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Tuesday 30 August, to York and the east coast

Great Britain 2005 - part XI

Elisabeth & Teije
2006-08-27 12:26:16

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founded after excavations had proved that York had been an important Viking centre for some time, with the name Jorvik. But we have to wait in a line for half an hour before we can enter the building, even though the holiday here is supposed to be over. But the ride in the viking ship through the building is nice, especially very nicely done. The English are quite good in multimedia presentations, we have seen that already years ago, in London. We would like to start museums like this in Holland, but well, that costs money and rather quite a bit, so that's too big an idea for us.

The centre of York still has a medieval sphere with the narrow streets and old buildings. Many houses show tarred, dark brown beams on the outside which we hadn't expected here. We know that it is used in Germany, Switzerland and Austria, the German-speaking region, but we have seen it more and more over the last couple of days.

We walk around for hours, admiring the buildings and enjoying the atmosphere. There are several museums nut also modern shopping centres that fit well in this old town. When you have never been to the London Dungeon before must go visit the York Dungeon here, a spectacle that leads you through the 14th century with all the terrors of that time.

The cathedral of York is quite special, an immense building. It is the largest gotic medieval cathedral of northern Europe, but this time we don't go inside. We have seen more cathedrals from the inside and today we don't want to pay £ 5 (€ 7,50) to contribute to the maintenance of this building. We have paid enough entrance fees today!

The parking garage is 6 pounds, the visit to the tower 2.80 pounds per person, the vikingcentre 7.45 pounds p.p. and the list is much longer. But we assume the local economy here is thriving, considering all the tourists that populate the city.

At the end of the afternoon we leave York and drive to the east. Narrow roads lead us along ruins of churches and abbeys an eventually we reach the coast at Flamborough Head where large colonies of seabirds nestle in the limestone rocks. And there is a lighthouse, off course.

While the sun sets we drive back to the campsite and it now feels much colder than the last two days. But the campsite is almost empty, a good sign for the next weeks. Maybe it will be a bit quieter at the places we want to see. First we need a good night sleep and tomorrow we will travel to the west again, to Wales.