I’ve never visited York before. We had some holiday time, so we thought why not? And to make it a bit more holidayesque we treated ourselves to first class on the train up. I could definitely get used to first class travel.
York was a lovely place to visit, lots of history, miniature train ride at the railway museum, the Yorvik Viking centre was good fun, and we had enough sunshine for a boat trip. Good breakfasts too.
I love York, it’s one of the places I consider to be sort of home, despite never having lived there. It’s not much more than an hour’s drive from my mum’s, but I still haven’t got around to taking Bernard there. Yorvik is going to blow his mind.
I had no idea what to expect from Yorvik. I enjoyed it so much we went around twice.
I’m looking forward to going back to York too. Though we must remember to drop in on my nan.
I used to live in York – I did a masters in Medieval Studies there, based in the King’s Manor, just over the way from the Minster. I stayed for another year too, working in the local HMV. I used to love the way the Minster towers over everything, and all the other monumental architecture and ancient pubs and things. I live in Nottingham now, which in many ways is a much better city (you can find shops that sell things other than souvenir tea towels, for one thing)…. but although it’s better in almost every way, it lacks the atmosphere and the history. Nottingham is an old town, but we’ve long since bombed or bulldozed any interesting buildings, and I really feel their absence. I have a long-running argument with my wife about the finest cathedral in England. She always votes for Durham, but I think it’s dingy compared with York Minster. I once got the chance to see the Minster with all the chairs in the nave removed, and the sense of light and space was breathtaking. I love the choir screen too.
I don’t know Durham at all, but my sister was at uni there. You’re right, though, York just has all that *atmosphere.* Absolutely one of my very favourite places. The Uborkahaza is heading up there at the end of July for a weekend, if anyone wants to join us?