Ah, York. Once a Roman settlement; taken over by Saxons; made more famous as a Viking settlement called Jorvik (for a long time England, particularly in the north, was much more Scandinavia-oriented than Continent-oriented): it was one of our favourite places to be last time, and we're enjoying it again this time.
Yesterday we visited the National Rail Museum; James was happy to see the Mallard (officially the holder of the speed record for steam traction - perhaps because to break the record, American engines would have to break the speed limit, and they wouldn't do that.... He was, however, devastated that the Flying Scotsman was undergoing repairs, and so was all in pieces! For the afternoon, we walked the Shambles, an endlessly entertaining area of shops and windy cobble-stoned streets.
Today, we walked the walls: York has some of the best preserved medieval walls in the entirety of Great Britain. You can walk on top of a huge chunk, and there are a couple of little museums in some of the original towers (including the Richard III museum, where you can vote for who you think done in the Princes in the Tower! Today, Richard was leading was 34%).
We also walked through the Museum gardens; we'll visit the Yorkshire Museum tomorrow, but for today we visited the ruins of a monastery, closed by Henry VIII in the Dissolution of the 1530s, in his bid to get money and land from the church - er, in his bid to reform corrupt and outmoded aspects of the church....
As a slight detour, we went to Clifford's Tower, and used our English Heritage cards for the first time to get in for free - hurrah! It's not that impressive any more, compared to other castles; there used to be a lot more of it but it's all gone and buried, largely under a carpark. It's perhaps most well known for being the site where, in the 1150s, a group of 150 or so Jews took refuge and then took their own lives rather than be killed by the Christian rabble outside. Grim times.
Sometimes I wish my feet were smaller...
Other than that, today we have walked the Shambles again; we're about to go to York Minster for Evensong.
Sunday, May 17, 2009
I like the old York better than the new York
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4 comments:
Great photos of York - I love the old walls. Poor Richard - I'm sure the princes lived a long and happy life playing board games and drinking small beer...
James, I maintain that the Mallard holds the world record. Who has time for people who claim to have broken the record but have no proof and were too scared to break the law? Anyway, I got a steam train up to 207 kmh last year, but I didn't tell anyone - quick, rewrite the record books...
It's interesting that the staircase you posted seems to be descending clockwise - aren't they usually the other way for right-handed knights and all that?
Nerdy history nerd! Love it. It's fun to have a window into somewhere completely different, keeps the mind off the freestyle defecation and lack of sleep.
Bunch of nerds.
Justin: I can't explain the stairway.
Gina and Kat: is there a problem with the nerdiness?? =D
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