The roadtrip ... part 1

Our first stop was York ... we stayed at a bed and breakfast just outside the city, and very close to an outlet mall, which we had to stop in, of course. We only visited the Gap outlet where I picked up a few cute baby things, and some t-shirts for myself. We headed into York to visit York Minster, Clifford's Tower, and we walked around the ancient city walls. We only had one day here, so it was crammed sightseeing. York Minster was beautiful - and huge! Very hard to take a picture of the entire thing. As one of the most important cities in England, and an important base for holding and administering the north in the Middle Ages, York was the site for two of the castles William the Conqueror built in the years immediately following his conquest. Clifford's Tower is all that remains of the original castle, and was rebuilt in the 13th century when the old wooden tower had been destroyed.


York Minster is said to be the largest Gothic Cathedral north of the Alps. It also boasts the largest medieval stained glass window in the world! I know that might not sound interesting to all of you, but if you study stained glass techniques it is really easy to spot the differences from over the centuries. Medieval stained glass does look quite rudimentary when compared to more modern stuff ... anyway, I digress : ) Needless to say, the Cathedral was spectacular.




We then decided to walk part of the ancient city wall of York - something the 3 of us could do together. The wall was originally built in Roman times as a fortification, and York today has more miles of intact wall than any other city in England. (And LOTS of towns I've seen have at least some wall left!)


Nearby to York we found Scarborough Castle on the very east coast of England .. since Scarborough wasn't too far we decided to drive up there also so we could see the coast. (I sang 'are you going to Scarborough fair ... parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme' the whole way, much to Peter's delight). The Castle itself was mostly a ruin, but the view was amazing - and the nearby beach as well. There was something to be said for the wind, which at one point nearly knocked me over when I was putting on my hood and the wind decided to use it as a sail! Thank goodness Peter was nearby ...





After leaving the Castle we headed down the hill to take Fletch to the beach. Believe it or not Fletch has never been to a saltwater beach - we were very curious to see how he would react. But first, we got some yummy chips and gravy from a little, and very busy, roadside snack stand. Then it was beachtime - Fletch was in heaven! He loves the water anyway, so he ran right to it and laid in it, drank it etc. He didn't react to the saltwater taste like we thought he might ... but he did react to the waves coming toward him; once he noticed what was happening he sort of ran away from the waves and kept looking behind him to see if there were others !! Very funny! From there we headed back to our hotel for a good nights' sleep ...