York

I spent Easter weekend in York.  It's a two-hour train ride from London, through typically beautiful English countryside -- rolling hills, meadows full of sheep and newborn lambs, church steeples, and cooling towers from nuclear power plants.
My starting point was King's Cross Station, with it's impressive roof:

Arriving in the York train station:

My hotel, The Royal York, sits right next to the train station

As you enter the hotel, you see this sign above the doors, which states that the hotel is licensed in "pursuance of acts of parliament for public music and dancing."

Next to the hotel is the Wheel of York, a smaller version of the London Eye, and those giant ferris wheels that seem to be popping up everywhere

It being a rainy Friday morning, I headed across the river to my first stop, the famous York Minster, the largest medieval cathedral in Northern Europe (however you define that.)  Photos and words don't do it justice, but I'll give it a try:

The Roman Emperor Constantine was crowned here in 306 AD.  It's pretty far from Rome for that.

Inside:

I heard someone say that the stained glass windows above represent the largest "expanse" of stained glass windows in the country or world.  Not sure about that, but they are undeniably impressive.  As is the organ

Suitably inspired, I decided to take a walk along York's most famous historic feature, the Roman Walls.  As the name suggests, these walls, which still largely circle the city, were started by the Romans, and have been built up ever since, so how much is left from the Roman construction is hard to say.

Inside one tower is the Richard III Museum.  I don't have any pictures, which is a shame, because it is in the top tier of Worst Museums I Have Ever Seen.  Most of signage is hand-written on poorly-laminated index cards.  It rather beats its point to death (no pun intended), that Richard III, from the House of York, is not nearly the terrible person he is depicted to be in Shakespeare's play (not Romeo and Juliet, but Richard III).  I would have to rank this #3 in Worst Museums I Have Ever Seen, #2 being the Garden Museum in London, and #1 the Mummer's Museum in Philadelphia.

Next stop was the York Castle museum.  

Which, curiously, is doesn't teach you anything about the building it is in, which may or may not be a castle.  Instead, it is sort of a Smithsonian-recreation-of-life-through-the-ages-in York.  A series of displays -- quite a lot of them, in fact -- represent life in York through the centuries.  There's a full-size Victorian street, and also the old York jail.  The museum recommends 2 - 3 hours to see the whole thing, but it not being quite my cup of tea, I was out in about 40 minutes.
Across the street from the York Castle is something much more to my tastes, Clifford's Tower:

Now this is my idea of a castle!

As the sign says, it was built during the reign of Henry III, about whom I know nothing.  You're able to climb up to the top, where you have some great views, both inside and out.

 This is the Castle from the Tower.

 That's the Minster over there

More Minster.












The stairs were the typical stone Steps of Death that I have become used to

Next up the National Railway Museum, the largest railway museum in the world.  This was the only place I had to stand in line for, but it was very much worth it.  A few highlights...

A Japanese bullet train

The inside of a Japanese bullet train.  Notice how much headroom there is above the person standing in the aisle.










Several royal train carriages, which are suitably kitted out:

I really don't know how a telephone on a Victorian train would work, unless it's just used to call another part of the train.










There was a locomotive that was used in the construction of the Channel Tunnel

And this cutie:

You can even go into the shop where they are restoring trains

The last stop (this was still Friday) was a fun tour of the York Brewery, which consists of two rooms of equipment.  They make a pretty small amount of beer here, but the tour guide was hilarious.

 Here is something horrible fermenting.

 These are bags of barley

Here's an empty vat.  They only have two vats.












That's enough for Friday.
Saturday morning was spent at Castle Howard, which will be the subject of another post.  Returning to York around 4pm, I went to Fairfax House, which bills itself the Finest Georgian House in England.  No pics, but it is Darn Impressive, especially since all of the furniture is authentic.  Then I wandered through the streets:

Sunday morning was breakfast at the famous Betty's, which is a charming tea room with not very good food.  The queue is usually quite long at Betty's, but I got there at 9am on a Sunday, when few Brits are awake.

Next stop was the Yorvik Viking Centre, which commemorates the fact that York was for a long time a Viking settlement.  When you first enter Yorvik, you stand on a glass floor above an actual archaeological dig, although the density of objects suggests that they were collected from a variety of places and all put here.  It's extremely well-done, and the guides are eager to show you around and tell you about the objects.  Video screens tell the history of the settlement with the latest in computer imagery.
This did not prepare me for the second part of the Yorvik experience, which is The Ride.  This is a Disney-like ride in a six-person pod running on an overhead track through a recreation of a Viking village, complete with animatronic people, sounds, and even smells.  As unexpected as this was, it is really very well done.  The final section of Yorvik is a series of display cases showing objects from the Viking period, including preserved corpses, food items, weapons, and clothing.  Suffice it to say, a lot of money was spent on this, and unlike every ride at Disney, there was no evidence of a corporate sponsor (i.e., "Siemens Presents the Yorvik Ride").

Next up was York's Sweet Story, a brand-new museum about York's leading role in the British candy industry throughout the 19th and 20th century.  As with Yorvik, this is an elaborate, cutting-edge museum that teaches you all about how chocolate is made, and the history of various candy-makers (now all parts of Nestle or Cadbury's) in York.

Finally it was the Yorkshire Museum, which is a history museum of the York area.  Although relatively small, about eight rooms, it's an impressive collection, beautifully displayed.  By this time, I was getting the impression that, the Richard III Museum aside, a huge amount of public funding pours in to York, and it is rightfully one of the top tourism destinations for Brits.