motoring Museum but I did like the "organic mini" outside.

We were met with a lot of traffic for a small village when we first arrived but soon realized that there was a 10 km fun run just finishing up.  You can see a few runners stretching here.

There were some lovely old buildings.

The Ace of Spuds, the Ace of Spuds!  (for those of you who know the Motorhead song)

Oh, a candy shop!

Long, soft, chewy licorice known as "whips" in England.

This was a sign that Naomi saw in the women's public toilet (which cost 40 p for a pee).  She got a kick out of the tea bags being an item that needed to be pointed out to not through in the toilet.  Funnily enough, as she mentioned it to me, I reached into my pocket and produced a tea bag that I had taken from my aunt's place in the morning...so I guess it is a real threat!

We arrived in the cathedral city of York and checked into the Churchill Hotel, which was a short walk from historic centre including York Minster.  The hotel had a WWII feel to it (the name helped) and later, talking with a young lady at the desk, we found out that it was used by the War Department during the war and there was a chance that Winston Churchill had stayed there…cool!

The hotel had a very narrow, stone gate entrance and the parking was tight.  I was kinda glad not to be driving Octi!

Walking up the grand staircase (which also meant that there were no elevators...so we had to carry our bags up to the room).

On the upper floor...

The room tour.

Settling in...for a moment.

Being a Sunday, we knew that the hours were limited for visiting York Minster so we headed off to the cathedral.  Unfortunately, we were too late.  Technically it was still open, but they weren’t selling tickets anymore.  Oh well, we decided that we’d walk around the old town and check out the big church in the morning.

It certainly is impressive!

The lovely church bells were ringing.

First on Naomi’s “must see” list was “The Shambles”.  I have to admit that I had not heard of this historic street in York before.  Some of the buildings on this narrow, pedestrian-only street date back to the 14th century.  It has some timber framed buildings with the second floor overhanging the street by several feet.  The word shambles derives from Old English sċeamol (“bench, stall”), referring to market or butcher’s stalls that used to line with butcher shops (31 of them in 1885…but none left today).

The historic area of York seems to have a "haunted" history and there were a few stores selling ghost figurines.

Walking through The Shambles.

As we wandered down “shamble lane”, a man in his 60s with greyish white hair, all dressed in black complete with a top hat, cape and cane, stopped us while pulling out a small advertising card.  In a low, slightly spooky voice, he questioned whether we were interested in participating in a haunted walking tour in the evening.  He pointed out a small, nearby doorway and asked whether we’d been inside that building…uh, no, so we entered.  It turned out to be a small chapel with a dark past written on the wall of some woman losing her life there.  While inside, we decided to book the tour…let’s get spooky!

That's Falkor, the dragon from the 1984 movie "The Neverending Story" inside a perfume/incense shop.

The store also had these disturbing baby head scented candles.

This is "The Shop That Must Not Be Named", one of a few Harry Potter themed stores in York.

Park your broom here.

A sign for the 9 3/4 platform for the Hogwart's Express.

There were many magic wands from different characters in Harry Potter.  I assume that they were for sale, but it wasn't obvious as there were no price tags.

The River Ouse that runs through the city.

A Moroccan restaurant, which I was not interested in trying out seeing as I was never blown away by the food while I was in Morocco.

This was an interesting store.  It had the looks of "The Wind and the Willows", but in fact it was a world imagined by the owner of the store, Jayne Siroshton, called "Rookscroft".  She has written three books, painted many paintings and even created the sculptures and scenes that adorn her store...it was impressive.

Jayne was in the store, behind the counter, when we asked about the massive walrus character in the corner, she explained how she created him out of polysterene, pillows and other household items during Covid!

This diorama was visible from the street.

Her paintings were impressive.  I love the frog just to the left of centre.

Back at our hotel, we enjoyed a pizza before heading out for the haunted walking tour.

Winston kept a watch on us as we ate.

The hotel had these cool "pods" in which you could dine...if you wanted to pay 15 pounds to rent one...we didn't bother.

Heading to our haunted walking tour.

We had to pass by lovely York Minster on the way.

We arrived just in time for the start of the tour.  The same man, in the same all black outfit as earlier but also carrying a black doctor’s bag and a small step stool, asked for the group of about 30 tourists to gather around him.  I was amazed at the size of the group and quickly did some math in my head…30ish people time 12 pounds each…hmm, he’s making some good coin!  He did likely work most of the day drumming up the business on The Shambles so he did earn it.

He instructed the group to move down to a side street where he took a cursory look at our tickets.  He stood up on his little ladder and gave an introduction to the tour.  It was immediately obvious that he had a background in theatre as he was captivating, funny and definitely spooky.  He warned that one of us might be killed this evening…by a food delivery man on scooter!  One of his guarantees was that it was going to be an evening that we would never forget…and boy, was he correct on that promise!

The group followed him down a few streets, through a narrow alley and we ended up right beside the Rookscroft store from earlier.  As we walked, a light rain started but I mentioned to Naomi that it didn’t look like it would be much as I gazed up at the clouds in the night sky.  We hadn’t brought our umbrellas, and we weren’t wearing our rain jackets, just puffy ones.

Following our tour guide.

He recounted a story the ghost of a 5-year-old girl who had fallen to her death from a set of stairs inside the building as she peered down on a party below.  As we huddled around him in a semi-circle, we were instructed to hold hands as he tried to connect with her spirit as the rain began to pick up.  He warned us that sometimes she would dump a bucket of water from the top window on to the street while he magically produced a glass of water from the inner breast pocket of his jacket.  The group was entranced by his incantations as he rotated back and forth on his stepladder between looking at the building and the street.  As his invocations climaxed, he spun back around as the water from his glass was thrown up in the air and splashed on a few of us, including Naomi and I who were standing near the front of the group.  It was a good first stop for the tour.

Our next stop was York Minster.  As we arrived at the cathedral, the rain intensified, and intensified.  He had set up his stool closest to one of the church’s entrances with the group at the bottom of the steps but due to the heavy precipitation, he suggested that we move in as close to the entranceway as possible.  He began the next haunted story, but many of us in the group began to be distracted with the deluge that was falling from the skies…we were getting DRENCHED.

His story involved a trick knife that made it appear that he was cutting through his wrist as fake blood oozed out, imitating what had happened to the victim in the story.  It looked quite realistic and was impressive, but it was not as impressive as the monsoon-like rain.  

Naomi pulled on my arm, I looked at her, and she quietly mumbled to me that she was done, she was drenched and had had enough.

 

The actor, who never did tell us his name, finished the tale and began to lead the group around the side of the cathedral to the next stop.  This was our chance to duck out, and we weren’t the only ones.  Of course, the rain ceased as we made our way to the hotel, but we were soaked through.

 

Well like he promised, it was a night we would never forget!