In which I sing Mozart in an English church and entertain two visitors

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My first correction: Last week I labeled some pictures of a street in York - the one lined with old-looking shops and Christmas lights - as "The Shambles." I'm told by experts that this is wrong, that the street is called "Stonegate." "The Shambles" are in another part of town. Many apologies.

As the title suggests, this week I've had not one but two visitors, and I've relished the chance to show off this wonderful city. My dad stopped in for a few hours on Friday afternoon, to explore the sights, bring my US mail*, investigate how the bridges work and point out the wind farm on the western horizon.

*And a bag of Goldfish! Coursemates, prepare to be amazed. Provided they weren't crushed on the plane, and/or I don't eat them all before Monday.

Which of course means I took some more pictures of my own. And here they are:


The swinging bridge up close.


Inside St. Nicholas Cathedral. I've mentioned before that the setting on my camera which takes the best pictures at night or in cathedrals requires that I keep the camera INHUMANLY still when taking a photo. This means a lot of bracing against pillars, stands, chairs or whatever else happens to be around.

I wanted to get a photo of the whole sanctuary, but the only convenient object to brace my camera was the baptismal font, and I'm pretty sure the nearby priest would have taken issue with that.





Made of brass in the 15th century. A nice thing about viewing Cathedrals with a fellow American is being able to share in the awe of how old this country is. Because I will never stop being amazed. Ever.




You may remember the Castle Keep from an earlier entry. With dad (and later, Julia) I went inside and explored the halls and passages and chambers. Also we went onto the roof to get a view of the city.





Nicer weather when Julia and I went up. So much love for this place.





This chapel (still inside the castle keep) was made in the 12th century, and many of the carvings (especially on the ceiling) are still intact. There is even the Mason's Mark still visible on the wall.





And this is a jail cell.



After this, we went for dinner at a pub on the Quayside called... well, see for yourself:


Only in Britain can you name a restaurant "The Slug and Lettuce", and not only get away with it, but have the place be so successful that you can pay for a location in a prime tourist area by the river.

More of the Quayside at night:






Saturday, Julia came down from Edinburgh to see the Christmas choir concert (more on that at the bottom of the page if you're interested) and we spent Sunday afternoon exploring Newcastle. We did many of the same things that I had done with dad on Friday, but I love the chance to show off this city and its sights.



Which did involve visiting the keep again, but I'd never been before this weekend, so it's okay.

I may have mentioned before that Fenwicks, a major department store on a major shopping street in city center, has a huge Christmas display complete with moving exhibits and Christmas carols playing up and down the street. We joined the queue to look at it (was amazing...people lined up without any ropes or signs or anything. Boston would have been a nightmare) and although we were some of the only people not accompanied by at least one less-than-six year old, it was really fun to look at.






My mom and sister may be amused by something in this picture, but it's an inside-joke and wouldn't be funny if I explained it here. So everyone else: Alice in Wonderland!



And of course everyone who knows my name should understand why this picture is funny.










*The concert went pretty well, with one exception during the Requiem that no one in the audience noticed (what was supposed to be a celebratory "HOSANNA" fizzled into an instrumental pause). It was really, really fun to be singing Mozart in a church on this side of the Atlantic. Some of the movements are really dramatic, some are energizing, and some are just hauntingly beautiful, and singing that in a church was an amazing experience. Thank you to Lucy and Gemma for letting me know about this. And of course the Christmas carols were really fun to do. Nothing like 200+ singers (including the audience) and an orchestra doing "Hark the Herald" in a church to get you into the Christmas spirit.

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Comments

[Erin]

I love the views of the city. So nice to see pictures of you two!

[Kristen]

Haha, jello salad!!! Glad you saw Dad. Looks ver festive! Is it cold there?