York Minster
We marked the passing of another week with a service at York Minster. You'll have to see the link for images of inside the Cathedral as we weren't allowed to take photos - but suffice to say it was stunning in its size. The stained glass windows were not my favourite, but gorgeous nonetheless. The service was a lovely time to stop, rest and give thanks for the amazing world we live in. If we had attended the 10am service, the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Archbishop of York would have been taking the service!
Roman Walls
We walked the 3 1/2 km loop of the 13th century city walls at a leisurely pace. It was a lovely way to travel around the old city of York - very green indeed. We passed many runners along the wall (too narrow for running for my liking) and other families out for a stroll. There are fortified gateways, arrow slits and gun ports, as well as a medieval toilet!
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| Oli about to cop a face full of night soil. |
Clifford's Tower
The French style tower was built in the reign of Henry II, the tower gave us great views of York. The mound/hill it stands upon was where William the Conqueror built a motte and bailey castle in 1068 in order to sure up this hold on the north of England. There was a very happy and satisfied family of pigeons roosting in the Chapel!
Yorkshire Museum
This is a great little museum providing the history of York from dinosaur times, to the Romans and to the time of the Vikings. It had a good amount of interactive displays for the boys, and plenty of artefacts of interest for us. The incredibly well preserved Viking helmet was simply fabulous. The university had also recreated what a Viking camp would have looked like, and made a VR headset experience to step back in time and 'be" where the Vikings would have rested, eaten and prepared for battle.
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| Interesting fact: T. rex survived for some period of time after all the other (non-bird) dinosaurs went extinct. Must have been pretty lonely. |
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| Noice! |
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| Pop quiz jigsaw about the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. |
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| Board game: rules as simple as draughts, but strategy significantly more complicated. Why yes, of course we bought a copy! |
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| VR headsets. |
The York Dungeon
Finally, we did something frivolous! Run by Merlin Entertainment, this was similar to the Dungeon experience of Warwick Castle. It was just different enough for us still to be surprised and entertained. The wax work figures were really well done and the actors were fabulous - particularly the executioner's apprentice.
We enjoyed ice cream today - it was gloriously sunny - and a delicious afternoon tea!
