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.