May 25, 3018
We just had dinner in the hotel because it is a great hotel and we were too tired to go out in search of food. Dinner was great, BUT the fun thing is we had a probable celebrity sighting. Laurence Fox is an English actor who appeared on the show Lewis, which we love. He plays James, the second lead. He walked by and I immediately recognized him. We weren’t sure so we asked our waiter to go check. I had to show him a photo because 25-year-old men obviously watch different television programs. Anyway, he said he thought that was who it was. I would have asked him for a photo but I could not embarrass the city of Nashville. I choose to believe it was him and that was fun. Lewis, which is a spin off from the show Morse, is filmed in Oxford and we had just been in the Morse bar yesterday.
We took a train from Oxford to York this morning. I’m glad we had navigated a British train last week. It was much easier having done it once, especially with all the luggage in tow. We were early enough to catch a different train and avoided having to change trains on the way. It was very relaxing and the three hours flew by.
We left Oxford in a downpour and the rain followed us to York. After waiting in a long taxi line, we found out our hotel was literally a block from the train station. Since it was pouring rain and we overpacked, I was unapologetic. Probably not that cabbie’s best fare of the day.
While waiting to check in, we grabbed lunch at the hotel and our guide arrived. Louise is a resident of York who moved away and the came back in her 60s. She was a sport since we headed out in the rain. We only had a half day so we moved fast and hit the high spots.
York has buildings from the Romans to modern times with great examples of every major period. The Romans arrived here in 71 A.D. and left around 410 A.D. Plus, unlike some other regions, there is a huge Viking period as well. York is the anglicized version of Jorvik, a Viking king. It was a center of learning and art during the Anglo-Saxon era. Constantine was governor here. One reason some of the oldest architecture still stands is that even though York was captured during the civil war, the general in charge was a Yorkshireman, and would not allow the army to destroy the city.
Highlights of the day were York Minster (a minster is a missionary teaching church not a monastery) and the Shambles, which is a narrow street upon which Diagon Alley was based in Harry Potter.
The archbishop of York is the second most powerful person in the Anglican Church, second only to the Archbishop of Canterbury. The church is huge. It is not as filled with statues and memorials as some of the others we’ve seen, but was still impressive. In restoring the windows, they have developed a new procedure using resin that actually allows the window to appear very close to how it did when it was new. They’ve just completed a $21 million restoration and the work was amazing.
We explored alleys leading into intact medieval courtyards, walked down Roman roads, and explored buildings from the Tudor era. Every street is like a lesson in the historical architecture of Great Britain. We walked over the River Ouze (which unfortunately tends to flood fairly regularly) and the River Foss. There are guild halls still in use from the 1200s.
Next trip we will focus on the Vikings and road trip to the moors.