Great Britain: York

Cheers! We went up north (brrr) to Great Britain on an extended Easter holiday and spent 2 nights in York, 2 in Scarborough, and 2 in Edinburgh. The highlights:

• We got to speak English. Not that we were always understood, but the possibility was there!
  
• We now have more of a context for British history: seeing abbeys that Henry VIII destroyed, being in the room where Mary Queen of Scots birthed James, and seeing where Cromwell's Parliamentarians had laid siege to Scarborough Castle!
  
• Daisy's new favorite food is baked beans. They are part of the traditional English breakfast. In the mornings, she would gobble up her portion and we'd end up giving her ours, too! She'd also have them with dinner. I just bought a can and served them this morning, much to her delight.
• Chris' new favorite food is scones with cream and jam. He has been talking about various job possibilities in England and Scotland, but I know that really his mind is on the teatime tradition. (ha)
• By train, you glide by fluffy green grass spotted with fluffy white sheep. But we also had a springtime bonus: hundreds of frolicking baby lambs!!! Oh my.
• We heard some great live street music, including a huge, talented drum and bagpipe ensemble on Easter Sunday.
  
• In Scotland, I bought a cashmere tartan scarf that complements my red wool coat, and we also got a nice red wool throw blanket. I love them.
• On the subject of souvenirs: Scarborough. Final count: 3 posters, a "Scarborough Castle" souvenir guide, 2 bookmarks, a souvenir plate, a magnet, a patch, 3 pencils and a pen.
  
• Scarborough was better than we imagined; a very fun seaside resort, with a changing tide like I've never seen! It was actually the first such resort in the UK, beginning in the 17th century. (Now, though, there are cheap airfares to the Mediterranean islands.)
• Not quite sure if I want to call this a highlight, but rather a memorable (painful?) experience: We took a wrong train. Not just any wrong train, but one that was an express, nonstop service to London from York. 2.5 hours there, 2.5 hours back, and then we continued with our original plan. (How did this happen with English over the loudspeakers?! We were on the right track for our train, but this express train had been delayed by an hour and a half and zoomed in on our track minutes before ours was supposed to arrive, and we just didn't check. Grrr.) We were wondering if this was the worst travel mistake we'd ever made, but then Chris brought up the time we had driven to Canada, and we were halfway through Michigan before he remembered that his passport was still at home! Yep, that was worse...
  

Here are some York pictures with explanations. Scarborough and Edinburgh are coming soon. (Later, I will also post a link to a larger picture collection.)

YORK

York Castle Museum: This is on the site of the 13th century castle, but does not really have anything to do with a castle. Instead, it is a wonderful collection of English civilization from the 17th century to the present, filled with furniture, appliances, clothes, toys, all presented in a very clever and engaging way. Daisy was unleashed from her buggy and we all explored the recreated rooms and streets. For example...

A recreated Victorian street with changing weather and times of day
and costumed guides roaming around or sitting in their "shops."

A recreated Victorian parlour. You can't see the stuffed doggy or the fireplace,

but those were Daisy's favorites.

A collection of swimming attire - notice the Scarborough ads featured on the wall?

(We bought a print of the one on the right.)

The Heslington Baby House, circa 1715, one of the earliest dolls' houses in the country.

(Some of the tiny pewter plates are stamped "1695.")It was made for the Yarburgh children, who lived near York. I loved imagining children playing with these wood-and-wire

little dolls, also from the 1700's...

Ruins of St. Mary's Abbey

An old street called The Shambles.

York Minster: We toured this in the afternoon, and then later came back heard an exquisite rendition of Psalm 88 by the choir during the Evensong service. Sadly, the coloring book then lost its charm and we had to go.

We walked on the old city walls and finally got some
reasonable views of this huge cathedral.

The pretty heart window on the facade.

Constantine was in York when his father died and the Roman troops declared him

Roman emperor here in 306 AD. (In 312, he legalized Christianity,

and in 314, the first bishop came to York.)

National Railway Museum: wow, there are a lot of old trains here. We didn't see much, but did enjoy seeing the first Japanese "bullet train" and Queen Victoria's fancy royal train. They actually filmed part of Chariots of Fire here, as well as a few places in Edinburgh. We'll have to watch that movie again.

Part of our afternoon tea. Daisy had chicken tenders, baked beans (surprise) and hot cocoa. (But she calls it Kakao, or, actually, "cow-cow.")

So fun! More to come...