Da Trip
Part Three

Sunday, April 4
York

blankThen we went back to our B&B to get our luggage, and headed for York, where we did laundry! YAY!
blankIt's amazing how nice it is to have clean clothing again. I'll admit my room's a bit cramped, though, with the two of us - I've been a good hostess and given Ma the bed, camping myself on the floor with my sleeping bag. I just hope she doesn't have to get up in the middle of the night - she'd trip over me for sure!!
blankTomorrow we hit York!

Monday, April 5
York, 10:05pm

blankMan, I'm wiped.
blankThe campus seemed closed, food-wise, so we went into town. It was a bit unnerving - all the pubs were closed (lunch and dinner only, I guess). I was horrified - I'd planned to show Mom what campus fare was like, and treat her to a decent breakfast, and instead we ended up hiking all over the place. Luckily, we found a great little tea shop that was open, and had a very nice little breakfast before hitting the city walls.
blankI really love walking around the walls - they have such a sense of history about them, and offer some fantastic views of the city. We started at Walmgate Bar, where we'd come in, which is the only gate to still have its barbican! It also has an Elizabethan wooden add-on, but we didn't go check it out. We took a detour from the walls to look at Clifford's Tower. It's in pretty bad shape, having suffered a fire and faulty foundations, but you can still climb up and walk around the top (I was thankful for the handrails everywhere, though!). We got in free, courtesy of our English Heritage memberships, which was nice. I was a little bummed that the daffodils which coat the hill the Tower is on had all died back - when I left to meet Mom in London, the hill was blanketed in yellow, and I'd hoped to impress her with it.
blankNext up was the Mickelgate Bar museum, which is a great three-story display. It has stuff on everything from the history of the Bar to the history of York. Richard III's father and brother's heads were displayed over Mickelgate after they were killed in battle. Nasty.
blankWe continued around the walls until we got to the Minster area, where we detoured in and poked around Yorkminster. Wow, is that an impressive building!! I'd been into the Crypt before, but it was still neat. They were having a special deal for Easter, and we got a discount on entrance to the Foundations and the Chapter House, both of which were very cool. The Chapter House has amazing carvings, which I tried to get on film, and the Foundations have a great display on the different buildings which have stood on the site - a Roman hall, a Norman cathedral, and finally the Minster itself!
blankNaturally, we stopped at the Richard III museum in Monk Bar when we got to it - it was as cool as ever. Mom's pretty skeptical about Richard's innocence, but was impressed with the displays. In the shop, I got a copy of The Daughter of Time and a deck of Hammer Horror playing cards (they've got publicity photos on them, and look pretty cool. I have no idea why they'd be in a museum shop, but who am I to complain?).
blankI liked being back in York quite a bit. After being places I don't know, and have no familiarity with, it was nice being in a place I do know (even if imperfectly - I managed to get us slightly turned around when we went to Lendal Cellars for dinner. That's a cool restaurant - it used to be a wine Cellar for the alcohol imported into York). Tomorrow we get to see Hadrian's Wall, which will be fun.

Tuesday, April 6
York, Late

blankToday was FULL of problems. We made it to the wall area okay (although we decided to go to Hexam rather than Carlisle after examining maps). Unfortunately, we were too early in the year for the bus that runs along the wall, and too late for the bus to Housesteads. And no trains were heading for Corbridge for a couple of hours. Grrr.
blankAfter much fussing over the maps, timetables, and brochures, we decided to give up on the Wall. It was early afternoon, so we still had time to do other stuff; but, aggravatingly, Whitby Abbey (one of the places I had on our original itinerary that we've had to skip) was too far away to get there before it shut.
blankMom wanted to ride a train further north and just look at scenery. So, we agreed to head for Carlisle to catch one. But it was a bit of a wait to get the Carlisle train, so we killed some time by looking at Hexam Abbey, which was pretty cool. We were lucky enough to tag along with a small group who'd arranged a tour of the crypt - it's a collection of tiny little rooms underneath the main part of the church. The guide showed us the old lamps built into the walls - little niches with reservoirs for oil (which would then have a lit wick floating in them). One nifty thing - the stones above the niches had been hollowed out above the reservoir, so the smoke would have a place to go, and not foul the air. Pretty clever, that. Now, of course, they have electric lighting. Oh, and another cool thing - part of an old Roman stone had been used in the crypt's construction! It was the stone that the Caesar's name was carved into, and you could see where one Caesar had been scratched out after being deposed. Pretty cool.
blankIn Carlisle, we decided to check out the Castle and Cathedral instead of heading North. It was spritzing rain, but we had a good time anyway. The Cathedral was lovely - I learned a whole bunch about its ceiling from a nice old guy who worked as a volunteer info person. The ceiling was gorgeous - blue with gold stars, and a woman's face - Mary, since at one point most major cathedrals were dedicated to her. Well, at one point (I wish I could remember this better), it had become not cool to have blue ceilings dedicated to Mary. So, the people had built a fake ceiling just underneath, a plain white one, so that the gorgeous ceiling wouldn't have to be destroyed. Then, when it became okay again, they took the fake ceiling down. You can still see the marks where the false one was attached!
blankThe castle rather nice as well - we only had about 30 minutes, but got to see a great set of displays on the Jacobite uprisings and Carlisle's role as part of the border defenses. Turns out Richard III used it during his campaigns, and was governor 1471-83! Richard's all over the north (of course).

Wednesday, April 7
Tintern, 8:50pm

blankToday has gone much better than yesterday, even if we didn't do much actual touristing! We got up, packed, ate (by now the campus dining was open again), mailed some of mom's stuff to the States, and hit the University bookshop before heading for town in a taxi. After visiting American Express (so Mom could convert some dollars into pounds), we found the tourist info people in the train station, and got them to make some calls and find us a room here in the Wye Valley (which took some doing, as their computer system was down. Mom had to impress on them that she couldn't believe that their phones didn't work, either, before they tried calling the Wye Tourist info people).
blankAfter a nice lunch, we went back to the tourist folks and learned that our accommodations were a B&B in Tintern, and that the hostess would pick us up at the station in Chepstow! Apparently, she's the sister-in-law of a lady who works in the Chepstow Tourist Information Centre. Go figure.
blankSo, a four-hour train ride (which was actually rather pleasant) and a brief car trip later, we found ourselves in the Pink Room of Wye Views, with a lovely view of the river. After dinner in the Moon and Sixpence (a great pub), I left Ma writing a letter and went for a short walk.
blankIt's absolutely gorgeous here - green and lush, with gurgling springs rushing down to the river. I found the local church and wandered through its graveyard as the last bits of light began to fade - wonderfully peaceful.