York.....

Well, as you know, we had a day out in York on Tuesday, our friends came along too. We caught the 9.30 a.m. train from our local station but had to change at Leeds. As we waited for the train the heavens opened - great we're going to get pissed wet through, was the collective thought! Not so, the weather was glorious - a little breezy but bright sunshine and warm out of the breeze!


The first place of interest when you arrive at York is the NRM (National Railway Museum). It's a huge place and has many interesting exhibits - if you're interested in Trains etc., which MWM and our friend T are. There is no entrance fee - which is unusual because usually wherever you go in England you are fleeced charged to go in!

The NRM houses various engines - some very famous, two of the most famous are the first ever engine - Stevenson's Rocket and the fastest engine Mallard. You can also see the Royal Trains- I managed to take a few photographs of the inside - very luxourious if a little cramped - the beds were tiny, but then so was Queen Victoria.


The Flying Scotsman is being renovated at the NRM, I managed to get a photograph but it has been completely taken apart so all you can see are the innards!

The entrance to The Yorkshire Wheel can also be found at the NRM. Big Wheels seem to be the 'in-thing' in large cities at the moment. MWM wanted to go on the wheel as I'd denied him the chance in Manchester last week, but the queues were huge and we didn't have a lot of time - he only sulked for short time!

By the time we had finished wandering round the NRM is was lunchtime so we walked into York proper and found a lovely little pub where we had lunch and a few drink. After lunch we walked further into the centre of York to the Minster , one of the most beautiful Cathedrals in the world, which dates back to the year 627.......


'The first Minster was built for the baptism of the Anglo Saxon King, Edwin of Northumbria. Edwin was christened in a small wooden church that had been built for the occasion, this event occurred on Easter Sunday in the year 627. Almost immediately Edwin ordered that this small wooden church should be rebuilt in stone. Edwin was killed in battle in 633 and the task of completing the stone Minster fell to Oswald'.


There are a miriad of narrow streets in York, full of 'big name' shops, 'ye olde tea shoppes' and speciality shops selling anything from charms to fudge! The most common mode of transport in York is bicycle, there were hundreds of them all parked up all over the city centre - it reminded me of Amsterdam!

The River Ouse runs through York and can get quite busy with river cruises. Had there been more time we would have like to have sailed down the river but I did get a photograph! There are many other attractions in York like - Jorvik Viking Centre, York Dungeon, Castle Museum, Clifford's Tower and the Yorkshire Museum, so really you need to spend about a week or more in York to see all it has to offer, if you click on the links though you can take a quick tour.

We had to get the 4.30 p.m. train back as that was the last train to stop at our local station, which meant we were back home by 6.45ish. We had a great day out and will, no doubt, be going again in the future to visit the other attractions that we've not had time to see yet.

I'll leave you with a little slide show of what we saw - my apologies for some of the photos, they're not as clear as they could have been, but if you click on 'view all images' you can see them better.