York

Well it's been a while since my last post. I'd like to say I've been terribly busy but I haven't really, just lazy. Anyway, I'm off to Scotland next weekend so I thought I should put up some shots from the York trip. Basically we went to York to meet up with some friends of Rafael & Neiva's that were visiting from Brazil. Well, it wasn't so much to meet Marcquinhos and Suelen but really just a good excuse to take a trip to York and if we managed to run into them while we were there then cool. As it turned out we didn't meet them but we had a good time none-the-les

For the trip north we went via Leeds. As we arrived in Leeds it was bucketing down so we decided to follow the signs to the Royal Armories museum. It turned out to be fantastic. Since living in Europe the last couple of years I've been looking for a museum with a good selection of arms and armour. Well this is the place! It's huge over 4 floors and it's stacked wall to wall with suits of armour, weapons and life size dioramas depicting battle scenes. In one room there is a life size elephant covered in armour with bowman and lancers on top. And while we were too late to see them they also have demonstrations of combat techniques with ancient weapons and armour. And the most amazing part of all is that the museum is free.

After the museum we headed for our hotel in Halifax which is about 50 miles from York. But as it was still light we decided check out a little park close by. There was an old mill in the middle of the forest which was kinda cool.

Later that evening we had a nice meal with excellent service in the hotel restaurant and an early night ready for a big day in York on Sunday. We woke to a beautiful morning and spent some time having a look at a few little sights on the way to York. Neiva decided we were spending too much time messing about so we cut or lazy sight-seeing short and headed directly for York.

There is a lot to see in York and you can easily spend a whole day there. The top sights to see in my opinion are the Minster including the catacombs beneath, the City Walls, the Shambles (medieval streets) and the Yorkshire Museum & gardens. The Jarvik Viking Centre was a big disappointment for me and was also one the most expensive attractions. In fact everything in York costs money so if your visiting be prepared to spend £20-30 or more in entry fees alone if you want to see everything.

One the best things to do in York is to walk along the old city walls. They are broken onto 3 different sections and include gate houses and towers and you get great views over the town as you wander along. It does get quite narrow in parts and being a lot wider than most I usually had to find a parapet or hole in the wall to squeeze into so people could get by.

As you can see from the photos it was beautiful day and as much as I've winged about the weather here in the UK the last 3 weekends have been great. In fact as I write this I'm suffering from the copious amounts of BBQ'ed meat I've consumed while lazing on the deck this afternoon. Life is good.

Next weekend Scotland!