York
York is awesome.
When the train arrived we walked to the Georgian House, where we were staying, which is cheap and convenient but seems to have service issues. We had to ring the bell forever before someone came to the door, and the next day we heard another arrival ringing for about half an hour before they were checked in, and on our last morning, someone from the staff banged on our door and told us that breakfast was about to end a good half an hour before it was supposed to. (Seeing as breakfast times were posted in each room, they were easily busted in their little lie, but we were actually standing by the door about to go down anyway, so it didn’t matter. But still…)
As a general observation, I think it is cool that in England you actually get what you pay for. I found some incredibly cheap rooms for this trip, but getting the cheapest room in the house translates to having the tiny room that’s up 4 flights of a spiral staircase, under the rafters. All very artist-starving-in-the-garret.
Anyway, after we checked in, we went right out again and walked on the city walls. They are so high that you get great views of York Minster and the city from them. We stopped at one of the old gates (called “bars”)—Monk Bar, which has a funny little museum to King Richard the 3rd in it (he of the nephews). Then we left the walls and cut back into town, and stumbled across a Mystery Play in progress. Very cool, there were people dressed as little demons running around, and music, and obviously we had just missed Adam and Eve, since the actors were still around in costume. It ended with the demons being swallowed by the mouth of hell, from what I could make out (we were pretty far back, couldn't hear that well) and then another wagon rolled up and started a play about Roman soldiers who were around at the Resurrection. We watched that for a while and then wandered on looking for dinner, having missed lunch. For dinner we went to an Indian restaurant close to the B&B. The owner claimed to be from Detroit. It was good, even if the staff vanished once the World Cup final started.
In the morning we went to the Jorvik Viking Center and The York Castle Museum. In the Viking Center, you get to go on a ride that takes you past dioramas of what the city looked like when it was run by Vikings, which is sort of early-Disneyesque, except that they have recreated the smells of the time too. Most of the ride smells like a barnyard, except for the part that smells like an outhouse. Pretty amusing, in an eye-watering way. After the ride you see tons of exhibits of Vikings things that have been dug up locally.
The castle museum is fantastic; I had no idea it would be that cool. It recreates English daily life for several centuries; we were there for hours looking at costumes and recreated city streets and storefronts and dungeons and kitchens and living rooms and infinite other exhibits. We talked for a while with a guide who explained the creation of Clifford’s Tower to us and then gave us good advice on things to do when we got the Edinburgh. Then Vance began to flag a bit so we made our way back to the B&B so he could lie down. I went back out for an hour to check on train schedules for the next day and find a curd tart, which the museum guide told us we should try while in York, and to get something for dinner, since Vance said he didn’t think he would make it back out, and to duck into a Christmas store for a minute, and when I got back Vance had developed a fever that was getting fairly high, so we were pretty spooked for a few hours until the Advil that he took knocked it back down. He said he would go to the doctor if it hit 103, and it crested at 102.8. Spooky, being sick in a foreign country, even if it is England. So anyway, that was it for that day; we stayed in and read and ate the pasties I had bought. (steak and stilton, pork and apple. Yum.)
In the morning his fever was gone, and we had breakfast and then went to York Minster, dragging our luggage with us. It is a beautiful cathedral; we didn’t have enough time to do it justice.
Then we got on the train to Edinburgh. The train runs by the coast for a while, north of Newcastle. Beautiful.
When the train arrived we walked to the Georgian House, where we were staying, which is cheap and convenient but seems to have service issues. We had to ring the bell forever before someone came to the door, and the next day we heard another arrival ringing for about half an hour before they were checked in, and on our last morning, someone from the staff banged on our door and told us that breakfast was about to end a good half an hour before it was supposed to. (Seeing as breakfast times were posted in each room, they were easily busted in their little lie, but we were actually standing by the door about to go down anyway, so it didn’t matter. But still…)
As a general observation, I think it is cool that in England you actually get what you pay for. I found some incredibly cheap rooms for this trip, but getting the cheapest room in the house translates to having the tiny room that’s up 4 flights of a spiral staircase, under the rafters. All very artist-starving-in-the-garret.
Anyway, after we checked in, we went right out again and walked on the city walls. They are so high that you get great views of York Minster and the city from them. We stopped at one of the old gates (called “bars”)—Monk Bar, which has a funny little museum to King Richard the 3rd in it (he of the nephews). Then we left the walls and cut back into town, and stumbled across a Mystery Play in progress. Very cool, there were people dressed as little demons running around, and music, and obviously we had just missed Adam and Eve, since the actors were still around in costume. It ended with the demons being swallowed by the mouth of hell, from what I could make out (we were pretty far back, couldn't hear that well) and then another wagon rolled up and started a play about Roman soldiers who were around at the Resurrection. We watched that for a while and then wandered on looking for dinner, having missed lunch. For dinner we went to an Indian restaurant close to the B&B. The owner claimed to be from Detroit. It was good, even if the staff vanished once the World Cup final started.
In the morning we went to the Jorvik Viking Center and The York Castle Museum. In the Viking Center, you get to go on a ride that takes you past dioramas of what the city looked like when it was run by Vikings, which is sort of early-Disneyesque, except that they have recreated the smells of the time too. Most of the ride smells like a barnyard, except for the part that smells like an outhouse. Pretty amusing, in an eye-watering way. After the ride you see tons of exhibits of Vikings things that have been dug up locally.
The castle museum is fantastic; I had no idea it would be that cool. It recreates English daily life for several centuries; we were there for hours looking at costumes and recreated city streets and storefronts and dungeons and kitchens and living rooms and infinite other exhibits. We talked for a while with a guide who explained the creation of Clifford’s Tower to us and then gave us good advice on things to do when we got the Edinburgh. Then Vance began to flag a bit so we made our way back to the B&B so he could lie down. I went back out for an hour to check on train schedules for the next day and find a curd tart, which the museum guide told us we should try while in York, and to get something for dinner, since Vance said he didn’t think he would make it back out, and to duck into a Christmas store for a minute, and when I got back Vance had developed a fever that was getting fairly high, so we were pretty spooked for a few hours until the Advil that he took knocked it back down. He said he would go to the doctor if it hit 103, and it crested at 102.8. Spooky, being sick in a foreign country, even if it is England. So anyway, that was it for that day; we stayed in and read and ate the pasties I had bought. (steak and stilton, pork and apple. Yum.)
In the morning his fever was gone, and we had breakfast and then went to York Minster, dragging our luggage with us. It is a beautiful cathedral; we didn’t have enough time to do it justice.
Then we got on the train to Edinburgh. The train runs by the coast for a while, north of Newcastle. Beautiful.
posted by kathy at 9:29 AM
1 Comments:
I dimly remember the Yorvik museum making me feel queasy too. Not quite 102.8 degrees though. Great to read about yer travels, have a pastie for me.
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