York Weekend

This weekend we traveled to York as a whole group. We left around 8:45 for a 5 hour bus ride to York. It was really nice to get out of the city for awhile even though I do love it here. I like my wide open spaces too.

York has old city walls encasing the actual city which is only a mile by a mile. There is so much inside though so it seems much bigger. When we first got there we took a bus tour of the city. (although it is small it is still a city because the European definition of a city is that it contains a minster.) It was fun to see all the different places but I think most of us wanted to get off of the bus, not sit for an extra hour.
We saw the chocolate factory that makes over 17 tons of chocolate an hour. At least I'm pretty sure that's how much it was :) It was some huge amount.
After we finally got off the bus we dropped our stuff off in our lovely bed and breakfast and went to explore. We started off by walking on the wall. The tour guide made it sound like it was going to be a huge drop off the wall if you did fall but it really wasn't that big of one.

The views from the wall were really pretty and we went pretty much all the way around it. We walked to the minster, which is the largest Gothic cathedral north of the Alps. It's about 519 feet long and 249 feet wide. We got to go inside for a service called Evensong. It was really good. It was a boy and men choir singing and then some verses and prayers. I got chills during part of it but I'm not sure if it was from the song or if it was because it was really cold in it.

After that we went to dinner and then we went to a Pantomime about Dick Turpin. Who is a legendary highway man from York. The way I would describe a Pantomime is similar to a musical but the actor aren't as serious. They improvise some and some even started laughing during lines and whatever. I thought it was a lot of fun.

Saturday we left to go to Skipton for the day. Skipton is a very small town and honestly I'm not quite sure why we drove over an hour to go there. It had a market and a castle. I enjoyed watching out the window as we drove seeing sheep and wide open fields. I even saw a John Deere dealership on the way. No Dad we can't go to it when you come.
We went to a little fish and chips shop for lunch. I tried Fish. It was alright but I don't know how much I'll be eating it. It wasn't awful but defiantly not my favorite. We also tried Sticky Toffee Pudding for desert. It was pretty good. I'll eat that again before I'd eat fish again. :)

We went back to York that afternoon and had a while to explore, we went to the National Railway museum. It had a lot of trains from all different time eras in it. I found it kind of interesting to look at them, especially the Royal ones.
After we left it, we broke apart and me and 2 others went to walk around the city some. Most of the shops were closing though so we didn't get to see much. We did find a little coffee shop though.

We then had to meet to go on a Ghost walk. Not many of us wanted to be there but it was required, although a lot cut out early or didn't go. It was a freezing walk around York and a guide telling us Ghost stories. York is apparently the most haunted city in Europe. Some of the stories were interesting but I don't believe them.

We got our first real English breakfasts at the bed and breakfasts. Bacon, sausage, eggs, mushrooms, tomato, and toast. It was delicious. I enjoyed it very much and wish that we had that everyday at Vandon. Yummy!

I wish I could watch the super bowl, just for the commercials tonight but it doesn't start here until 11 and we'd have to go somewhere else to watch it and it's cold here. and Snowing. But snow doesn't stay around very long nor does it snow very often here. But it is freezing today! I was telling my self that it was warmer than Iowa but apparently that wasn't the case! O well. I'm sure it will warm up here soon! At least I hope so!