UK 7. York. It smells of dripping

I went to York last weekend. And what a lovely city it is. Ancient, historic, small enough to negotiate on foot, and with a smell not experienced since Dave and I rode through Footsgray last summer. I don't know if it's the river, if there's a rendering plant upwind, or if the weekend before last had been the annual roast-lamb cook-off.

Anyway, it was the first place I'd done the tourist thing at for a while (hence the near total lack of news from me) and I give it the big thumbs up. Not only was it a gloriously sunny day, but the Minster has great views from the tower which is, unfortunately, caged to prevent falls, and this takes some of the fun out of it, I think. Also, it doesn't have a tour-guide like Ely cathedral, so you have to skip up the 275 uneven steps on your own. (I only counted 271, but I'm never sure whether or not to count landings.)

The Minster also has a tremendous crypt display that explains the Roman and Norman history of the place. (The Norman construction techniques I described in an earler email were about to bring the whole place down in the 1960s, and foundation work uncovered quite a bit of history.) Emperor Constantine was crowned there around 307 (?), there are Roman artifacts and little wooden models, an original wall painting and an original Roman culvert that still flows to the river. Like any body of water / hole in the ground that is part of a display, the culvert is full of tourists' coins. Step around the corner to the next vertical level of excavation and you're in the middle ages, showing foundations and an original well (no water, plenty of coins). Another corner, and there is the OLDEST stained glass window in the country: mid 12th century, great condition, lots of colours. Breath-taking.

Also breath-taking in York, but for different reasons, is the Jorvik Viking Centre. Basically, whenever anything gets built in York that needs serious foundations, Norman, Viking or Roman ruins are uncovered. In this case, they decided to earn a pound or seven point two by recreating a little Viking village with sounds, smells and, oh joy, animatronic people! And they didn't stop there. Rather than walking around the recreated streets in your own time, looking at original stuff in a suitable setting, (as you do at the exemplary York Castle Museum, a strangely captivating collection of everyday items from the past few hundred years, whose living room displays full of china figurines lead you to the inescapable conclusion that the English have no taste whatsoever), you are transported along in suspended plastic cocoons that provide audio comentary and twist at the right moment to point out what to look at. The joke's been made before, but this is truly the It's A Small (Viking) World Afterall ride.

And for that, I felt decidely ripped off. Sure, it had animatronics (unfortunately, there were no animatronic animals: the wizzing dog was quite inert), but it lacked original artifacts, dictated the time spent and had a really cheesy time machine gag at the start of it.

I bet the kids love it, though.

**

Meanwhile, this country is getting cold (morning ice) and dark (dusk a bit after 3:00) and as a result it doesn't feel at all Christmassy. Oh, and they're STILL going on about the rugby world cup. Give it a rest! Of course, they won't: they're still going on about WWII, and you know my position on that.