Sept 20 Saturday Castle Howard is spectacular, and York


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September 25th 2008
Published: September 25th 2008
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Sept. 20, Saturday, Castle Howard and York - splendid weather

Bkfst kind of marginal - did have fried eggs available (whites overcooked, and yolk kind of okay - not as greasy as some have been) and the same kind of bacon that's not like American or Canadian bacon - it was not as salty as some has been. No pastries out, and fruit marginal. At least we had gotten to sleep in til 7:15 or 30 or so. Left at 9 for Castle Howard and it took twice as long to get there as it should have - the driver didn't seem to know where he was supposed to go to get the coach into the property, but the “house” didn't open till 11, so we were okay, and we were given a reasonable amount of time there. I didn't see much of gardens, didn't want to risk walking around that much.

Castle Howard is a spectacular property - designed by the same architect as Blenheim, and they let us take photos inside, which was lovely. The same family still owns it, and does live in it sometimes, and they have current family photos about. Very fun to visit - magnificent, and some rooms have been updated, so it's an interesting mix of historical and new (but not modern looking, they've kept it in style). Lots and lots of paintings, statuary, furnishings, decorations on walls and ceilings - totally worth a day's visit. And the weather was almost totally clear and nearly warm - t-shirt weather. I had time for a Brideshead ale and scone with clotted cream - absolutely delish! (Bill and tip were 6 or7 pounds - and worth every pence). They did a lot of fliming here for the TV show and the more recent movie - Brideshead Revisited.

Our next destination was York, where we were alloted a little over 3 hours, which ended up being quite enough for me really - altho if I were there for a couple of days, I'm sure I would enjoy it. My seat mate was heading off on her own (with instructions from the TD) to take the train to Thirsk to go to the small James Herriot museum - she's a big fan of the “All Creatures Great and Small” books - and this is her first big trip out of the country on her own (she's in her early 70's - or just 70). I wanted to go to the Jorvik viking centre, and another tourite who'd been to York before leaped off the bus and headed that way, so I hurried and followed her, so I lost my bearings and had an interesting time getting back to the bus later.

It probably took less than half an hour to do the Viking thing - kind of hokey, but fairly well done, most of it is a ride in 'time machine” -- a car kind of like a Doom buggy, hanging from a bar and going around on a rail - tame and informative, complete with appropriate odors. And it's just about the village that was founded here by Vikings -- nothing about the vicious Vikings and their gruesome ways of conquering and so forth. No wait to get in - which was surprising because there were people everywhere, a local food festival was going on, and since the weather was so nice, everyone was out and about (but I guess it was more locals than tourists).

I had plenty of time to go back thru the Shambles - took photos of the narrow cobbled “street” with leaning buildings. Went up to the Minster, a very large Gothic cathedral, and took photos of the outside of it; it was playing a lot of loud chimes often during the afternoon. I went into the shop to check out the postcards to see what it was like inside and decided I didn't need to go in. I'm sure it's awe-inspiring for those who like cathedrals, but they have so much in common, with beautiful stained glass windows of similar stuff, majestic arches, altars, etc. that seeing one or two seems enough to me. Walked on up to part of the old city wall, in front of the City Art Gallery; there were some actors in costume there having photos taken (apparently for a play they were doing - not related to the wall) - that made a fun addition for photos.

Poked around in a few shops, then realized I wasn't exactly sure where to find the bus and what time. But I worked it out and got back to the proper area with time to have yet another local beer in “The Red Lion” -- a very common pub name. Pubs are everywhere in York. So found the bus with a few minutes to spare.

We had an included dinner that was very good, and four of us sat together who had become tour friends. My seat mate made it back from Thirsk in time for dinner, and had a successful trip to the small Herriot museum; we were all happy to hear that. We had a lot of fun gossiping over dinner, which took rather longer than we might have liked after a very full day.

This was an excellent day, with the only glitch being the roundabout extra time on the bus in the morning, but we still did all that we had planned to do. I did buy a few very small things today, but they all seem to be fitting in okay in my suitcase. Haven't found anything interesting to take back to DGS, tho, but he was forewarned not to expect much. My personal souvenir hunting has been almost entirely all the different good beers I've had - Asheville has some good ones, but not sure they quite measure up to what I've had over here.

This tour ( Insight Vacation Country Roads, Stately homes, and Gardens )seems to be book-ended with the best sights/sites at the beginning and end, with pretty scenery and some points of interest in between.

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