Derek and I bid farewell to Edinburgh last week for two days and one night as we caught the train down to York. Again we had lovely weather, cool but clear, a relatively uneventful train ride (although getting the tickets without the booking confirmation number was a bit of a hastle) during which we had a good chuckle about the large number of posters for STD screenings and birth control at Newcastle's station (and nowhere else) and I quietly vowed to throw a kid's DS off the train at the next stop if he didn't quit playing the same BrainAge game over and over again with the volume on full blast, and then we found ourselves stepping out of York's station and faced with the city's walls.
After checking into a lovely B&B (Ashley House, if you're looking for a place to stay) and organizing our backpacks, we headed off to find a nice spot for a picnic. We ended up in the Museum's gardens, which were very nice and in close proximity to the ruins of the St. Mary's monastery. From there we headed to York Minster, where again I was blown away by its size and beauty. Its the largest medieval minster in the UK, and its lovely. I liked how few people there were in it, and that we were free to roam around in whatever direction we pleased and wherever we liked. This is in stark contrast to our visit to Westminster Abbey in London, which was packed with tourists and had ropes and barriers restricting the flow of people through the minster. Sections of York Minster, including the Chapter House and one of the main windows, are under extensive reconstruction. They've actually hung a massive banner the height of the minster with a full-scale illustration of what the window will look like when it is refurbished.
After the minster we headed over to Jorvik Viking Centre for a ride back in time. Although over much too fast, the centre provides a really neat reconstruction of what York would have looked, sounded and smelled like in the late 9th - early 10th centuries. They've even utilized the skulls found in the area, using computer-aided reconstructions to put real faces on the mannequins in this underground village. I could have done without the rather silly time machine at the start of the visit, but it was a good time and a neat experience.
After dinner we wandered around the old town in the twilight, through the Shambles (a great street which I love, where the buildings jut out above you in a haphazard and unique way) and down along Stonegate where we found some exciting stores to visit the next day, including The Cat Gallery, where I was in love. I'm very happy they have a website and catalogue :) The area at night was very quiet and peaceful, as most of the tourists were probably still having dinner, and then suddenly the streets were flooded with locals. I was happy to find a blue-raspberry slushee (I'd really burnt my tongue on my lasagne at dinner) for only 95p, which was a great end to the day.
Day two we got up early and headed down for breakfast. The B&B has 5 rooms but only 3 were occupied, so it was a quiet breakfast room. I had an yummy breakfast of french toast with blueberries, topped with honey and a dollop of yogurt. Derek had the house breakfast, basically a full English without the beans, and it looked good. Then we checked out and headed off to Exhibition Square to take the 10:15 walking tour of York, a free tour guided by volunteers. Our group consisted of 3 Chinese girls about my age, one girl from Holland, an American couple in their late-30s, 2 Canadian couples from B.C. in their 50s or 60s, and us.
Our tour guide was great. She called her tour the Romans, Vikings, Churches and Chocolate tour -- just perfect for me. It ran long, lasting about 2.5 hours, and took us around the city centre, along Roman walls and by Roman coffins, into the courtyard of what was once the King's manor when visiting but is now home to the university's archeology dept., along sections of York's almost complete and amazingly preserved city walls, and into a great old church that continues to function without electricity and has kept its stall seating (rather than converting in Victorian times to the familiar benches or pews). We also learned that monkeys had lived in a section of forest in York for about 150 years, the result of sailors bringing them back from journeys, and as they got too rambunctious or large for the home they were set free into the woods.
After lunch we headed back to the train station to collect our tickets for the evening, then took a rediculously roundabout route to the National Railway Museum which was practically next door (my fault, but neither of us had seen the signs inside the station pointing out the shortcut). The museum was huge, which I suppose it has to be to accommodate and display so many trains. We saw a high-speed Japanese commuter train, a to-scale cross-section model of the Chunnel, several royal trains from the 19th and 20th centuries, and a really neat steam engine which has been cut into from the side and fully labelled so that you can get an understanding of how it works. We also walked under a train car, which was pretty neat. I also checked out the Thomas the Talk Engine store, but unfortunately couldn't find the right gift for my little brother.
After a dinner of pizza (chosen for the ease of eating leftovers on the train), we hopped on the 7:53pm train and got into Edinburgh Waverly around 10:30. Tired from the long day and so much walking, we were happy to be home. I don't know if we could have managed a 3rd day at that pace, but we saw everything I had wanted to and more, and I came back happy and content.
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