Answer = Me
I have managed to arrange things and booked a couple of nights hotel right in the centre of historic York. As an early Viking settlement with a good dose of Roman input there is loads to see and it also houses the famous ‘Railway Museum’ which has locomotives from all over the world and includes some famous British steam engines such as The Mallard that holds the fastest speed record for a steam engine.
There is the Yorvick Centre which is a real excavation that has been left in place and you can walk through it and see how they lived in those days. They have sounds and smells as you walk through and voices speaking in the Nordic tongue, the overall effect is like walking through a village of ghosts because all the houses are just the preserved timber remains of the old settlement. So as you pass any one dwelling you can also hear the activity of what went on there and often an associated smell will waft over you. Needless to say you skip past a bit smartish when you pass the place where they are gutting and smoking fish and almost break into a gallop when you realise that the next sounds you are hearing is coming from a public toilet area with all it’s associated smells!!!!!
There is a good Roman museum and a fully enclosing city wall which you can walk along, an excellent Minster dominates the city centre. There is a tower where hundreds of Jews were burned alive in the middle ages whilst trying to escape persecution and a reconstruction of a cobbled street complete with carriages and shops with small Bulls Eye glass windows filled with goodies and treats, very much like something out of a Charles Dickens book. You can even go into the local prison and enter the cell that held the Highway man D.ick Turpin after he rode his horse ‘Black Bess’ all the way to York to escape the law in London.
There is a fabulous shopping area called ‘The Shambles’ and all the shops are made of wood and brick and are very old and twisted, the upper stories lean out across the streets and almost touch each other. Another great feature are the organised ‘Ghost Walks’ which are great fun and some of the tour leaders are excellent actors and very skilled at making you all jump out of your skin. My brother is having Little Annie for the duration so I know she will be spoiled rotten, so I am now looking forward to next Thursday/Friday & Saturday as it will be the first break I have had for a while.
Edit: I had to put a full stop in Mr Turpin's name to avoid the rude word censor
