A sunny day in England... finally

Yesterday we arose bright and early and had our first English breakfast in the hostel, which was very similar to the American breakfast with a couple substitutions. Then we took a private bus ride to Fountains Abbey where Leah gave the rest of us a splendid tour. Fountains Abbey is an old church with no roof that monks would stay and study at. We came back to the hostel for a short time and purchased our tickets for the Jorvik Viking center which we went to later on in the day. Next we went a bank in downtown York because all of us were in need of cash from an ATM. After that, we had our first experience in an English pub. Many of us ordered burgers and didn't recieve the vegetables on top of the burger, but we survived. Next, we made our way to the Jorcik Viking Center which gave us a short history of what the area around York used to be like and displayed many artifacts found in and around this area. We took a short walk to a Merchant's House in downtown York. Next we went to Clifford's Tower which was a tower that used to be part of a castle. The tower was on top of a hill and we could see much of the city from that height. It was beautiful. Then we were released on our own into York and many of decided to go to a local grocery store and purchase items for a spaghetti dinner.

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Today: Cassidy, Emily and I woke up early and came into York hoping to go to an internet cafe, but not being able to find one that was open. So we got to do a little shopping and more exploring of the city on our own. Then we were given a tour of York Minister, which is by far my favorite cathedral thus far. All of us students climbed to the top of the central tower and were rewarded with a fantastic view of the city, this time much much higher than Clifford's tower as previously mentioned. We were released for lunch where we broke off into groups to get whatever sort of food we wanted. We went to another historical building in York only to find that it was already closed for the day, so we went to the Yorkshire Museum. This gave us an idea of how York came to be what is it today. Later on tonight we are going to a service at the cathedral and then possibly a haunted ghost tour of York.

As Emily said, it is very nice today in York and is finally finally not raining, something which all of us are very thankful for. There is no need to walk around with our raincoats and umbrellas anymore, and no more avoiding puddles.

I hope all is well back in the states, and I know all of us are having an amazing trip thus far. We will try to keep you posted over the next couple of days, but I am unsure of how much internet access we will have in Northern England. Internet is expensive here, so we try to get everything done really fast, so I apologize for spelling mistakes and other errors.

--Stephanie

Day 2-3

Mom, you think it's weird that \i don't use the top sheet, but that's normal in Europe :) We all learned what duvets and duvet covers were when we made our beds the other night.

Yesterday, we spent time at Fountains ABbey and \leah was our tour guide. We wished we could have been there longer, but we got great photos!
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We expereienced our first pub meal, then went to a museum that described medieval life of the townspeopel in \yorkk, they even tried to reproduce the smell of the time.

Later, we climbed Clifford's Tower, which sits on a hill in the city. There was an amazing view!

Last night, some of us made spaghetti at the hostel, which has a well-furbished kitchen and we have left-overs to fee dus tonight.

This morning, we toured York Minster, an amazing cathedral in the middle of the city. Us students climbed the 275 steps to the top of its tower (which was actually meant to be 2-3 times taller wehn it was first planned). We were proud we made it to the top, but there was an elderly lady at the top as well so we figured she should be alot more proud than we are. Tonight we are going to a service at the cathedral and I think most of us are planning to go on a walking Ghost Hunt tour through the city.

Tomorrow, off to Riveaux Abbey for the day!

Hoping we're actually losing weight from so much walking,#

Emily
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p.s. The sun is shining today, about 60 degreed F. We're all grateful for no umbrellas. It's much easier to hold my camera without one.

Greeted by Rain

4151 miles and 7.5 hours later, I finally got off the longest flight of my life. And the worst thought was that we flew from Minneapolis to Amsterdam, straight over England and then had to wait in the airport 3 hours before the hour flight back to England. We landed in Manchester around 11 a.m. Since we skipped over night, it was a long rest of the day. We took a train 1.75 hours to York, then prepared for the rain. Donning rainjackets, we put raincovers over our packs and umbrellas over our head and walked about 25 minutes to teh hostel. I think we all wondered what we could have left at home to make our packs weight less.

After dropping off our bags, we got a 2 hour walking tour of York-in the rain for the most part. York was once completely surrounded by a stone wall that still exists in many places so we got to walk along the wall and learn about the incredible history of the city. We are all exhausted and getting ready for bed. We look forward to tomorrw's adventure.

Hoping for sunshine and energy,
Emily

Offload Your Baggage

We have arrived safely in England today. Our trip started with (at least for me) a check-in to Mineapolis and then a 7.5 hour flight to Amsterdam that seemed to take forever. Everyone tried to sleep on the plane, but you can only sleep so long until you just have to do something else. We each had our own individual TV screens on the front of our seats so you could select your own movies or music to listen to for the duration of the flight. After arriving at our gate to fly to Manchester, we had to wait for 4 more hours until the plane started boarding. By this time, all of us were so exhausted from the time difference that we tried our best to snuggle up somehwere comfortably in the airport and sleep. After landing in Manchester we all easily cleared customs and then proceeded to the train station to take our train to York. That train ride lasted about an hour and 45 mins, and again, many of us were so exhausted that this time was spent sleeping. We arrived in York and had to walk about a mile alongside the river to our hostel. We checked in and unpacked a little bit before trekking out again to downtown York where our tour guide would meet us. When we arrived in Manchester, it was raining and also was the case is York. All of us got to test out our raingear for our bags and ourselves to make sure nothing would get wet. We got to take a walking tour through York with our tourguide as a local resident. We viewed things like the old wall surrouding the city, the smallest window in York and also the shortest street in York among many other things. Then we stopped at an Italian place to eat and all of us were so tired that we hurried back to the hostel and are going to bed after being up for 35 hours.

--Stephanie
PS The title refers to the message we heard over the intercom in the Amsterdam airport threatening those that were late to the flights to have their baggage offloaded. Dana requested that I make this the title.

5 days

Only 5 more days until we leave, and I am getting really excited. I started unpacking all of my college stuff and then started repacking everything for England. I tried to decide which things are absolutely necessary to bring , and which things that I can leave behind. It is surprising how much stuff you can fit into that backpack. It's hard to imagine that in 5 short days, I'll be living out of that small bag. Regardless, I'm so excited to go "across the pond" to spend my May Term in England.
I hope everyone enjoys reading, and get ready for some more from our exciting journey soon.

--Stephanie

Five days and counting

I think I finally have everything I plan to bring to England! I just bought a book to read on the plane, trains, buses, wherever. I've been piling things up in a corner of my room all week and I'll be packing my bag in a few days, which shouldn't be too difficult since we practiced packing during class a month ago. I'm going to try to pack less this time, and I'm wondering how much Cassady's bag will actually weigh...her bag weighed a lot less than the rest of ours when we did the trial run.

Praying for little rain,

Emily