In addition to observing in schools and pontificating about teaching, I've also been traveling around the UK by train and bus with Frances. To take a line from The Castle, one of my favorite movies, "We've seen some amazing things"  Highlights of our time here have been:

The Yorkshire "Green and Pleasant" Dales:

Edin-"Really Old and Would-be National Capital"-burgh:














The Lake "Everest of England" District:

                                                                                                                                 Rievaulx "Beautifully Seclued Medieval Ruins" Abbey:

But what I've enjoyed the most is how easy it is to walk (kind of like hiking, but not a direct translation because there's less wilderness here). Unlike the US, where we tend to put hiking trails in designated parkland (state parks, national parks, national forests, etc.), England has a massive network of footpaths that cross the country, stretching from village to village, leading over hill and dale, and generally making it hard not to put on a pair of boots and go.

A few weeks ago, Frances and I took a bus from Leeds straight to a tiny village in the Yorkshire Dales called Burnsall, made up of a pub/hotel, a shop, a church, a school, and a few houses that looked capable of standing for another few hundred years. We didn't need to drive miles out of town to a trailhead with a parking lot; we could start right from civilization and get there without a car. 

From the center of the village, we started to walk! I can't think of many places in the US where you'd be able to do that. Guided by our trusty Ordnance Survey map (a series of maps that cover all of the UK and show every village, road, footpath, stream, farmhouse, and stone wall—essential, since most footpaths don't have destination signs, and also my new favorite toy), we started following a fairly flat path through fields of sheep grazing along the River Wharfe. We then headed uphill to the top of Simon's Seat, where we found a light coating of ice and snow and views for miles around. We went down the other side, past a hidden waterfall, past more fields of sheep, past more beautiful views, past the medieval Bolton Abbey, and into a village where we found a tea room that had excellent scones (although I did have to pick out the raisins).  After tea and scones, we took a bus to a larger town and then a train back to Leeds. 

Let me recap: An eight-mile walk from one village, along a river, over a mountain, and into another village, all without needing a car to get there and all for very little money (just the bus and train tickets and the tea and scones). What's more, if we had decided along the way that we wanted to change course and head for a different hill or village, we could have done so because the density of footpaths in much of England is such that there is a seemingly infinite number of permutations a walking route can take.

In the course of our time here, we've walked in the Peak District from a village with a castle, past more fields of sheep, over a hill, and into another village. We've walked along the coast from a fishing village to a larger fishing town. And we've walked up Scafell, the tallest mountain in England.

Footpaths, I will miss you!