England Trip Report -- Thursday

[klwilliams]

I woke up Thursday morning in the Wheatlands Lodge, and went downstairs for breakfast. It was a traditional English breakfast, which meant eggs (poached or over easy, it was hard to tell), cold toast in a rack, yummy bacon that is more like Canadian bacon, cold baked beans of the sort that are sold as pork and beans, a small hockey-puck-shaped black object which was probably blood pudding (but I didn't try it), and lots and lots of tea.

After breakfast I walked the ten minutes or so to York, via Micklegate Bar and through the winding old street called The Shambles, which used to be where butchers sold their wares. The Medieval buildings are still there, with the shelves where the goods to be sold were displayed. I didn't spend much time in this part of town, since I wanted to be sure to have time to visit the places I didn't get to the last time I was here.

I went by York Minster, as I wanted to visit the gift shop, but they wouldn't let me in as the Bishop of Jarrow was being consecrated that morning.

(York minster)




I then went to the York Museum, which is not far from York Minster and consists of the actual museum plus the ruins of St. Mary's Abbey, and a tower which is the last remaining piece of the Roman fort at Eboracum. The museum itself had exhibits on the British tribe that was there before the Romans came, the Brigantes, who were also lead by a queen (not Boedicea). This queen, if I'm remembering correctly, signed a treaty with the Roman legions when they arrived that had the same affect as the American Indians signing treaties with the U.S. -- the Romans took over completely. There were also interesting exhibits about the Romans and the Vikings, but very little about the Middle Ages except to mention the Harrowing of the North (which might explain why there wasn't a lot going on there in the Middle Ages).


I stopped at Betty's again for lunch, where I had pork sausages, plain rotri (the cream and potato pancakes), and blackberry and apple crepes with clotted cream for dessert. Yum.

I walked over to the Castle Museum (after a brief stop at the Jorvik Viking Center gift shop), to discover that there really isn't a castle there anymore. There is Clifford's Tower, noted for being the place where all of the Jews in York were burned to death in the 1190's in retaliation for the Jews having money when Richard was taxing everyone heavily for his Crusade. (It didn't make any more sense than any other time the Jews were persecuted.)

The Castle Museum is actually a collection of a lot of period rooms that have been recreated, with actual objects, based on a collection of objects that a doctor had, which he accepted as payment instead of money. In particular there is an entire Victorian downtown, with shop windows filled with all sorts of actual Victorian objects -- dress stores, an apothecary, a candy store, a fire station, wedding clothes, baby clothes, all sorts of things.

Afterwards I went back to the room for a nap, then I went to Betty's again for a traditional cream tea, which included a marzipan/frangipan pear. Yum. Then I went back to the room to read stories for Milford and to sleep.

Comments

[kahnegabs.livejournal.com]

Very, VERY cool!

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

York used to be the default place to go on school trips througout my junior school (grade school, I guess) years and then again when I was an undergraduate (beacuse of the Anglo-Danish stuff). So I've been there a lot. And I still love every stone of the place. The Castle Museum remains my favourite museum ever.

[klwilliams.livejournal.com]

The Castle Museum was amazing, and I wish I'd known what to expect before I got there or I would have gone there first, when I was more fresh (and had more time).

[darcyjavanne.livejournal.com]

Sigh. York. I remember it well... Thanks for sharing!