The Ins and Outs of a Medieval City

Whew!

What a day. I'm sure a pedometer would have registered at least four miles.We walked into town, and saw some gorgeous homes along the river:

Our first stop was another city bus tour, which gave us the lay of the land. Again, quite helpful to get our bearings.

Here is the York Railway Station and the Royal Hotel in the background (no Royals stayed there!)

Queen Victoria stayed in the original station hotel, shown below, with Albert and the children. When a server gave her a bill for their meal, she was furious, and vowed never to come to York again!

Then we went to the visitor's centre, and received some very helpful advice for our trip to Ripon via auto tomorrow. Not surprisingly, I have bitten off more than we can chew, and have been attempting to eliminate some destinations, which is extremely difficult for me. But, alas, it must be done.

Then, we peeked into the famous Betty's Tea Room:

And walked by a very Dickensian Starbucks:

And on to the York Minster:

                     

                                       

                                                           

Next, the Yorvik (original Viking name for York) Museum. Fascinating recreations of the social life of the Vikings and the archaeological remains that helped them piece together their way of life:

After lunch, we returned to the York Castle Museum to visit the Debtor's Prison:

And hear the sad stories of its occupants:

The same museum also had a WW1 exhibit. This is a "dummy head" the soldiers would hold up from a trench, hoping it would receive a bullet. When it did, they would remove it and determine which direction the enemy fire was coming from:

We took a last stroll through the city:

The old homes with their uneven surfaces and structure, along with streets designed for horses and carts:

We found the new mixed in:

Exquisite hats!

Then, we walked up to Clifford's Tower, the castle's central stronghold:

And finally, walked on top of York's medieval walls, which are the most complete walls in Europe. They were broken in three or four places. . .

                

                                 

                                                  

                                                                          

                                                      

                                      

Tomorrow I will face the biggest challenge of the trip. . .hiring a car and driving on the left side of the road for five days, as we scour the Brontë territory. If you think of it, say a prayer for us. We are hoping to get a GPS with the car, but it's first come, first serve. But, we trust a God who guides our paths daily, without the aid of a human device! Now, on to Ripon. . .

To York on a Train with a Prayer of Gratitude. . .

The early bird has caught her worm!

I never know the obstacles I will face along the way, so I always plan to be at my destination far ahead of time in case traffic, weather or misfortune slows me down. My husband knows I'd rather scurry around beforehand like the proverbial chicken, than be sweating bullets and barely make my connections at the end. He, of course, is placid no matter what, and assumes everything will always go as planned.

We had three legs or routes to our journey to York this fine morning. The first, a 15 minute ride via commuter train to Bath Spa. This is the train we have taken each day on our trip to visit Jane Austen. The second is another 15 minute ride to Bristol (a much larger station with 15 tracks instead of two), where we catch our cross country train to York. This train (final destination, Glasgow) takes four hours, and only leaves a very few times a day.

Well, I wanted to leave at least an hour early on the first leg to Bath, so I had time to pick up our tickets for the second and third portion of our journey. On Monday, that train was late, and left the station 20 minutes late, so I felt justified. So, that's what we did.

When I picked up our tickets in Bath, I realized that the 10:30 am departure for the first leg from Bath Spa to Bristol, was really the departure time for the Bristol to York portion, so, had we not left on the earlier train to Bath, we would have missed our train to Viking land!

Olivia waiting with our luggage as I went to purchase our tickets

I was so thankful for my inclination to be early, but even more grateful that the Lord for knew all this before hand, and was gracious to have it play out the way it did. My word for the year is TRUST (in the Lord). I know we will find many reasons to do so in the middle portion of our adventure. Especially when I hire (rent) a car for our northern explorations, and need to 'keep left'. This morning at the station, I was bounding down the right side of the stairs, when a business man addressed me brightly with, "You're on the wrong side, Miss!" (Yes, he really did say 'Miss'. Bless him!)

Ah, yes. . . keep to the left. I've always been fascinated with the British term 'leftenant' (our lieutenant).  Jane Austen had a few dashingly uniformed officers (in the militia) well placed in her novels.

Star Trek Toilet 

To make the best of the day, although we arrived at our B&B around 3pm, we visited the York Castle Museum, which reveals the social aspect of York during the Victorian Era and beyond. Here are a few photos of the exhibits . . .

The parlor of the middle and upper class in the city.

One room living amongst the country folk . . .

Thought this was a sweet and insightful poem by a young girl:

A Victorian street. . . 

A millinery shop . . . 

When I went to pay for the ticket, the attendant asked for my name and my title.  "Mrs.", I said. And then, "I'd love 'princess' too." She laughed and said she had heard that from only two other people, and the second was that morning. I had made the young lady's day. 

This was not far fetched. Last month, when I purchased tickets online for the Globe Theatre in London, a list of possible titles popped up, such as 'Lord', 'Lady', 'Barroness', 'Prince', etc. At first I laughed, thinking it was a joke, and almost picked 'Princess', until I realized that this was England, these were true-to-life titles, and they would require proof of identity!

Since we had not eaten all day (except for tea, fruit and nuts), we wanted something substantial. Meat in particular. Well, we found a perfect place to satisfy our Vikingette pallette!

This is what I call a paleo diet . . .

 The Shambles (the guide book states) is one of the best-preserved medieval shopping streets in Europe. Although none of the original shop-fronts have survived from medieval times, some properties still have exterior wooden shelves, reminders of when cuts of meat were served from the open windows.

This was a surprise!

     

Time tomorrow to visit the state of the art Jorvik Museum. Here we will discover what it was truly like in Viking times. . . sights, sounds and all!