Northern England

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'ello all!!!!


So much has happened in the last few days here. Actually yesterday we just got back from a four day trip to Northern England. Our first stop was York. There we visited the Jorvik Viking Centre which was built upon the original dig site. In this dig site over 40,000 artifacts were discovered over a period of 6 years. We learned about the Viking time be taking a "trip" back to 866 to the time of the Viking invasion. Then we traveled to 975 and toured the village of Jorvik. There we learned what life was like through talking figures that were actually kind of creepy.

From there we went to the York Museum which had beautiful gardens. This museum also took us through time but in a more scientific method. We were able to look at various artifacts that had been dated by the use of carbon dating. Before even touring the museum we had to take a little quiz, which by the way I only got about half right. The quiz was guessing the order of various objects and putting them in a timeline.

Also on this day as a whole group we visited the York Minster. This church was built in 1220 and took 252 years to finish. Our tour guide was a fun spirited old man who was extremely knowledgable about this church and the three churches buildt before it. The York Minster was filled with beautiful stained glass windows. These windows filled the church, the church contains more medieval glass than any other churches in England.

Well that all was completed on the first day of our whirlwind tour. The second day started out with Katie, Andrea and I wondering through York. We found an Oxfam, which is equivalent to Goodwill, and we all were super excited. These stores are awesome. The various stores all had awesome vintage clothing. Another interesting aspect of these types of stores is that each different second hand store donated to a different foundation. The one I shopped at supported a heart foundation, another families in Africa, and still another cerebral palsy. Then we drove an hour up to Fountains Abbey. This Abbey began in 1132 when 13 monks came and founded their own little wooden church. After this they monks decided to build a bigger church and thus the construction of the abbey began. The abbey along with the guest houses were all completed in 50 years!!!

Well from there we went to a castle! The Alnwick Castle (pronounced Anick) is where some of the first two Harry Potter movies were filmed. We even got to stay in the caslte. Then we were off to Holy Island to visit Lindisfarne Castle. Holy Island is a part time island. This is due to the fact that when the tide is low tourists are able to drive across to the island, however, when the tide is high the drive part disappears and the tourists are stranded. We also took a "vessel" across part of the North Sea to visit the Farne Island. Farne Islnd is a bird haven with about 26 species of birds living there. The island was amazing. The landscape was so green with various plants of red, yellow, and purple. Andrea and I set out making videos about the weather. We would give the weather report and then interview others around us. Kate K. had on a raincoat and a jacket over it with her hood tied tight. We decided she was sporting falls new fashion : ) I must admit that was fun. I learned that in the 1840's the lighthouse keepers daughter, Grace, rowed out to save the lives of several sailors whose ship had crashed in the North Sea near this island. And oh my goodness the ride back from Farne Island was crazy! As soon as we got on the boat it started to pour and I mean pour! And all of us being Americans decided to stay out in the freezing rain, while the Brits on the other hand went in for cover. Oh well we had braving the stormy weather and rocking boat.

On our last day out we hiked 3 miles of Hadrian's Wall. I must say the weather was much nicer than the previous day. At one point Joy fell ( the grass was very slippery), her fall however, was very graceful. She landed in the "Superstar" position which was quite funny.

One last thing. Andrea and I decided that it is not the alcohol but the wonderful desserts that will do us in during our stay here.
Oh well I must say they are extremely delicious!

Till Next time
Cheers

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