Photos by Nanci Blog

It's Saturday, October 14, 2017 and we're leaving York and heading to Liverpool. The map says it's about one and one half hours away. On the coach Nick continues our history lessons with tales of Henry VI and his battle with Edward IV, brother to Richard III. We pass through Leeds, the heart of England's industrial area. We pass through Manchester and watch the fog creep over the moors. Nick tells us of the Moors Murders . Fog on the moors The Moors murders were carried out by Ian Brady and Myra Hindley between July 1963 and October 1965, in and around Manchester, England. The victims were five children aged between 10 and 17—Pauline Reade, John Kilbride, Keith Bennett, Lesley Ann Downey and Edward Evans—at least four of whom were sexually assaulted. Two of the victims were discovered in graves dug on Saddleworth Moor; a third grave was discovered there in 1987, more than twenty years after Brady and Hindley's trial. The body of a fourth victim, Keith ...

It's Friday the 13th and we're waking up in York, UK . We're staying at the Hotel 53 , room 303.  After a nice buffet breakfast, we meet Louise outside the hotel. Louise will be our guide around York this morning, getting us oriented to the town and taking us on a visit to York Minster. We make our past the Guild Hall, we learn that York was founded on the wool trade. We stop in the parking lot across from Clifford's Tower . It was built by William the Conqueror. Roger de Clifford was executed for treason against Edward II and hanged in chains from the tower walls. We travel to the Shambles, the ancient street of the butchers of York. Not many butchers remain but there are quite a few interesting shops. A lot of restoration was done during the 1920s. Oh look, it's a Harry Potter shop... And the mothership for this tea drinker. These pies smelled so good, we almost lost our tour group and stayed at the pie shop but caught up to Louise and cre...

We get a bit of a sleep-in on Thursday October, 12. Bags need to be in the Sandman Lobby for 8 a.m. and we need to be on the bus at 9 a.m.. We're moving on to York after we stop in Durham and South Kilvington. We take one last look out of our hotel window, hit the breakfast buffet and hop on the coach. Heading out of Newcastle we pass the prototype for the Sydney Harbour Bridge . We travel into County Durham-George Washington's father was born here-did you know that? We meet up with Kate, who will be our local guide around Durham , at the car park. We walk with her as she explains some of Durham's history. The city lies on the River Wear, to the west of Sunderland, south of Newcastle upon Tyne and to the north of Darlington. Founded over the final resting place of St Cuthbert, its Norman cathedral became a center of pilgrimage in medieval England. The cathedral and adjacent 11th-century castle were designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1986. The cast...