Arriving in York

Arrival

My 11:15 am Flight was cancelled from Kansas City to Chicago and American Airlines (Always Awful?) tried to put me on one that left at 8:20 PM, over 2 hours after my Manchester flight left Chicago.  A moment of panic, but it got sorted out fairly quickly although I kept wondering if the next flight would be cancelled.  But all is well. Now on Flight 54 with Karen on our way to England - left ORD about 45 minutes late, scheduled into Manchester now about 8:15 am, a bit after the 7:45 am schedule.

Sitting next to a delightful lady, Margaret, from High Bentham, Yorkshire Dales area about 25 minutes from Lake Windemere, near where Karen, Kristin, and I stayed eight years ago. Margaret has a daughter and grandchildren in Dayton, Ohio. She had tips on England and the train system and was a good traveling companion.

In Manchester, customs was a bit of a queue, but not bad. The customs agent was a lady.  When she asked, "How long will you be in the UK?" I replied, "we will be here about 3 weeks."
She looked up and said, "you said 'we'- is there someone with you?" I nodded toward Karen and the lady said, " Well come on then." We told her our husbands were joining us next week. 
"Ohh, girlie trip" she almost giggled at us. "Lovely."  "Yes," we said, "best of both worlds." 
After she checked our passports, she grinned and said, "Enjoy your girlie time, ladies."

Rail trip to York was uneventful, and Karen and I were heading into full jet lag mode. Arrived in York, short taxi ride across the Ouse River and up Bootham to Queen Annes Road to St. Raphael Guest House.  We were greeted by Zoe and given keys to our room. A delightful young lady, she introduced us to baby Ollie - about 4 months old- who was engrossed in a Baby Mozart video. 
Our room is The Minister at the top of the stairs, but only 2 flights up. Very nice, very clean room. Smallish bath, but not overly so.
We freshened up a bit, and went in search of LUNCH.  
Zoe recommended  Concerto Cafe, which was close, had a view of Yorkminister, and was one of her favorites.

Concerto Cafe:  A quaint place and very popular. You are asked to wait outside when there are no tables available - we waited about 10 minutes. Our waiter was pleasant enough but had a tongue-in-cheek, sardonic air that was quite amusing. We had sandwiches and ordered sticky toffee pudding to split.  "Do you want cream with that? " he asked. "Oh yes," we gushed.
  "Any coffee, latte, tea?" he said. 
I asserted,  "Yes, please a latte with skim milk." 
He rolled his eyes, grinned with great irony and raised his eyebrows at me.
"Well, you know, helps make up for the cream." I shrugged ruefully.
He returned with our order, "One sticky toffee pudding with cream and counteracting latte." he informed us dripping with irony.

Lunch was delicious, then we went to Yorkminster - definitely in a jet lag fog now. 
Bought tickets to tour Yorkminister after we were told the tickets were good for a full year. What a deal! 
There are not words to describe Yorkminister. It is immense, ornate, intricate, amazing.
Part of me is in awe of beauty and intricacy of the Minster.  Part of me thinks about the poor and disabled that could be helped by the money spent on a material building. Perhaps misguided, but built for the glory of God, they are beautiful to behold the craftsmanship that went into the building of the Minster. I think God would have been happier for the money to be spent on helping others, but He probably honors the love and skill displayed in the building of such a place of worship. 

We walked the streets of York while we waited for Evensong to begin at 5:15. Neither of us were very sure we would survive Evensong without falling asleep. We walked around Newmarket and through The Shambles, a shambling array of buildings that was originally the butcher's area of the city. We had a short lemonade at the York Pub of the Year - "The House of Trembling Madness" - it was very sedate at 4:00 pm on a Tuesday. 
Returned to The Minster in time for Evensong.  Strange feeling to sit in the special wood box seats in the Quirre - that are marked for church member families for Sunday services. 
We were very close to sleep about 3 times during the service, but we both managed to stay awake enough the avoid slumping over and snoring.  Yikes! Evensong is a very formal, prescribed order of worship (of course) which I found both uplifting and stuffy depending on the moment in the service.

We grabbed a snack and went to the BnB - and SWEET SLEEP. Victory over jet lag - yes!


Wednesday morning brought a wonderful breakfast of homemade bread, jams, cereals, yogurt and hot "grill" was available as well. The best part was Zoe, baby Ollie and an adorable pup named Milo who stayed behind "the line" of carpeting beyond their kitchen. 
Wednesday was spent in York - walking and walking and walking!  Left the BnB after a wonderful breakfast, and wandered about most of the day - the ruins of St. Mary's Abbey, once one of the largest and wealthiest abbeys in England, York Castle Museum, along part of the wall of the city, back to The Minster to see the crypts and the lower levels, and eventually to The Royal Oak Pub about 5:00. Based on the bar man's recommendation, we sampled a luscious local ale, Old Peculiar. It was a complex dark ale with a hint of chocolate - mmmm, went down nicely and I had to exercise restraint, but knew another would make it a very difficult and tipsy walk to beddybye.
 Another quick bite to eat - Yorkshire Rarebit at Betty's - and back to the BnB - tired after a long day of walking. 

York is amazing. Ruled by ancient Rome, a statute of Constantine adorns one entrance of Yorkminster, then 9th to 11th Century it was ruled by the Vikings. Next the Normans arrived. Henry VIII used Yorkminster as his northern capitol. The Medieval glass windows are incredible and one of the largest collections of intact Medieval glass.

Reading about the church was interesting: the early Anglican Church defined 3 pillars of the church: Scripture, Reason, and Tradition of the Church while the Medieval Roman Catholic Church was less based on the Bible. Of course the major reason for the split was the dispute between Henry VIII and the Pope, but the Anglican church appears to be steeped in Scripture and has made its way through the split with Rome and through the reformation creating its definite identity.

Now Thursday morning, it is off on the train to catch the ferry to Dublin. The cabbie to the rail station had fun with wild stories - he called them wild too - of sightings of Roman soldiers in chariots under the Minister, and aliens blasting the stained glass windows.  Entertaining to say the least!