Thursday, April 26, 2012

England Day Six

We woke up early and had another English breakfast (just a delicious as the first) and walked up to York Minster. To get to it we had to walk under the original wall of the city called Bootham Bar. (Side-story: In England they have different words for stuff. A "bar" is a gate and a "gate" is a street. Confusing, yes.) At York Minster, there was fabulous architecture and superb details. I loved it. The organ was playing when we went. I think it was playing one of Mozart's earliest pieces for the organ. It was lovely. All around they had these mirrors on wheels so you could look at the ceilings without hurting your neck; genius. After a nice organ recital, we went to York Castle, which basically only served as a prison and occasionally as a castle. That was more frightening than anything else. I don't like the idea of going into cells where people died and stuff.
Ceilings.

Five Sisters window. Original medieval stained glass.

Ceilings.

Isn't it just the cutest?

York Minster.

After visiting York Minster and York Castle, we went to Betty's Tea Rooms for some (according to Rick Steves) delicious tea and cakes. Dad, Henry and I had hot cocoa and mom had tea. We all ordered some Fat Rascals and scones with clotted cream. Clotted cream is the most delicious butter, but it's not even butter. It's more like straight whipped cream, just thicker.
Hot cocoa with chocolate shavings
that fell to the bottom and were delicious.

Fat Rascals.

When we were done at Betty's, we took a little walk to the Jorvik Museum. It was based around an excavation of a Viking home. There were Viking reenactors dressed in heavy wool and lots of leather with huge braids down their back. Once you got into the museum, it was kind of like a Disneyland ride where they take you around a little Viking town. The simulation was complete with gross smells and sound effects. It was pretty fun and awesome.

By the time we were done a Jorvik, it was time for Evensong at the minster. Evensong is a Church of England practice where every afternoon at 3:30 pm, the choir boys sing praises and occasionally a lesson will be given. This was our second Evensong. We went to one in Bath where there were 24 boys and 14 men who sang absolutely beautifully. Anyway, back to York. There were only two cute choir boys and they weren't even singing. They were there with their choir group who was touring and singing at different minsters.

When we were walking home from Evensong with fish'n'chips in hand, we saw some Elders. I was pretty excited. We didn't stop them because it was getting dark and cold. So we walked back to Queen Anne's and watched cupcake wars.

2 comments:

  1. I'm just so jealous of your wonderful adventures! love all the pictures i just love! hope it was the greatest moment of your life. (other then when you met me)

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  2. it was definitely up on my list of greatest moments. kylie, let's go to europe together.

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