Yorkshire 2 - a duck a Bittern Sir Nigel Gresley , a cathedral a Viking museum and a weekend away

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Suzy is finally on the move and us with her. It's been a month since we came home and we felt we had taken root and needed to dig ourselves free and do a bit of travelling. Ok it's not Europe. It's North Yorkshire but the weather has improved again . June went out without a blaze of glory. The skies have been leaden grey, the clouds like lumpy dirty old cotton wool balls. The garden is still late this year. The yellow Welsh poppies are coming up a treat and the strawberries - or at least the few we have ripened are lovely. Its Wimbledon week and it's strawberries and cream time again. The sun is shining today, it's quite hot and all is well with the world. No news on the car yet but dont expect anything now until next week. Am getting to used to this waiting for news. AT least it's starting so that is a bonus.

We tried to pick a destination. Not too far to travel as we only had two days. We needed today to fill the van and get organised. . Water is in - enough for a couple of days, the bedding all packed up, a little bit of essential food in the fridge and enough clothes to last us. Good to go. We thought first of Blackpool -just two hours up the road. Big,brash bright and the seaside at its most British with it's own Eifel Tower. Three piers and a funfair. A cold and grey Irish sea , kiss me quick hats, candy floss and good old sticks of Blackpool rock. Neither of us had been for years. Me - well sadly I can pin it down quite accurately . September 1983 - a visit to the illuminations in our brand spanking new red MG Metro which we were so proud of. Two children in tow , one 3 and a half, eager to see the seaside and a baby of 6 months old. . Glenn went in the 1970's . He cannot remember the exact dates in the same way as I can.

In the end we struggled to find a handy campsite within reach of the town. Back to the drawing board. And then - Thursday morning - a Damascus moment as we listened to the news. The Great Gathering was taking place. It sounded as if it should be a gathering of Scottish highland clans, a highland games of sorts but what it was was something very different. All the remaining Mallard Steam trains are being brought to the Railway Museum at York. The last one was arriving on the Thursday. One had come from Canada, one from the USA and another from India. Could we pass up on an opportunity like this?. We couldnt ride on one but this surely had to be the next best thing. It won't happen again until September when we are away. Hopefully the museum won't be too heaving on Monday.

So preparations began - campsite picked just outside of York. We found another within walking distance of the city but it's too late for that now as we have paid a deposit and dont want to lose it. But there is a bus stop outside with a Sunday service. So tomorrow its the drive to York which will take us 2 and a half hours. We need to pick up diesel and a small top up of LPG on the way. We hopefully can visit the city in the afternoon. Perhaps I will act daft and offer our Welsh travel tickets and hope the driver takes pity of us. Knowing our luck he wont. He will realise that they are only valid in Wales and not England.

We have both been before around 14 years ago but have sadly lost all our photos and I cannot remember much about it. Earmarked a walk around the walls as it was too cold last time we went , perhaps a visit to the Minster which costs £8 each and then see what else there is to offer. There is the Jorvik museum and the York museum. Probably too much to see in such a short time. We will make the most of it though.

Sunday and on our way. 53 days to our holiday which is still in the process of changing. For the first time in Suzy we havent completly planned the trip. It keeps changing. Sion is meeting his friend Woolly next week before they leave for the next part of their adventures and he is awfully excited. At least he will keep quiet today with York on his mind.

What we are mainly going to see is the National Railway Museum in York where the exhibition is being held . Number 4468 the Mallard was a London and North Eastern Railway Class A4 Pacific steam locomotive. Not sure what that means as although we love steam trains we are not steam buffs. It was built in Doncaster in 1938 and is historically significant because it is the holder of the world speed record for steam locomotives which is around 126 mph. Never done since in a steam train.

The A4 class was designed by Sir Nigel Gresley to power high-speed streamlined trains. The wind-tunnel-tested, aerodynamic body and high power allowed the class to reach speeds of over 100 miles per hour (160 km/h), although in everyday service it was relatively uncommon for any steam hauled service in the UK to reach even 90 mph, much less 100. Mallard was sadly retired in 1963.

It was restored to working order in the 1980s, but has not operated since, apart from hauling some specials between York and Scarborough in July 1986 and a couple of runs between York and Harrogate/Leeds around Easter 1987. It is now part of the National Collection The locomotive si 70 ft long and weighs in at 165 tons which includes its tender. We are getting excited.

The journey to Yorkshire - and so we set off. The road from home always feels as if it going nowhere fast and our first stop was for diesel at the Tesco store 12 miles away. £1.36.9 a litre reduced by 5p a litre courtesy of a shopping voucher .Every Little Helps as their advert says. Next a touch of road rage from a middle aged man and his girlfriend/partner/wife who were trying to join our carriageway. They were neither going fast enough to slot in front of us or slow enough to slot in behind us and got increasingly annoyed as we couldnt see them and didnt let them in. How a motorhome driver on the other side of the vehicle is supposed to see them I shall never know. Much gesticulation from him and his passenger as we ignored them and drove on the few miles to Chester Services to fill up with LPG and test out our new gauge. The machine wouldnt work and the guys in the service station just shrugged their shoulders and pointed out that sometimes it works and sometimes it doesnt . Eventually we tried the other pump and got in the measly sum of £4.20.

We followed the M56 before joining the M6 North for Preston. After a few miles we kinked off and joined the M60 around Manchester and finally the awful M62 over the moorland and the Pennines that backbone of Britain. A desolate road at the best of times. We passed the marker showing we had left the red rose of Lancashire and were now in White Rose country Yorkshire. The final run into York was awful with traffic jams on a Sunday and we crawled in Suzy for mile after mile. We passed the Racecourse and could see the Minster on the sky line. York like Chester has a racecourse but I feel on balance Chesters Roodee is far prettier than York lying as it does on the bank of the River Dee.

We passed the campsite just as we overtook the bus and had to back track. The farmbuildings had been turned into holiday lets and the field into a camp ground. Funded by Rural England there was a lovely new reception block. We paid and were directed to our pitch which was grass as we had booked too late for hardstanding. It was one of the smaller pitches and we pitched up next to a huge tent bigger than I had ever seen before. We enquired about the bus and were old it ran hourly but they had little idea of the time so we had to work out the time we had passed the 834 to work out the time of the next one into York. Luckily we got it right. A quick look of the shower block showed a modern,clean building with separate rooms with one toilet, a wash basin and shower inside. The water was solar powered and it was possible to pay 20p to use the iron and £1 to use the washing machine.

There was no shop on site but we did manage to pick up a city map. We left Suzy next to the fishing lake which was full of ducks, coots and moorhens and covered in the dying remains of pretty Yellow Flag Iris. The bus arrived and we got on. We offered our Welsh bus passes and the driver smiled, told us to try his machine but he knew it would not work. We had to shell out £3 each for the return journey while other pensioners got on free!!!!

We got off at the Railway station which was a scruffy affair. Outside the ground was covered with discarded cigarette tabs and empty Costa Coffee cups. Hardly a fitting entry into York. We walked past the York Eye which I would have loved to have gone on but vertigo prevents Glenn going on it and I hate leaving him to indulge my own interests. It was only a short walk to the museum but the sight which greeted us was a huge queue. Entrance is free and luckily we didnt have to wait long to go in. We walked first to the Great Hall where the Great Gathering was being held. The corwds were all over Mallard checking inside and outside her. We looked over her and then walked to see Bittern liveried in blue and then on to the last of the British train Sir Nigel Greasley. Lovely machines aesthetically pleasing very streamlined. The remaining trains were the Dominion of Canada , the Union of South Africa and Dwight D Eisenhower, It was hard to get a decent picture due to the children, adults and train buffs who were crowding into the hall.

We moved out of the great hall to look at the exhibitions of train memorabilia. We saw railway signs including Llanfair PG the longest place name in Wales, two glass windows from my home town of Wrexham and Glenns of Chesterfield. The hall was full chairs , desks , light fittings, and ticket machines . So many things but hard to work out what was there as they were all packed in and not labelled. This was such a shame as the stuff was brilliant but you couldnt see it properly.

Our last stop of Day one was around the walls. Not as good as Chester but pretty in parts as they crossed the River Oise. Pleasure craft plied their trade along the river. They took us up to the Minster which we looked at from the outside. It is a lovely building and one of the largest of its kind in Northern Europe. It is a highly decorated Gothic building and chapter house. Although there was an early church on the site this was destroyed many times by William the Conqueror and then by the Danes. The new church was begun in 1220,part was completed by the 1250s' but building continued right up to the 1500's.

The English Reformation led to the looting of much of the cathedral's treasures and the loss of much of the church lands. It is clear to see the empty niches which once held the statuary common on continental churches. We sat outside the park eating ice creams. The world and his dog were sitting in the sun and this is one place better than Chester. There is no area to sit in around the cathedral so it was lovely to find It took us over a field full of maize, ploughed and would have proved difficult to someone less able. The pub was empty and the choice of food for a Sunday limited. We ended up with a couple of glasses of wine, sausage cooked in honey, yorkshire puddings filled with beef and chicken in a spicy sauce. It actually turned out rather nice and filling and a change from the usual pub meals. After the walk home we sat ourside savouring the lovely weather and looking forward to Day 2 in York .

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Photos

York
National Railway Museum

York
Railway Museum - the Great Gathering

York
Memories of British Rail

York
A diesel from the British Rail days

York
No its not France just a pissoire in York

York
Sion getting excited

York
The Minster

York
Minster door

York
A new piece of carving for the Minster

York
The Minster close

York
One of the medieval streets