York. June 21

Good morning from York! Nic and I rolled in to Ian and Shirley's house in the early evening hours on Monday. It was lovely to meet to Shirley. (Ian and I met at The Guys Weekend that I crashed a little more than a week ago in Kirby Longsdale). 

Shirley had great suggestions for how to spend our day in York. Nic loves York and has been several times, so he had some of ideas of his own too. I was really looking forward to going to York as I have heard so much about it from Nic over the years. 

We had a leisurely morning with coffee and chatting with Shirley before we headed into town. Nic is burning out on our trip. He is tired and he has not been feeling 100% these past few days, so we have slowed down a tad. We headed into York and parked by the Tower. This tower is significant because it is the site of the death of 150 Jewish people due to discrimination as a result of their faith. 

Nic was really looking forward to showing me the Roman walls that encircle the city. The walls continue to run along the center of York, maintaining the boundary originally built by Romans and maintained through the Medieval times.

The Abby was added and later destroyed during the Restoration. The skeletal remains still stand as a testimony of the beauty of this building.

Nic and I walked the up through these gates and along the walls of York. It was like being a Medieval soldier.

From the top of the walls you can see York Minster Church. It was spectacular. Nic and I chose not to do the tour because we are trying to save some money to go back to London and remain solvent for the rest of our trip in England. He is also tired. We picked on museum in York to spend money on and we chose the Jorvik museum to explore vikings and their life in the UK. We have seen a few churches, and have yet to really delve into vikings, so we thought it would be a good way to diversify our experience.

York Minster is beautiful from the outside though! Over half the Medieval stained glass in England is in this window. It is definitely on my list for the next time we come to England and York, which I suspect won't be so long in our future. Nic's two dear friends live here, so I suspect we will back.

I loved the funky gargoyles in the yard of the church.

There we are IN THE SUNSHINE! It was truly a gorgeous day. I was overjoyed.

We wandered about a did a little window shopping. I am still on the hunt of great souvenirs. 

Those are soaps, aren't they super cute?

We got a later reservation for the Jorvik Center, so after Yorkshire pudding wraps, we headed over to the museum. It was okay and a little weird. There was a bad ride with weird puppets giving the history of the people in the dig. However, the actual museum and the pieces were really neat, if not a tiny bit limited. I suspect that my real experience with viking knowledge may have to come when I go to the British Museum, which I hope is going to make it in this trip.

We rushed back to the car after our post-museum coffee to meet up with Mark and Stina for a Midsummer Night's Dinner. It was perfect. The weather was perfect. The food was perfect. It was the perfect end to a perfect day.

I will post more about our adventures today later.