then we headed for the York map to figure out where we wanted to roam. Helpful, yes?
There was a street vendor selling doughnuts right next to the map, and while I didn't eat one, I had to take a picture just because of the name. This picture and the next are specifically for Mandy.
Oh yesh, I shimply shcream for your hawt shaushages!
Sorry for the inside joke--Mandy and I are both brain-damaged people. Let's just pretend that little tangent never happened, shall we? Here's a pic of all the Christmas decorations put up in the city--so cute!
I think the point of the rides *may* have been for the kids, but most of the people on the slide were grown-ups, so that was kind of funny to watch...
Ric's coworker, Pete, was the tuba player, if I remember correctly. There are only three bands in the area with permits to play in the *good* locations, and they are one of them. Gotta hand it to those guys--they sounded AMAZING! Fun to watch, too, because you could tell what a great time they were having. People were dancing around in the street.
Dusk. Yes, dusk kicks in at about 3:30.
We also took a walk through the Shambles, which has a really interesting history. Shambles is the oldest street in York (over 900 years old) and used to be home to a huge number of butchers (hence the name; the word "shambles" stems from the medieval word "shamel" meaning booth or bench, and it was also referred to as "Flesshammel" referring to the flesh or meat of the livestock slaughtered and sold there. The streets slope in from the sides, creating a channel out of Shambles--once upon a time, the street flowed with blood and offal twice weekly. Ew. This is the total width of the street...
Thanks to Kevin's feet for giving me a point of comparison, haha! The buildings date back to the 15th century, and they lean forward so far that their roofs almost touch together over the street in some segments. Here's one of the buildings...
One more of some of the buildings...
We roamed a while, then got sandwiches and took them to the square to eat. I got mauled by one of these bastards...
because my husband is a messy eater and kept dropping stuff, so they were hovering around us. Asshole. *J/K! Love you, honeybunches!* After the winged rat flew at my face trying to get my sandwich, I started yelling, "Tippi Hedren, Tippi Hedren!" then threw it away. Nothing says "spiteful" quite like showing a pigeon who's boss, right? If I can't have this sandwich, NOBODY CAN! Take THAT, bird! We sat there listening to some street magician trying to gather a crowd, and by "listening" I mean we were kinda like Statler and Waldorf with a third random asshole thrown in to heckle the guy further. He S.U.C.K.E.D. Would not standard street magician code tell you that the best way to gather a crowd is to do something cool so people will want to watch you? No, the guy kept saying, "Gather round, gather round, I'll be performing in ten minutes. Everyone step closer. Just ten minutes now." Dude. I'm important. Why am I going to stand there for ten minutes watching you PREPARE to bore me? There was a grand total of one and only one booming round of applause. This was when an elderly woman with a cane wasn't paying attention and started moseying through the area the magician ass had roped off for his performance. When people started laughing, the lady realized she was in the roped off section, stopped, and began to do a little dance. See? You want to gather a crowd, you gots to do something cool. Mad props, Grandma. Mad props. Get down wit' cho bad self. Mmhmm. Go girl. What, too much? Okay, fine.
After lunch, we decided to walk the city walls, an absolute MUST-DO when in York. The views are great, you're literally STANDING on history, and there's such an adrenaline rush that comes from the possibility of falling to your death. What? It doesn't have guard rails?! Well, okay, most of it does. Then there's the part that doesn't. Combine this with slick stone and the usual English rains, and you've got the be-all, end-all formula for busting your ass. The rail-less section instead has a picket fence of sorts comprised of about nine zillion "No alcohol permitted" signs. This is bullshit. If I'm going to fall, bust my ass, and catapult off the city walls, I want my blood alcohol content to sound like the score of an Olympic gymnast who just nailed her dismount. 9.5 (the French judge gave it a 6.2, but in blood alcohol content, that's still sufficient). Who wants to die as the sober idiot who just rolled off the side due to being spastic? Not me. Booze me up! I managed to not fall, however, although there were several bouts of "Whoooaaa! Shit! That was spooky. Okay, let's keep going...WHOOOAA! Shit! Did it again! WHOOOAAA! Damn it! How did the ancients manage this without Nike Airs?! WHOOAA!" followed by contemplating being the first person to ever "walk" the walls sitting on my ass and butt-scooching around the perimeter. Kevin, on the other hand, almost fell off the walls, and I couldn't help myself. I laughed. You would've, too. He looked like Snoopy dancing as Schroeder played the piano...check the link for a point of reference. Here's some pictures of the walls and the view of the city from them. Brace yourselves; there's several comin' atcha.
Being the animal lover that I am, I prefer to start all my pictures from the walls with the world's most obese squirrel, Merle. For a squirrel to be that easily visible from as far away as we were is mind-boggling. This sucker was about the size of a raccoon!
York St. John University...
York has a long and often sad history regarding the Jews. Just google Clifford's Tower; that alone is bad enough. Jewbury was the Jewish quarter of York in medieval times and still goes by the name today. The area was a burial ground for Jews who settled in York as early as the 12th century, and a lot of controversy has surrounded the burial sites in more recent decades due to excavation, etc.
I have posted some of these out of order, so the pictures from after we walked the walls and went back into town to roam some more are above, but yeah, that was about it for saturday. That night, we went to the Minster to hear Bach's Oratorio, which was sooooo incredibly beautiful, one of those experiences that I will never ever forget. My former chorus nerd was having multiple eargasms. Hope Outkast didn't trademark that term. Since I know you guys just love the Minster, here's about 18 shots of it, including a quick one we snapped inside that night. We weren't sure whether we were allowed to take pics inside or not. Oh, and funny story--at intermission, we all made a mad dash for the restrooms (maybe two beers before Bach wasn't the best idea ever!), so the line for the bathroom was unreal. Being as I think the toilets in the Minster may also be several hundred years old (heh heh), after being flushed just a couple of times, none of the tanks were refilling. There we are, probably 100 or so ladies waiting to pee and with only three toilets, none of which flush. As each woman came out of a stall, it became the trend to say, "Good luck with the flush!" to the woman entering. Well, always one to do the exact opposite of what everyone else is doing, I go in, take care o' business, come out, and the lady exiting the stall next to mine says, "Good luck with the flush!" to the next person heading into hers, at which point, I say, "Ladies, I think the flushing days just might be over." As I exit the bathroom, you can hear a wave of laughter from the crowd of shocked old ladies (I'm not sure if they were more surprised that I didn't go along with what had been set as the standard entering a toilet stall protocol or if it was the shock of my being American, but either way, they found it hilarious for some reason). As I walk up to Ric, patiently waiting outside the restroom, I tell him the little story, and he rolls his eyes and says, "I wondered what that was all about. I knew you were coming out when I heard everyone cracking up!" Guess I cause trouble everywhere I go, huh? I'm sure you found that all very fascinating. Yeah yeah yeah, here's the pictures. Calm down, people! =D These are all of the Minster and area right around the Minster. Some were taken from when we were walking the walls, some standing right in front of it, and one from within the building. Enjoy!
York Boer War Memorial, commemorating Yorkshire's fallen soldiers from the second Boer War in South Africa. It reads,
REMEMBER THOSE LOYAL
GALLANT SOLDIERS AND SAILORSOF THIS COUNTY OF YORK WHO
FELL FIGHTING FOR THEIR COUNTRY'S
HONOUR IN SOUTH AFRICA 1899 TO
1902 AND WHOSE NAMES ARE
INSCRIBED ON THIS CROSS ERECTED BY
THEIR FELLOW YORKSHIREMEN
A.D. 1905
St. Michael le Belfrey, an Anglican church built somewhere between 1525 and 1536 (replacing a previous church that dated back to at least 1294). This church was the site of the christening of Guy Fawkes in 1570 (he later converted to a revolutionary Catholicism; this led to his famed Gunpowder Plot in 1605.
Okay, so for tomorrow, I'll tell you all about our FAAAABULOUS road trip up the coast, so for those of you who are only checking this for the pretty pics, tomorrow will be a favorite for you--pictures to come of several castles, abbeys, the beach, etc. Ciao!
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