York is a very beautiful city! So full of history and evidently so today. The city used to the capital of England and there's a wall around the city that still exists. I wished I had learned more about York before I got there but the tours gave me a pretty good idea.
After getting our tour pass, we headed to the York Minister. This is a big beautiful church. Reminded me a bit of the Notre Dame Cathedral. It's still being used for services today as well as tours.
Much of York is pedestrian only and it's how one would imagine the UK to be, narrow streets with cute shops and cobble stone walk ways. This area is called the Shambles. As we walked along these streets, we stopped to get a pork sandwich and some crackling to share. As we are eating on the street, it started to rain! We ate the rest of our food under a walk way. Next, we went to get some cream tea at a Teddy bear shop. It was a bit obscure so there was no line, which was nice since we wanted to get out of the rain. The tea and scone as super delicious! I couldn't finish my scone and I wished I could've taken it to go with me. But we had so much more to see!
Next we went to the Jorvik Viking Museum. The greatest part of this tour was the ride through the re-creation of a Jorvik Viking village. Neil told me as I was riding through that the smell was also re-created. The outhouse part was a bit smelly! It was like riding the "It's A Small World" ride but a million times better! There's mechanical characters, voices, and so much more! I really enjoyed this and would go back again.
Our next destination was the Castle Museum. There were several parts to this and my favourite is the old english era. There were also World War I and II exhibits, kitchen throughout the decades, a prison area and music and art section. Outside the museum, we climbed a set of stairs to reach the Tower. After climbing to the very top, my knees were feeling a bit wobbly and I needed to get down closer to the ground. It was a great view though!
Finally, we went to The Dungeons. Neil's told me nothing about this place except the name. It is an interactive tour with actors and scenes that illustrated the history of York. Some parts were really quite scary. Often times some of the audience (a group of maybe around 15-20) had to participate. At one point, Neil was volunteered as the guy with the plague and the one to test out torture devices. It's hard to describe, you really had to be there. As scary as it was (and yes, I screamed several times) it was very fun!
We caught a train back to Sheffield and we for a carvey with his family. So much food. But oh so delicious! and lots of drinks too. After dinner we all hung out and drank more back at home. The kids played with Ella and I wondered how they managed to have so much energy.
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