The Minster is king. To quote the man who means more to me than Gandhi: Rick Steves, travel kingpin extraodinaire, international man of mystery, guidebook guru, and inventor of going through the backdoor..."The pride of York, this largest Gothic church north of the Alps brilliantly shows that the Middle Ages were far from dark." I couldn't agree more with this mouthpiece for the Minster.
The most memorable part of my weekend in York was definitely the visit to the York Minster on Friday afternoon. Climbing the 275 steps to the top of the tower was well worth the price of admission and dealing with the smelly guy in front of me panting up the narrowly winding steps. The view from the top was exquisite. I'd climb those steps again in a second. The Minster's nave is huge and ornate, along with everything else. It took over 250 years to build the church, which is a perfect example that everything worth doing is worth doing well. My pictures aren't going to do any justice to this magnificent cathedral. There are better pictures on the internet, you should all have a look.
Other things worth mentioning, the York Castle Museum was really interesting. It took us from the Victorian Era through the 1960's with period rooms and both Victorian and 1960's streets. Also, there is an area in town called "The Shambles" which is a little old street that used to be the butcher's street but now just has crooked buildings and crooked street musicians doing their thing. And finally we went to the National Rail Museum which is supposedly the biggest rail museum in the word...I just know I saw more trains that day than in all my years of watching Thomas the Tank Engine.
Other events from this weekend: I saw my first opera. It was an opera rendition of Shakespeare's MacBeth. Honestly, it was like biting into what you think is milk chocolate and finding out it's dark. It was okay, but I wouldn't watch it again. All I could make out were a few intelligible words intermittently dispersed among screaming and bellowing. It would have been better to just listen to opera singers sing and not try to act as well. They sang everything. Even narrative lines they had no business singing such as "he's rubbing his hands" and "MacBeth is a schmuck". Okay, I made the last one up. It just seemed a bit over the top to me. However, my expectations were exceeded on Saturday evening when we went and watched a movie called "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus". This was Heath Ledger's last movie...in fact they had to do some rewrites and get Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell, and Jude Law to complete Ledger's role after his unfortunate demise. It was a good movie, very much a fantasy that explored a lot of good vs. evil questions and I would definitely recommend it. Plus I'm sure all the ladies out there will want to watch it solely for Ledger's last dance on the big screen.
Miscellaneous thoughts on York: It's a great city to walk, you can be anywhere in 20-25 minutes max. As long as you know where the Minster is you, can orient yourself, just "mind the Minster" and you'll know where to go. The walking tours are free, take advantage. Our guide was an old fellow with eyebrows like an unruly hedgerow and droopy eyelids, and he showed us around York in two hours for nothing more than a thank you. Worthington Creamflow proved to be a steadfast companion and excellent pint. We saw a pub called the "Cock and Bottle" we didn't go in, but in retrospect I wish we had even if only to see if the name referred to how they fill their bottles...
In conclusion, York was great! I would definitely go back. It was a fun weekend but now it's back to the grind and then on to Londontown next weekend. So if ya don't know, now ya know...
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