Kellie and I caught an early in train in Edinburgh on Thursday, May 25. I believe it was in the train station while waiting for the train that Kellie talked to the young Scotsman who explained why Scots prefer Robert the Bruce to William Wallace as their national hero, but I might be confusing several different conversations with local folk. As I mentioned a few days ago in the travelogue, the travels from Edinburgh to York were not particularly scenic because we sat on the leeside of the train rather than the seaside. It was mostly sheep country, so I counted a lot of sheep though I did not sleep.
Anyway, I have also already mentioned that York was our favorite city of our whole visit mostly because all of the important sites were very centralized. In fact, the city is so centralized that it caused a blunder on our part right out of the train station. Not wanting to carry our heavy backpacks very far, we hailed a taxi outside the train station and said, "Take us to the Hampton Inn." Which he did. He drops us off, and we go in. "Um...sorry," the lady says after taking what seemed a long time to figure things out, "but you are in our sister hotel by the train station." "Should we get a taxi?" we asked. "No, if you will walk up this street, across the river to the top of the hill, and turn right down Barker Lane, you will be there in five minutes or so." Sure enough, it wasn't far, though it took us closer to ten minutes of walking. That damned uphill stuff again. And, we discovered that we were about a five minute walk from the train station. We had completely wasted our money on the taxi ride. Oh, well! Lesson learned.
After depositing our bags with the office staff at the Hampton and an early lunch at a tavern on the river that Kellie and I had walked by earlier, we headed off to York Minster Cathedral. Man! Was it something to see! And it was only few blocks from our hotel, and the restaurant, and the Jorvik Viking Experience, and the York Castle, and--well, you get the point. Everything was right there within easy walking distance, and all the ground except to our hotel was flat. No more uphill!
This was my first shot of Yorkminster (also York Minster) as we rounded a corner. I have clipped the picture a bit because the building was surrounded by people. York Minster was built in 1472 and is dedicated to St. Peter. It is one of the largest cathedrals in Northern Europe, and, according to one plaque on the wall, contains more stained glass than all the cathedrals in England combined. From what I saw, I believe it.
The picture above is of the tower over the entryway. As in the picture above, I have clipped the bottom to cut out all the people standing in line. I guess that does take away some perspective as to how tall the building is. It is massive.
The above photo shows the vaulted ceiling down the middle of the church to the St. Cuthbert window. I left the people in this time so that you could get a sense of the size of the building, and this is just the center or one-third of the area in the main wing.
I am going to go ahead and tell you right now that I would make no attempt to show all of the stained glass in this cathedral. Just guessing, I would say there are around 100 stained glass windows. I will show you some that I thought were the coolest, but you should really go there if you like stained glass.
For a few extra pounds, visitors can join small groups that climb 270 narrow winding stairs to the top of York Minster's tallest tower, which I believe is around 250 feet. From there, one can see the whole city as well as the entire top of the cathedral. Kellie and I paid to take that extra tour. Wow! Did it get my heart rate up--and coming back down was hard because my feet were longer than the steps. Going up wasn't a problem because I climbed on the balls of my feet. You cannot do that going down. Anyway, the next few pictures are from the top of York Minster.
A plaque on the wall said that this portion of the York city wall was built in the early 1200's.
On both the way up and down, visitors crossed from one tower to another on a narrow walkway. From this narrow walkway, you had excellent view of the flying buttresses that support the central vault.
Also, from the walkway, there was a good view of an area called "The Shambles." This area is mostly narrow cobblestone alleys with all kinds of quirky little shop and galleries. We did not explore The Shambles thoroughly because we could not buy anything and carry it with us, but it would be worth going back to explore. Here is a picture of it.
Okay, I don't know if I have right window or not because I cannot see the details in the pictures, but I believe this stained glass window displays events in the entire life of St. Cuthbert.
This relief showing the crucifixion of Christ was in one of the many side chapels. It was simply stunning.
The next picture is disappointingly a little fuzzy, but it captures the Doomstone. The Doomstone was a relic from the Norman Minster crypts that York Minster is built over. The Doomstone portrays demons seething from the mouth of hell. Yeah, just what you want to find in a crypt.
Near the vault of St. William is this reproduction of St. William done with tiny square tiles.
And a close-up showing how small the tiles are.
Here, from inside the private chapel of the big wigs of York Minsteris the backside of the pipe organ. Can you imagine what it must sound like when this monster booms out?
Well, I found a Ben Johnson window and I thought it might have been Ben Jonson, the poet and playwright. It wasn't, but here is the memorial to some dude named Ben Johnson.
The following astronomical clock is a memorial dedicated to airmen from the surrounding area who were killed in action in World War II.
Next, we have the centerpiece of the dome in the main chapel. The dome is too big to get in a single picture.
The last picture from inside York Minster is of the famous Rose Window commemorating the end of the War of the Roses between the Lancaster and the Yorks in 1486.
Now, after we left the Chapel, Kellie and I did wander through the streets and alleys of The Shambles. We didn't shop, but in a shop that sold armor--I am guessing for historical reenactments and such--I found this rather odd piece of knight's armor, lying amongst the battle axes.
For you Harry Potter fans, I did not take any pictures of Platform 9 3/4 in King's Cross because of the crowd. The only people at Harry Potter's corner in York was Kellie and me. So, here's your Harry Potter picture.
So, while we were waiting for our tour of the Jorvik Viking experience, Kellie needed to use the restroom. We found one around the corner that cost 40 pence. While Kellie was in the restroom, I stepped around the corner of the nearest building and Wow! there was York Castle. We had tickets to the Jorvik thing, so we didn't visit York Castle, but I swear in York, something cool is around every corner. We really need to go back sometime.
The river Ouse flows through the middle of York, and Kellie and I walked across it several times this day. Here is the one picture of Ouse that I took.
And, for the last shot of the day, I give you the banner for the Jorvik Viking experience. The experience is a riding guided tour through an excavation of a Viking city that was found below the town of York on the river Ouse. It was too dark inside the exhibit to take pictures, and a recorded guide was talking the whole time, so you wanted to listen. If you go to York, do not bypass this exhibition. It is pretty awesome.
Holy cow! I have taken nearly two hours on this one blog. That's crazy. More from Nottingham and Newstead Abbey in the next few days. Oh! I may be done for this week. Probably be Monday.