On Thursday, we finally struck out toward a destination city, as we visited York for the first time. Clear skies turned to a steady rain as we arrived at Clifford’s Tower, which afforded a spectacular view of the city before we began to explore it.

Clifford’s Tower is almost all that remains of York Castle, originally built by William the Conqueror in the 1000s (yes, that’s a year)! The Tower provided central observation and defense against intruders for much of its history. Today, it provided Felicia and Kiana with a view of the York Minster, which we would visit later.

We walked in many circles around York, enjoying our first visit to a big English city. Our first trek across town was in the rain on our way to York Minster, where we climbed up almost 300 steps to the top of the church with all of the cousins. The view was pretty impressive from there as well.

As Americans in England, we have struggled a little bit with what defines proper behavior (“God Save the Queen!”). For example, was it OK to sit in these spots in the Chapter House? We don’t know. But when Papa invited the kids to sit in some of the official seats reserved for religious figures from across Yorkshire, they went for it.

After the Minster, we had lunch at famous Betty’s Tea House, as Nana’s guest. No question about proper behavior and etiquette there!

After lunch, we explored more of the City, including the medieval shopping alley at Shambles and the National Railway Museum.

It was a great day, offering a glimpse of the “big city” like we’ll see in London later on our trip.

No, no actual magic here. But it was very cool to see this well-maintained medieval Alnwick Castle, which was also used for some exterior scenes in the first two Harry Potter movies.

In particular, many of the scenes involving the broomstick and quidditch lessons from the first movie and the flying car from HP2 were filmed here. So of course, the cousins all got to take “broomstick lessons” in the central yard.

But there was much more to explore in this fantastic historical treasure. There was a great tour that showed us some of the military defenses used throughout history to defend the castle, including the design of arrow and crossbow slits for archers, and the formidable barbican. You’ll notice an arrow slit – which we’ve seen repeatedly in architecture throughout our trip – immediately behind Aspen in this picture.

The opportunities to explore were tremendous, and pictures can’t really do justice to the day.

Tuesday was a mellow day in the UK for us, with a simple drive into the meaty part of North York Moors National Park and the Park’s museum and visitors center in Danby.

And now we know what a Moor is! And it turns out the moors we are visiting were actually man-made, or at least man-created. Most moors in Egland seem to be the result of heavy deforestation 10,000 years ago by hunter gatherers and early agricultural societies. The destruction of old forests and subsequent over-farming of the soil resulted in barren landscapes covered with un-decomposed peat and hard soils.

And the playground at the park headquarters was pretty special, too (but you’ll have to wait for the video). After visiting what Jocelyn called “the coolest playground in the world,” we drove across the Moor toward Hutton-le-Hole and stopped at Ralph’s Cross, the iconic symbol of this particular national park.

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And now you really can follow along with the rest of the trip on Twitter! Through the magic of technology — and the unlocked (non-iPhone) goodness of a Palm Pre smartphone — I have procured free texts and a hefty quantity of internet data access from local UK Orange cell phone provider.

Just try to say “North York Moor” 10 times fast! Toungue-twister or not, this is where our European 2011 Adventire has begun!

We traveled from SFO early Saturday morning on one of the most mundane travel experiences ever: No lines (none, no security line, no line at passport control, nothing). Our flights were all on schedule and went very smoothly. The most noteworthy part of the trip was probably Felicia’s complete inability to sleep. Whether due to the itinerary or her excitement, she got very little sleep on the airplane, nearly falling asleep into her breakfast on the road outside of Manchester as a result.

[NOTE: No pictures yet! The internet connection at our first week's lodging is very dodgy, and photo uploads have not been possible. We'll let you know when photographic proof of our exploits becomes available.]

Our first five days in The UK will pivot from Ingleby Manor, located near Ingleby Greenhow along Britain’s North York Moors National Park. We made it through the first day with some simple excursions from the Manor, seeing quiant English countryside between Great Ayton and nearby Stokesley.

On Monday, we caught lunch at the beautiful Helmsley Walled Garden in the shadows of the Helmsley Castle ruins, and were joined by the Tennessee Martins as they arrived in country.

On our way home, Jocelyn and Felicia got to climb all over the ruins of the 12th Century Rievaulx Abbey, a spectacular example of local history preserved.