Next up was another two-night stop, this one the city of York. I found it a little odd to see all the signs referencing “York” without a “New” in the front but you wouldn’t really confuse the two cities. And somehow it felt appropriate to come to this namesake town after visiting the original Cambridge just a few days ago.

Founded by the Romans in AD 71 at the confluence of the Ouse and Foss Rivers, the city has a bit of history behind it. Perhaps most important, Constantius I was serving as Emperor here – one of the original four Tetrarchs when Emperor Diocletian decided the empire was too big for one man to rule. When Constantius died in AD 306, the troops quickly proclaimed his son Constantine his successor. Constantine, of course, went on to overthrow the tetrarchy, become sole emperor, convert to Christianity, and relocate the capital of the empire from Rome to Constantinople. In other words, he was kind of a big deal.

And a more recent big deal is Judy Dench, perhaps England’s greatest actress, who was born here. Sadly though we didn’t see her.

The main tourist attraction here is the Cathedral, known as the York Minster. Begun in 1220 explicitly to rival the cathedral in Canterbury, it wasn’t completed until 1472 and is today the second-largest Gothic cathedral in Northern Europe. Mark was here some 33 years ago and remembered it almost magically, the massive size and beautiful architecture. And after all these years and all the cathedrals that we’ve seen since then it still packs a pretty powerful punch.

Most impressive here are the enormous stained glass windows, some of which date back to the 12th century. The window on the east side of the church – furthest from the entrance – is the largest expanse of medieval stained glass in the world. Perhaps even more impressive are the 53-foot high windows known as the Five Sisters. Painted in a monochromatic gray, they are simply stunning, unlike anything I’d ever seen.

To go along with just wandering around the Minster, we took a “tour” up to the central tower. I call it a “tour” because even though it was advertised as such it was just an opportunity to climb the 275 steps to the top of the tower. Because there’s only one set of stairs and they are quite narrow tickets are sold for a specific time: everyone goes up together and then you come down before the next group starts. The views were nice but for me most fun was listening to the woman in front of me act like she was going to die climbing those 275 steps. It was quite the show.

Otherwise the stop included a bit of wandering around the old town, a nice run and a couple long walks along the River Ouse, some decent food, and even a little shopping. From here we’re off to Edinburgh so we’re leaving England for a couple weeks. I’ve never been to Scotland so this will be a big adventure for me!

After living in Cambridge, MA, for some 18 years we’ve finally made it to the real Cambridge, the one after which our long-time home was named. It was a quick two-night stop, just enough to drink in some of the ambience of an ancient university town. Ancient and lovely, I should add. On arrival we wandered around parts of the University somewhat randomly and found some gorgeous parks and lawns belonging to the colleges that were open to the public. It was really beautiful.

The main reason to come here, of course, was to see the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1209 by students fleeing the anger of locals towards the students at Oxford – an early version of town-gown hostilities – it is one of the great universities of the world, known particularly for its scientific excellence. Stephen Hawking, Watson & Crick of DNA fame, Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Alan Turing – they all studied here. Oh, and a guy named John Harvard, whose 1638 deathbed bequest to a then two-year-old college in Massachusetts so delighted the Massachusetts Bay Colony that they named the school after him. They even decided that the village across the river from Boston where the college was formed, then known as New Towne, was renamed Cambridge in honor of his alma mater.

Thus the link between our old home and this original Cambridge is formed. One fun little fact we learned on our tour of the University was the origin of the name Cambridge itself. The city, you see, sits on the River Cam. And when a bridge was first built across the river the then-small settlement became known as Cam Bridge. Or something like that, of course, in olde English. At any rate, that’s what one of our tour guides told us, and it makes sense.

Though we are typically not tour people, we actually took two tours on our one full day in Cambridge, one a 90-minute walking tour of the University and the other a 45-minute boat tour up and back on the River Cam. The walking tour was great. Led by Annie, who had recently finished her Master’s Degree in Linguistics there, she explained all we wanted to know about the history and structure of the University. I had been confused by the structure of a university with 31 colleges and how they relate but now that’s been cleared up. In capsule form, the University handles academics while the Colleges handle student life. Simple enough.

The river tour was less informative but wonderfully relaxing. Basically there are hundreds of “punts” – small, flat-bottomed boats with square-cut bows – that are poled along the shallow river. Here in Cambridge they travel essentially behind many of the Colleges, giving you a view of the architecture and lawns you can’t see otherwise unless you’re a student here.

Beyond the tours and the immediate university vicinity, the parks and walks along the River Cam were really great. Bucolic, quiet, green – everything you would want, and the foot paths go on for miles. And on the weekend at least you’d see kids swimming, canoeing, fishing, all very relaxing.

Oh, and some good food, too. Steaks one night, Turkish another, and a spectacular Indian place (Dishoom) that was so good we had lunch there both days. There are a couple Dishoom restaurants in other parts of Great Britain where we’ll be stopping and we already have them marked. Now northward to Lincoln!

And so we’re off on a nine-week saunter around England, Scotland, and Wales. Fully 26 two- and three-night stops – and London is the only one of them I’ve ever been to. (Mark’s been to a few, but certainly not most of them…) Basically we’ve just never given Great Britain its due, in no small part because we’re not that excited by British food, but there’s so much of our history embedded here it’s time to dig deep. And we enjoyed last year’s trip through France so much that we figured repeating it (albeit without the French food) had to be good.

First stop, easiest to fly into, is London. What’s odd is how little I know my way around the city but I’m starting to solve that. We were here just this last February and it’s really starting to grow on me. That’s in part because I really liked where we stayed – not just the hotel (Claridge’s, one of the city’s grand dame hotels), but right in the middle of Mayfair, a really beautiful neighborhood (neighbourhood??). Obviously, the city has it all: beautiful parks, good restaurants, great museums, and really good theater, and with all the bustle a New Yorker would expect.

Speaking of restaurants, one of our favorites in Greenwich Village is a place called Dante – great food and some of the best cocktails in Manhattan. Just a couple weeks ago Mark got a marketing email from Dante announcing that for the month of July only they were going to take over the kitchen and bar at Claridge’s – the very hotel where we already had a reservation. So our first night we had dinner with our old friend Luba at a place that felt more than a little like home.

One of the attractions for spending all of July and August is that the weather should be way cooler than in Manhattan, but you wouldn’t have known that the day we arrived. We fly in and by the time we get to the hotel the temperature is in the upper-80s, heading up to the low-90s by mid-afternoon. Just brutally hot for being a tourist. The good news is that the weather started to moderate by late afternoon and the second day was mostly cool and slightly rainy. Day three though was perfect, mostly sunny and low 70s. We’re hoping for a lot of that over the next two months.

We spent a bit of time in parks and had a nice morning in the Tate Modern, an art museum opened 25 years ago by our friend Lars. The highlight though was three shows in just two days. First up was This Bitter Earth, a two-man show directed by Billy Porter, a Broadway legend who we briefly met here last February. If the West End is the equivalent of Broadway, this was essentially off-Broadway. It wouldn’t have been on our radar except that friends from New York are producers on the show. A good show, it’s easy to see it coming to New York though probably too “small” a show for Broadway. But a nice introduction to off-West End theater.

The next day we had tickets to a matinee performance of a new production of Evita. Now that was amazing – a huge, star-studded performance where you just sit in awe of the performances, production, music, choreography and all that. Especially the choreography. You can be certain that show will come to Broadway. And then that night we went to a new musical, For One Night Only, a “jukebox” musical about the production of Live Aid, the massive concert to raise money for the Ethiopian famine 40 years ago. The music was good, sometimes great, and the story was … OK. But you can forgive a lot if you have fun ’80s music.

Now it’s off to new experiences around the country. We head southeast to Canterbury to start before working our way counterclockwise up into Scotland, then back down through Wales and ultimately down to Cornwall in the far southwest. Should be a great nine weeks!