Vikings, trains, walls and walks around York

Tuesday 22/9/15 

We had a lovely comfortable night and as our next B&B in Nottingham had not contacted us we decided to stay another night with Jane and her partner and spend today exploring York thoroughly. After the great day we've had we think this was an excellent decision. We walked into the main part of the city via the museum gardens and fed squirrels with some peanuts on the way. We headed for the Jorvik Viking centre. It was about a 20 minute walk from our accommodation. York has an amazing history and excavations show that it was a Viking stronghold and  an important Viking town. The display at the centre showed examples of the archeological excavations that had occurred in the area and many displays of artifacts that had been discovered. The most impressive part was a "ride" that we went on a monorail that took you through a viking village as it would have been. You even got to smell the different smells in different areas eg. we both smelt a stew cooking when the commentary pointed out a pot cooking over a fire in a certain area. We felt that this centre was well worth the money. We  then decided to have a quick "free" look into York Minster. We could look in the first part but after that you had to pay. It is a stunning cathedral. From here we went for a walk along the famous ancient walls that surround the main part of the old city. This was facinating and fun. Now it was time for lunch. Rob had already had a small cornish pasty for morning tea and decided they were so good that he needed a large one for lunch! 
After lunch we walked to the National Railway Museum. This was free to enter and we could not believe it . It was enormous and  contained old carriages belonging to former Queens and Kings as well as memorabilia from bygone  days. While I was studying the social history of the trains, Rob got to listen to an expert talking about the Shinkansen. We both enjoyed the demonstration of the turn-table and later Rob watched and listened to an explaination of a steam engine and how it exactly works. This was done using a full size cut-a-way model. We could not believe how many engines and carriages this museum contained. We spent several hours here. Feeling a little weary, we walked back into town and found a pub for a drink and another pub for dinner. Another wonderful day!