Lancaster

Hello everyone! Well, I'm back from my journey to England for my homestay. I know that I didn't make a post last night, but I wanted to add pictures of Lancaster so I decided to do 2 posts tonight instead of 1.  So, here is what happened on Saturday.  We got up pretty early and ate breakfast at the Moffat's (my host family's) house.  Then, when Jan got back from having coffee with a friend, we went to a Fairtrade Coffee in the middle of town.  Basically you go in and have a cup of coffee and look at second hand items.  It was kind of like a rummage sale except classier.  I got a mini atlas of the world for 30 pence. (Now I can track where I'm traveling.)  After the Fairtrade Coffee, Jan had some things to do in town, so my 2 IFSA friends and I decided we would take a train into Lancaster for the day.  (I just want to mention that the train station was really cute. It was like your stereotypical train station that you would expect to find in small town England.)

This is the train station.  I just really enjoyed it.  

The train ride was really beautiful.  We stayed in the Lake District of England, so there were hills and water everywhere. We kept gawking out the window and taking pictures (the ladies that were sitting across from us must have thought we were crazy).  It was only about a 40 minute train ride from Ulverston to Lancaster, so we got in to Lancaster right around lunch time.

We decided that we really wanted to find food when we got into Lancaster, but were distracted when we walked up the hill from the train station and found the Castle.  By this time, we were seriously side-tracked and went and took a tour of the Castle.  Unfortunately, we couldn't take pictures inside the Castle, but I do have some good stories about it that I will share.  But first, please admire the beauty of this castle.

Imagine walking out of a train station and running into this.  It made me really happy.  Plus it was a beautiful day. (Also, I'd like to mention that this is the third castle that I have seen since being here and I'm still impressed every time.)

Now, I'm going to tell you all about it.  This castle's main purpose was to protect England from invasions from Scotland back in the day.  It was never used as a palace, but was used for trials, executions and as a prison.  Actually, most of the Castle is still a prison and was a working prison up until only a little while ago.  One of the most famous trials/executions it was used for were the Pendle Witch Trials (think Salem on a smaller scale).   Anyways, inside we saw 2 court rooms, both of which are still used today, and some fun old prison things.  I got to sit in a 200 year old chair that insane people were chained to (it was actually pretty comfortable), put on chains and handcuffs, put my hand in this holder where people who were convicted of crimes were branded with an M, and got locked in a punishment cell (we didn't think it was much of punishment because it was roomy compared to our dorms).  The tour guide was really good.  It turned out that Jan knew him and may be getting a job as a Lancaster Castle tour guide in the future.  

After the Castle we wondered around the area by the Castle for a while.  We saw the Cathedral next door.

I was excited because there were flowers growing.  (Jan later told us that they are a specific type of flower that usually grow at churches.  I picked 2 to press while we were there.)

The view from the hill where the Castle sits was really pretty.  You could see all of Lancaster.

Here is the view from the Castle.

After our Castle adventure, we wandered down into the middle of Lancaster and came across a street fair.  About the time I laid my eyes on a pulled pork sandwich was when I realized our original "find food" plan upon getting off of the train.  So, we stopped and ate lunch on the steps of the Lancaster museum.  

Here is my pulled pork sandwich.  It was wonderful. It had this brown sauce on it that is only found in the Lake District of England that made it even better.

After lunch we walked the rest of the street fair and found a vendor selling cupcakes.  We bought some and went to sit in a nearby Starbucks to eat them.

I got a chocolate chip cupcake with chocolate frosting.  It might be the best cupcake I've ever had.

Then, we walked around Lancaster and saw some of the sights. We walked to a Cathedral in the center of town and went in to look around.  It was a gorgeous church and we spent a long time in there just admiring it.

Here is the inside of the church.

Then, we wandered around downtown Lancaster just admiring the buildings until it was time to head back up the hill to catch our train back.  We walked back towards the Castle and down a staircase that was supposed to lead to a Roman Bath (it definitely was just a grassy lot), but we ended up at the Millennium Bridge which crosses the River Lune.

Here is the bridge with a view of part of Lancaster in the background.

Then, we walked to the train station and got our train back to Ulverston.  This train ride was beautiful too (even though it was made less beautiful by the crazy children running around the train.)

This was the view from our train.  We got to watch the sunset out over the water.

We got back in to Ulverston just in time for dinner.  Jan invited over her friend (Sue) and the local bar tender (pub man as they are called here.  I should explain that the local pub is like family over here.)  She made an awesome dinner.  We had a sausage stew type thing with mashed potatoes and bread.  It was great to have a real meal (I eat a lot of pasta at school).  Afterwards, we watched Atonement (Jan and Andy let us pick the movie).  

It was a great day.  The next day, we looked around Ulverston and the Lake District before coming back to Stirling, but I will explain that in my next post (see 2 posts in one day!)