York

7:00:00 AM Out And About Global 2 Comments

At last summer is here! Best birthday present ever, this year we boarded the plane heading for England where we will spend 3 weeks. First stop, York. York was settled by the Romans in 71AD, Constantine was proclaimed emperor here in 306AD, the Vikings left behind a city dating from 971 AD and the 14th century wood timbered buildings recall a time when the city had an open air slaughterhous called the Shambles.

We mostly just walked around the city enjoying the church, Roman ruins, the ancient city walls and quirky neighborhoods. York is popular with the college crowd, so if you are there on a weekend night be prepared for lots of intoxicated youth.

The York Minster was originally a catholic church, but during the Reformation it sustained much damage in an attempt to remove any signs of Catholicism.

Eliza and I broke from Bob and Eden one afternoon to try a proper English afternoon tea. We stopped in at Betty's Cafe Tea Room. The question I keep asking myself is, why haven't I tried afternoon tea before? The concept is so smart and given how we travel, eating late in the evening an afternoon treat is the perfect way to tide you over. We enjoyed a selection of sweets, finger sandwiches, a Sultana scone and the best butter I've ever eaten. Honestly, I could do tea everyday.

Lastly, we visited the Jorvic Viking Center. It's a museum highlighting the Viking city found preserved in a peat bog. Inside the museum you board a ride, so to speak, and are toured around a reproduced city. You meet people along the way whose bones were actually found. You learn about their life, the kinds of foods they ate, the jobs they performed, animals they kept and tools they used. After the ride you will tour a museum of with 40,000 objects pulled from the mud. It was quite impressive. Make reservations ahead online to avoid line, no pictures allowed.