james test

Since we were staying at a bed and breakfast, Michael started taking advantage of the cooked breakfasts. Here this meant fried eggs, hash browns and baked beans, with a rack of toast on the side. This was all served up by a svelte Swede named Inga. She was impossibly perky, wore hot pink capri pants, and when she noticed our camera on the table she insisted on photographing us together. "Which button? Yes. Now hold her hand. You must hold her hand. Oh, so sweet!" She ensured our day started with a smile and a chuckle, at least. We continued our train trek to York, and arrived in time for lunch. Michael picked out Cafe Concerto based on a recommendation in our Lonely Planet guide, and it did us very nicely. (Whoops... don't mind me in the mirror reflection.) It's a casual and comfy cafe that seemed to attract both locals and tourists. Though there were a number of vegetarian items on the menu, most of them seemed to focus on roasted Mediterranean vegetables...

Our one full day in Cambridge started at the visitor information centre, trying to suss out how best to spend our limited time. Nothing much in the centre took our fancy, but while we were outside debating how to proceed, a kindly old gent wandered over and offered us a one-hour walking tour of the colleges. He moved at a pace that suited our levels of walking enthusiasm, so we agreed and headed off. He was an ex-student, who had studied medicine back in the 1950s and was deeply in thrall to the mystique of the ancient college town - he sounded slightly regretful that students were no longer fined for leaving their colleges without their full academic robes on. We started out at Kings College , with the famous and ridiculously impressive chapel we'd admired from the outside yesterday. It was even better from the inside - a gorgeous feathered ceiling and some of the most impressive stained glass windows around. We snuck through the square and out to Cambridge's 'Bridge of...

On the weekend we were spoiled with by Krusty and Jason right from breakfast - on Saturday morning it was home-cooked French toast with berries and maple syrup, while on Sunday we were fed muesli, fruit and warm croissants. Delicious! Sunday morning provided us with only a few more hours in Colchester, and we took a walk through town and visited the Colchester Castle Museum . The Rose and Crown Hotel was built in the 14th century. You'd be hard pressed to find a single 90 degree angle in its construction! The Colchester Castle Museum is situated inside the Norman Keep, which Michael mentioned in yesterday's post. Its exhibits are an interesting study of the Romans' and Normans' daily lives as much as they of historic moments. And, unexpectedly, there are numerous costumes to try throughout the museum. THOROUGHLY EMBARRASSING FOOTAGE MISSING In the early afternoon we bid Krusty and Jason farewell and embarked on a train to Cambridge. Having heard of but never seen J...