Weekend Away

By far one of my favourite trips Matthew & I have done has been visiting the city of York.  I also loved visiting family in West Yorkshire, so this region of England in general seems to go over well with me. :)  I would return to either in a heartbeat if money and time were no obstacles.  And this says a lot about the city of York given that the entire weekend we were there was absolutely miserable weather-wise.  It was chucking it down.  Matthew and I were wet and cold and yet still found more and more to admire.

We started off with a bit of orientation walking around the city, including walking part-way around the Medieval walls that surround the old portion of the city and admiring the views.  They are the most-complete Medieval walls in Britain so we got to walk for quite a while!

Approaching the entrance to the walls.  See the wee staircase to the left of the big arch?

Some pretty lucky people get to live in those houses and play in those gardens.

Walking the walls in the cold.

So get this: all the gates are called bars and a lot of the streets are called ____ gate from the old Norse where a 'bar' is a gate and 'gate' is a street.  All of a sudden the fact that this is Monk's Bar makes sense!

 York is probably most famous for the Church of England cathedral, York Minster (just called "The Minster" by locals).  We had a guided tour of the interior and I was surprised to learn that it has weathered a fire twice with only minimal damage. Of course, with something as old as the Minster, changes have been done over the years, including one ceiling decoration being changed in the Victorian era to show baby Jesus being bottle fed  instead of breast fed.  I guess they thought Mary would have been ahead of her times?  They have also had children decorate some of the ceiling ornaments in modern years after the 2nd fire damaged a wing - I thought this was quite an interesting thing to do.  Of course, my favourite part of the tour was a stained glass window border that depicts a monkey's funeral.  Yes, you heard it hear first. Also, for fans of Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, you will remember that Mr. Norrell's first magic trick was to make all the statues in York Minster come alive.  And now there we were - looking at those statues.

York Minster

Matthew hangs out with Constantine just outside of the Minster.

Matthew with Doreen & Tim, our brave fellow adventurers.

The Kings of England - Imagine them coming alive!

A Monkey's funeral at York Minster.

I think that this imparts some of the grandeur.

The Chapter house was one of my favourite parts.

This grotesque is holding his tooth, so some people think that he has toothache!

 After wandering around the Minster and learning all about it, it was really fun to stay for Evensong and worship in such an ancient place.  They have a divine children's choir and you get to sit in these old, boxy, wooden stalls.

Another highlight, especially for Matthew, was going to Jorvik to learn about the Vikings of York.  It was a bit of a cheesy attraction tied into a museum and they try to give you an "authentic" experience which somehow means that putting you in a chair ride through animatronic displays is okay as long as the entire attraction smells so horribly like an outhouse that you are slightly queasy.

My favourite part of our weekend away was walking the streets of York.  My favourite street was the Shambles - an old meat market where all the shops still have the wide ledges where the different cuts would be displayed.  The upper levels of the buildings also hang out into the street (I guess this would protect the meat from the worst of the rain and any sun) so it is a very cozy place.  But the whole city is beautiful and you never know what you are going to stumble upon - such as a garden with Roman coffins in it!

The Shambles - my favourite street in York.

A nice view.

We loved how this building looks like it is sagging under all the weight of its years.

Another view of the Shambles.

Yes, the Shambles again!

Proof that gate means street in York.  :)

Early Sunday morning is a good time to capture the streets at their quietest.

I liked these buildings. 

The Shambles sans people.

All the ledges where the meat used to sit for sale.

Portion of a ruined Benedictine Abbey just outside the Yorkshire Museum.  Some of the bits of the Abbey have been incorporated into the basement of the museum!

Roman graves in the gardens surrounding the Yorkshire Museum.

Day two saw us going to church at St. Michael Le Belfrey, which is a C of E church right beside the Minster, and then roaming around the Yorkshire Museum before warming up in a pub for dinner before our train ride home. :)

Look how close the two C of E churches are!

Matthew's favourite artifact in the Yorkshire Museum was this head pot. It looks like a head.

Tombstone. He's blacksmithing!

Of course, Matthew's absolute favourite artifact was the Anglo-Saxon helmet.

Matthew hangin' out with his religious peeps.

Moses shows off his horns on the left.

The abbey ruins have been incorporated into the basement of the museum.

They did this display really well. These colours have been projected onto the arches to show them as they would have been.

We think this is a Great Auk skeleton. Whatever it is, I was quite excited about it at the time.

The River Ouse.

Hartley's sandwich shop. I took this for my grandpa.

The intrepid travellers ready to board their train home.

Fun in the Sand

Portobello Beach here in Edinburgh is a typical Scottish beach.  Often deserted and windswept.  Visited mainly by dog-owners and shell-collectors.  Used for sun-bathing* on those glorious, too few days of windless sunshine.  You do not often see much swimming going on along Scottish beaches, but they are still nice places to stroll along.

I took a very pleasant stroll several weeks ago and brought back the requisite shells and snapshots to add to my collection:

Portobello Beach - View to the northish?

View in the other direction.  :)

Some kind of gull - the only creatures I saw taking the waters.

Gotta love those Scottish skies.

My favourite view of the beach.

Of course, Portobello Beach is also famous because of Eric Liddell, of Chariots of Fire fame. I am a bit muddled as to whom can rightfully claim what, seeing as how Eric was born in China (albeit to Scottish missionary parents) and went to boarding school down south (while his parents were still in China!), BUT the family did seem to stay in Edinburgh while his parents were on furlough, and Eric eventually studied at Edinburgh University, where he, of course, did athletics.  This leads to claims that he trained on Portobello Beach.  I cannot substantiate these claims, but it does seem likely that he trained on a beach, given the opening scene of Chariots of Fire** and the closest beach to Edinburgh University (that I know of) is Portobello. Whew!

All in all, my stroll was very enjoyable as I took in the sand and the sun and the history.  One thing I can say for Scottish beaches is that you never feel crowded.  :)



*Sun-bathing attire here normally consists of rolled up trousers, bare feet, and a t-shirt.  Let's not get carried away and imagine that bare flesh is being exposed just off of the North Sea.

** Which was filmed in St. Andrews, but perhaps the film-makers were just as confused as I am.

A long-anticipated journey

When Matthew lived in Cyprus for the 2005/2006 school term, he made friends with one of the Anglican priests on the island.  That priest and his wife returned to the UK around the same time we moved to the UK, and we were finally able to go up to Montrose for a visit in March.

We took the train because I love the train!  It was quite an exciting trip, too, because it was our first time going over both the Forth Rail Bridge and the Tay Bridge (it is huge and the train has to go over it really slowly and I had to pretend that I was NOT over water about halfway through it!).

Photographic evidence that I went over the Forth Rail Bridge

Steve and Kath first took us to St. Vigean's Church and graveyard, where we got to see the fisher graves.  They are probably some of the most unique gravestones I've ever seen.  One of the reasons I love living in Britain is that it is a place where families have actually had time to be in a certain industry for forever.  Kath grew up in Montrose and told us that fisher names are: Swankie, Corgill, Spink and Smith.  And we found quite a few gravestones bearing these names.

Matthew with Steve and Kath

St. Vigean's church and graveyard.

Fisher grave! Swankie and Corgill on one stone.

Look at the crossed fishies at the top.

Possibly my favourite.  Trying to imagine how that anchor wouldn't sink that boat and how those fish wouldn't capsize it. But they got the message across.  Dude was a fisher.

My camera was upright... the graveyard is on a steep hill.

After St. Vigean's we went off to Arbroath Abbey, famous home of the 1320 Declaration of Arboath, which you can read about here. Ruins make me happy - they just seem to have so much more character.  Ruins that are medieval are even better, and medieval ruins with a haar moving in take the cake.  Matthew had a good time hanging out with William the Lion and testing out the acoustics of the chapter house (see video).

Entrance to Arbroath Abbey.

Arbroath Abbey from a height.

So... there are really big doors to keep the monks safe.

Matthew exploring

Spending some quality time with William the Lion.

I am wee.  The abbey is huge.

It even makes Matthew look wee.

Chillin' amongst the ruins.

And so the haar begins...

Really rolling in at this point.

Distance vision became impossible.

 

 It eventually isn't sideways.

Walking around Arbroath Abbey can really whet one's whistle, so we headed for the chippy and Matthew & I tried potato fritters for the first time ever.  Mmmmm..... I love potatoes! We ate out right along the harbour where we continued to peer through the haar, and then we went to pick up our dinner: Arbroath smokies!  From Arbroath!  They were absolutely divine.  If you want to try some yourself, you can order them on-line here.

Arbroath Harbor

Brightly coloured harbour buildings and home of the delicious potato fritters.

Evidence that the haar was still present.  Also, I have never seen so many lobster traps!

Me and my boy.  :)

The smokies are in the bag!

On our way back to Montrose to cook up the smokies, we passed some very exciting sights - 'heeland coos'!  It was my first time ever seeing highland cows up close and personal and I think I actually may have said "Stop the car!" before leaping out and prancing over to them squealing and cooing.  They were a pretty chill bunch and posed very nicely for us.

Highland calves through the haar.

Proof that I was there!

Momma cow heads over for a chat.

So there you have it.  Our adventures in Montrose & Arbroath offer something for everyone - from history buffs and nature enthusiasts to anthropologists and foodies... I highly recommend you go if you you get the chance.