York -- Another Lovely Day

Today we took the train from Nunthorpe to York -- it was a lovely hour-long trip through the countryside.  York is a walled Roman town (founded in 71 CE).  It was then Jorvik when the Vikings captured it in 866, and then was York after the Norman Conquest when it was the capital of all of England. 

The City of York was known as the place where Terry's chocolate was made (as in those yummy chocolate orange things you can get at Christmas) -- but I now see that Kraft bought Terry's and moved the manufacture of those yummy oranges to POLAND!?!?

There are medieval and Georgian and Victorian structures jammed all together -- and we're walking down one of the oldest streets in England called "the Shambles" and John says "those houses were here when Henry VIII was on the throne.  Wow.  This is a structure on the River Ouse that was a defense & is now for sale.  The sign said "One Medieval Tower and Adjoining Bridge for Sale."

A monument to soldiers killed in the Boer War.

This is York all fitted out for Christmas:  Just what you might expect of an Olde English Towne (note Crabtree & Evelyn shoppe on the square):

A note here about the time:  It gets TOTALLY PITCH BLACK DARK AT 4 p.m.  The first photo was taken at 11 a.m.; this second one around 3 p.m.  We got home before 5 & slogged our way home in the SNOW-SLOP in utter darkness.

GORGEOUS York Minster:  The Second Largest Gothic Cathedral in Northern Europe:

A sight almost as heart-warming as the fantastic architecture -- a STARBUCKS! (pardon me for saying so, but we've run into coffe that is absolute crap). 

Behold Lovely Coffee:

And Lovely Architecture:

Many of the buildings in "the Shambles" (medieval) appear to have settled significantly -- and some seem to be almost sinking!

Clifford's Tower: a medieval fortification that overlooks the York Castle Museum:

You know it's a Castle Museum if they've saved a helmet for you:

Isaac seemed to like the stuffed cats that reminded him of his own,

and he hoped that visiting this exhibit on Chinese immigrants to England would impress his Chinese instructor:

The Castle Museum did a good job with interactive exhibits for kids: 

And John liked them too!

And some of what we saw when we returned:

We may be staying in tomorrow -- depending on the roads . . .