York, England

Casa Grande, Arizona

Playing catch up on our England, Scotland, and Wales trip.

I forgot to mention one town we stopped to visit while in Wales.  The name of the town is Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwymdrobwillantysiliogogogoch.  I never ever wrote one word that stretched across the page and didn't leave room for the period.  Needless to say it has the distinction of being the longest name of a town in the world.

After we left the Caernarfon Castle and Snowdonia, Wales we had a travel day to York.  The bus stopped in Chester and Anita led us on a discovery walk of the city and the city walls.  As we were walking across the walls she was greeted by John an artist that was painting some beautiful portraits.  The one he was working on, was being to sent to someone in the states.  

We knew there was a big dinner scheduled when we arrived in York, so Bill and I had ice cream for lunch.  I know the butter in the UK is so much better than what we have in the states, just imagine how good the ice cream was.  

We enjoyed the beautiful day eating our ice cream and listening to music on every corner.  Musicians were playing everything from violins and keyboards to singers singing.  The people were just standing in the square listening to them.

Sadly, we left that town too quickly, but York was calling. Anita took us on a walk of the city before our included dinner. Our hotel, the Radisson Park Inn, was said to be the only purpose built hotel.  It was our least favorite because it had very modern furniture.  The toilet was square!  Have you ever sat on a square toilet seat?  The hotel dinner was great and the wine was very nice.  

The following morning Anita led us in a different direction to the York Minster.  Sister Linda was our local guide and you needed a guide in this cathedral.  The Great East Window is the largest expanse of medieval stained glass in the world.  It's hard to describe how large 76 feet of stained glass covering 1,680 feet is.  It was created in 1408 by John Thornton of Coventry.  Americans think 200 years is old in this country.


Molly Pinner had told us to make sure we visited the Shambles and the Railway Museum.  We enjoyed walking through the Shambles.  We had the whole afternoon to explore so we walked around the town.  

The next thing I knew, Bill was walking up the steps of the Mansion.  The Mansion is directly across the river from our hotel.

Bill really enjoys all this wealth these people have.








The next thing we found was the York Museum.  What a find it was.  This museum was used to house prisoners many years ago.  

Part of the museum upstairs had little rooms depicting a certain time period.  





When we went downstairs it was a replica of a village. 

There was of course old cars and don't ask me what kind or date.

If we'd have seen this in the states we would have remarked about the cobblestone streets, but after walking on them everywhere, it was something if you had a smooth sidewalk.

There was a section on the war that was very well done. 

When you were finished in that section you walked through the gift shop and into another wing.  It's a good thing I remembered that as the second section was even better than the first.

It was all about the prisoners that were there.  Each cell had a video playing telling the story.  

There was another section depicting the 60's that we liked.

Now we've been gone from the hotel since 8:30 am.  Walking everywhere in the town since our guided tour of the Minster.  I never expected the York Castle to have so many exhibits and we spent much more time than expected.  We walked back in the direction of the railway museum and we both stopped in front of a very nice looking Italian restaurant that Anita had recommended earlier in one of her walks.  

As much as we both wanted to see the Railway Museum, dinner and a glass of wine sounded better.  It was nice to have a nice dinner with just the two of us.  I don't think I could have walked any further than across the bridge to our hotel.  So much for our afternoon at leisure.  

Turtle Safely......