Friday
2nd December Almost
no wind
sunny
AM, rain all afternoon. Mild, 6C
Time
to get back on the road after a couple of days exploring York. The
weather is fine for at least the morning and the route for the first
twenty miles is flat and straight; well after I get out of York
anyway.
What
have I been up to the last two days? Well, other than relaxing in the
superb York Youth Hostel, I have walked along the River Ouse into the
city each day in order to access either York Minster or the Jorvik
Museum.
Strangely
my Biking Birding year of 2016 is beginning to feel like that of
2010. Back then not only did I visit every RSPB and WWT nature
reserve but I also visited around forty cathedrals around the UK; not
York Minster though.
Having
paid the necessary entry fee into this huge church, the magnificent
medieval stained glass windows take up my time. It is fascinating to
look at the variety of expressions and styles in the depicted faces
and wonder what stories each window tells.
The
memorials of metal or stone attached to the walls tell stories of
their own.
A
grave adorned with figures gives moral guidance with a sting in the
tale.
More
stained glass and the best yet, The East Window with stories from The
Book of Revelations.
More
memorials . . .
The
huge North Window is strangely dark, grey and oppressive.
The
Jorvik Museum is closed. Clues as to why I had seen along the way
into the city; high debris mark on fences around riverside trees and
thick silt on riverside steps and paths show that floods have passed
this way recently and more extensively last Christmas.
The entrance
to the museum is guarded by a large Viking man and and his lady.
Dressed as in those long gone days, they tell me about the Boxing Day
floods and of how the famous Viking exhibition ride, replete with
smells and artefacts, is now being refurbished following the damage
done.
A
temporary, smaller exhibition is available just a few yards away,
artefact in cabinets and display boards detail the original finds,
the extensive archaeological dig and the history of Jorvik – York.
There are Viking people to meet and talk to; Benedict, Rachel, Adam
and 'Bork.' Only the last do I remember the Viking character name.
All surround the fantastc centrepiece of a reconstructed Viking boat.
Adam
has a loom to show.
Benedict
has actual Viking artefacts to talk about and allows one to hold; a
metal knife, a leather shoe, ladies size 4. He also has a Viking game
that looks like a cross similar to chess. Benedict explains the
rules, complex and interesting.
Bork
has the same game and lots of Viking clothes for one to try on.
And
so to today and a comfortable ride to Beverley. No wind and quite a
few cycle paths alongside the main road keeps me safe. The road is
flat until just past Market where a long hill
takes me over a chalk escarpment.
The only stop is to photograph a
perfect but sadly dead tawny owl. Such a beautiful animal with no
apparent damage from the impact that killed it.
Into
Beverley and into the Minster, another church to visit.
The carvings
in the choir and along the walls attract attention here.
The Angel Gabriel with sunglasses looks across to The Virgin Mary, two modern sculptors away from the metallic Mary and Joseph depiction.e
A cross taken from the World war One battlefield is here.
32.90 miles 955 elevation feet up 942 down
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