York 2023

We visited the city of York, formerly known as Jorvik when the Vikings were in charge, previously known as Eboracum to the Romans. We'd been to the city many times when we lived in England so we took the kids back to see some of the highlights.

We used a new park and ride to get into downtown. The River Ouse runs right through the middle and is near the bus drop off point.

The River Ouse

Walking down the street, we saw two churches: York Oratory and York Minster. The Minster is the more famous one, having been built in the middle ages and still in use and under seemingly perpetual repair. The Minster was originally Roman Catholic but was switched over to Church of England. The Oratory is Roman Catholic.

York Oratory and Minster

The minster is an amazing example of medieval architecture. The West Window, over the entrance, features dozens of saints. I took a picture of a side window that was also nice.

One of the many stained glass windows

Statues of saints above the west door/below the west window

A playful addition is a row of headless figures using semaphore to spell out "Christ is here."

Semaphore saints?

Epic nave

Another famous bit of the Minster is the rood screen that separates the main body of the church from the quire (where the clergy worships). Dozens of statues of saints and kings are on display.

Rood fellows

We discovered a side altar to Saint Nicholas, so our youngest posed there.

St. Nicholas altar

The east window was being restored last time I was here. It is glorious, with many scenes from the Bible depicted.

No way to do the east window justice, just go see it

In the crypt, we saw the Doomstone, a depiction of the entrance to Hell, along with sinners being dragged down. It's a little hard to see the details, even in real life. Maybe that's a good thing?

Doomstone

Just outside of the Minster is a Roman column that was reconstructed in the 1970s when its parts were discovered below the crypt in the 1960s.

Roman column

A picture with the column for a geocache

A statue of Constantine the Great, the Roman emperor, is also on the street. Constantine was declared emperor by this troops here in York, so naturally they want to remember.

Also a geocache picture

We went to lunch at the oldest continuously-running pub in York, Ye Olde Starre Inne. I had fish and chips with a nice ale.

Sign over the street

Classic pub grub

More of the pub

We took the kids to Jorvik Viking Centre, which features a long ride through a recreation of York in its days as a Viking settlement. One of the characters on the ride is an old woman trying to cross the street. The character is based on a skeleton found in the area! She is on display in the museum part of the center.

Old lady skeleton

Visitors can have a Viking coin struck for the small cost of two pounds. My youngest wanted one as a souvenir, so we watched the guy make change.

One coin at a time seems really slow

Our final treat was to walk along the city walls. York was a walled town in medieval times, though the walls fell into disrepair over the centuries. The Victorians had a craze for all things medieval, so the locals decided to restore the walls to their former glory. It also gave them a nice way to show off, parading around town to be seen.

Walking south from the train station

No railing to hold you in!

Looking back at the Minster and York

We have many fond old memories of York and now some new ones.