Streets in York are generally called Gates, which might sound a little strange but it rang a bell of familiarity with me; when we visited Iceland, streets there were Gatas. And there, surprisingly, is the link between our song inspiration and our chosen destination, between Bjork and York. Having seen the song direct us to Hull and then change our minds because it didn’t look very interesting, it almost felt like cheating the system by picking York, but in the end it was more justified than ever, because the connections to the Viking days of old are everywhere. Apart from the Gates, there are the archaeological digs, the museums, even the name York comes from the Old Norse Jórvík (‘Bay of the Chieftains’), not a million miles from our Icelandic connection to Hull, Vík í Mýrdal
... read more
