Sunday, 4 December 2016

Two Days exploring York

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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