York

We arrived at York without incident.  

Sorry, but it makes me very happy to say that after a reasonably long 3 hour drive in heavy traffic!

Oh Yes... the trip is very worthwhile... they not only have a cathedral in York - it's a Minster:


Huge and also old. Very old.  Built 637AD.

They just added Queen Elizabeth to the front facade actually. Not quite colour matched I'm afraid:


A closeup:

York is a big city with a huge history.  We climbed the 300 steps of the tower and took in a great view of the city as we pretended that we're very fit and it wasn't much of an ordeal climbing it.

It is virtually impossible to capture the vibe of these huge cathedrals by way of photography.



I took quite a lot of photos inside... here are a few that maybe give you a bit of an impression of the place.








Lots more to show you... hang on. 

Nah! I don't want to bore you with a string of church photos.  ("Oops too late" I hear you say)

We also visited the Vikings museum.  That was fun and interesting.  The JORVIK Viking Centre contained realistic displays of life back around 866AD.  Here's a Viking walking his dog:


This must be when the british love of dogs began.  I can tell you that I found it amazing how restaurants allow dogs to sit with their parents. I know I'm in the minority, but yuuuuck!

Anyway... back to the Vikings.  Here's a cobbler giving me a sad look:


Very realistic indeed. 

We finished off our stay in York by walking the city walls as they were about a thousand or two years ago:


While staying in York we drove a couple of hours North to a place called North Killingholme.  It is where Ruth's dad was posted during World War II.  He was assigned to a RAF base that was operating in the 1940's.  Maurie was seconded to fly many missions from the North Killingholme base, and many of his comrades failed to return.

It was quite emotional for us to be there on the spot from where he experienced the stresses of war at age 22.

We found a monument commemorating the bravery of his squadron 550:



And then we found a museum with an enormous collection of information, including a picture of Maurie with his flight crew.  They also had some artwork in the museum - here's a painting of a Lancaster in which he flew those missions:

It was a moment when we felt very grateful and lucky for what our ancestors did for us.

On that sombre note... time to say goodbye for now and come back and tell you all about the Lake District in a couple of days time.

Cheers for now.

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