Friday 26 July, 2013 York

I loved York.  It's a great small city.  Great as in fantastic, not as in huge, because that just wouldn't make any sense.  

Our first full day here we went to the Mickelgate Bar Museum.  It was a hole in the wall, literally.  York is surrounded by a wall that was built by different people at different times, starting with the Romans.  Mickelgate Bar was the entrance to the city, but it was also the jail and where heads of traitor's were displayed, and it is IN the wall.

 

I think Richard III would have done well had he minded his head

They had a little dress up area.

Oh, and we ran into some famous people too.

After that fun, we continued on our walk of the ancient wall.

 

We stopped for some food and Hannah fell asleep on my lap while waiting for our food.  After eating we took a painfully boring boat tour, along the River Ouse (pronounced ooze).  I'm not sure if the problem was not enough information to share, the guide's jokes were stale, or perhaps even with new material the guide would have been horrible, but I had a tough time staying awake.  

We returned to the house and went to sleep early.  Yesterday, Thursday, we spent going to four museums.  Clifford's Tower, the Castle Museum, Jorvik Viking Center, and the Chocolate Museum.

This is the gist of what I/we learned.  Around 50 CE the Romans arrived at what is now York, but they called it Eboracum.  Approximately 300 years later the Roman troops were called home, and the city lay abandoned for a few centuries.  Enter the Vikings, who called the town Jorvik (Yorvik), where they remained for a while.  Then the city just seemed to take turns fighting this group and that group, and now it's just this peaceful small city with a dark and quirky past, including chocolate.  The Quakers who were living here about 125 years ago, decided that chocolate could be the next big vice, and spent hours working on finding a way.  They did it, and the world has never been the same since.

Clifford's Tower is home to one of the most infamous events in English history; the murder of 150 Jews on March 16, 1190.

The Castle Museum is held in what was once two prisons; the women's prison, and debtor's prison.  They have videos that come on when you enter a cell, of a person speaking as if they are speaking directly to you.  There was a video of two children in debtor's prison, that was so unsettling I had to leave.  It also had some Victorian streets complete with shops and the faint smell of urine that I'm sure really existed in the streets of Victorian York.  Here's a candle shop and me incarcerated, NOT for public urination, I can assure you.

After that long day we limped back to the house where our guest, Jelle (Yella) invited us to join everyone with a barbecue of burgers and hotdogs.  We had a great time visiting with people, and feeling like part of a group.  I need people, and as much as I love Hannah, and have been enjoying her company, I longed for grown-ups.

Today I started the day by packing up and then dragging Hannah to two more places.  The National Railway Museum where she begged for a ride on a miniature train, and the Minster.  We basically ran through the Railway museum looking for the miniature train, and just by chance we got the last ride before the conductor left for lunch.

The Minster is a church that is nearly 1,000 years old  and took over 300 years to build.  Don't hire these guys to do a remodel in your house.

Hannah didn't like the minster nearly as much as I did, and after showing her where three people were interred, she asked me to stop.  I'm beginning to wonder if she's really my child.  When we were in the Viking museum I said, "Ooh Hannah look; a real skeleton!" She said, "Mom!  I don't want to see that."

Me:  Hannah, there's a body in there.

Hannah: silence accompanied by a burning stare

Me:  Hannah, there's a body in there.

Hannah: WOULD YOU PLEASE STOP TELLING ME?

Me:  Hannah, guess what's in there.

Hannah: MOM!  STOP!

Then we were done.  We went back to Jelle's to gather our belongings, and he and his daughter, Bella, gave us a ride to the train station, where we had about ten minutes to catch the train to London.  Now we're back, and on a different, larger boat.

23 July, 2013 London/York

We’re on our way to York, after a rather eventful day yesterday.  But first…

Speaker’s Corner.  Remember my goal?  To give a speech. 

 

Here I am giving Hannah a speech on proper Speaker’s Corner etiquette.  She was not happy, but who cares?  I met another goal.  Afterwards we headed east, back toward the boat, but on the way decided to hop into Spitafield’s Market. 

We found this pretty street, I hope the pictures do it justice.

Yesterday was THE BIG DAY!  The royal baby was coming.  Was I called to deliver the baby?  Here’s the thing.  Today, Monday, we had planned to go to York, and considering this was her first baby, the labour could have lasted more than a day.  Because we made reservations, and paid a deposit, and all that other stuff, I told Kate I wouldn’t be able to make it.  Sorry Kate and Will, but I knew you were in good hands.  Failed Goal.

We did look for the muffin man, but didn't see him.

Yesterday was more of riding trains and buses.  We paid a visit to the post office, which is a 20 minute walk, or a five minute bus ride.  I just had way too much stuff in my bags, and had to mail some of it home.  After I got to the post office I realized that I didn’t bring it all with me.   The clerk casually asked if I had anything more to ship and he explained I could save quite a bit of money if I returned to the boat to get those things, and then back to the post office, then if I just shipped them off on a different day.  

The thing is we walked in a huge circle, just to get back to the dock, where we were to catch the bus.  There is a tube station right near the post office, and I figured we could just take that somewhere, but I learned it goes in the opposite direction of anything I wanted to see.  We took a bus instead, heading to a particular tube station, but we missed it.  We got off and found a different station, the marquee said our train was next, it arrived, we got on, and I soon learned it was the wrong train.  We got off at the next station, got on the right train, and continued on our way.  

This was kind of how our whole day went, but it wasn’t a wasted day, because I found this really cool, No Disco Dancing sign.

  At least that’s what I think it means, with that cool 70’s-style suit.

This morning, around 1:00 I woke up when someone started tapping on the window of the boat, then more and more tapping, faster and faster, as I slowly woke from my foggy sleep, and realized it was the promised rain, accompanied by the promised thunder and lightning.  It suddenly went from a hard drizzle to a downpour and I had to quickly close all the windows.  “All the windows” being six windows, but BUT those six windows are in different places and I had to hop over wires, and climb over a sleeping girl, and limbo under the web of the resident spider, who lives in the  kitchen, so don’t be so quick to think I’m making too big a deal out of it.

We woke up around six, finished packing, and headed to The Kitchen, where we discovered that Andrew, the friendly waiter, is from York and he gave us some places to visit including Clifford’s Tower, site of the largest massacre in the UK, and Whitby, where the fictional Count Dracula landed once he arrived in the UK.  Sound like my kind of places.  Poor Hannah.

Now we are on the train to York, and Hannah has enlisted a brother and sister to play card games with her.  They remind me of Jacob and Hannah because of the age difference.  The little girl was reluctant when Hannah asked if she wanted to play Madlibs, but like most kids, didn’t take too long to warm up.

Once safely in York we started walking toward the house.  I had the directions on my phone, but I had memorized the first few steps.  Once we had completed those I looked at my phone and... THE DIRECTIONS WERE GONE!!! I had printed them, but before we left the boat I looked and couldn't find them.  We stopped on the side of the road, I emptied the contents of my suitcase, and found them, but don't think I wasn't completely panicking.

We met our host, the roommate, and settled in.  We are exhausted.

dianaforman-friedman.blogspot.com

Ride-Share

I have to find a way for the two of us to get from London to York and back again.  The simplest way seems like the train, right?  The problem with the train is that... well why take the train if we can catch a ride with a stranger?  Seems logical.  Now before you all start freaking out, don't worry.  I don't plan on hooking up a ride with some whack-job through Craig's list.  There are people who do this sort of thing regularly.  They have to drive somewhere far and would enjoy the company, the companionship, the conversation, or maybe just the shared expenses.

First I looked up trains from London to York and then had the brilliant idea to look up rideshares.  I found one site that has all sorts of people looking for a ride or looking for someone who needs a ride.  I came across one ad that says, My filing cabinet needs a lift from Torquey to London. and this got me thinking about all those movies we've seen where someone ends up riding in the back of the truck with the herd of sheep, or the tons of potatoes, or the piles of fertilizer, or worse...

photo from http://www.rewards-insiders.marriott.com/people/razorbackfan/blog/2012/10

Maybe a train is a better idea.

Summer 2013 plans

This summer I am taking Hannah to Europe for a month.  Originally it was going to be the whole family.  Hannah and I were going to London for two weeks, then head to Zurich via ferry and train, where we would meet the rest of the family.  Then it was going to be Bob, Ariel, and Jacob joining us.  Then it was going to be Ariel joining us.  Now it's just the two of us.

We'll be staying on a boat that I rented via Airbnb.  This is the company we used when we went to San Francisco and Seattle.  We will be there for a few days, head north (far north) to York where we will be staying here:

After getting gluttonously full on York Chocolate we will return to London where we will stay on a different boat.  Then on 1 August (European style) we will head to Amsterdam via ferry.  We will be staying here:

We will stay here for a few days and then head to Zurich where we haven't found accommodations just yet.

I bet  you can't wait.