April 3 - Blockley to York

Prior to this trip, we did a lot of reading about the public transit system in the UK. One of the things we discovered was that there are minimal services on Sundays. When we arrived in the Cotswolds, we learned that there wouldn't be any buses from Blockley back into Moreton-in-Marsh on the day we were to leave, Sunday. Our plan was to walk from Blockley to Moreton to catch our train to York. We had a really great map with all of the public footpaths and found one going directly from our B&B right into the heart of Moreton-in-Marsh. We left at 8 and allotted 3 hours for the walk with all of our gear and the hilly terrain; it was about 4 miles. It took us about 2 hours, the only really steep hill was right out of Blockley. The morning with clear, crisp and calm, the trailhead was pretty clearly marked but after that, it was a bit of a guess. We were obviously the first people on this trail that morning, the dew didn't betray any prior walkers that would lead us in the right direction but it had been walked enough to show differences in the vegetation. Up the hill, the sheep parted for us like we were Israelites.


Up, up to the top, stopping periodically to catch our breath, we were blessed with a spectacular view of Blockley and we could see fog rolling into the valley.


We were both grateful it wasn't raining. Over the crest of the hill, we got into more of a forest with a well beaten, winding trail.


Slowly, the elevation dropped as we wended our way past old stone walls and through tree tunnels.


As the land flattened out and we lost trees, we started crossing meadows and planted fields. Over brooks and through gates, we finally made it to Moreton with time to spare.


Getting to York was a little more complicated. We failed to take into consideration that English Mother's Day was that day (our fault, yeah right) and that meant fewer trains in operation. We managed to get to Worcester but were told upon arrival that our train from there to Birmingham was canceled. The railway man was able to re-route us through another station in town but it meant we would have to walk there. So, as an added bonus, we got a walking tour of part of Worcester between railway stations.
Once we got to Birmingham, we had another change, running through the rain to get to the next station, which was inside the airport-like mall. Easy enough, except that this particular train line had suffered some cable theft earlier in the day and the trains weren't running on time. Plus, lots of people packed into the train that had fewer cars than expected. This train also wasn't going to York, we had to switch a third time in D____ in order to catch the actual York bound train. All things considered, we ended up in York about 15 minutes later than originally scheduled. No hassle from ticket checkers, all of the railway employees were super helpful and friendly.
We found our B&B easily enough, the Raphael House, dropped our stuff and headed to do a quick scout around. I think we both slept well that night.