European Vacation, 2004 (part 3 – Fountain’s Abbey and York)
Day 8 – May 22 (Saturday)
We woke up, bright and early, refreshed, and ready to take on the world! Well, no, actually, that was fantasy land. We slept in, then went for sausage rolls and starbucks. Then it was into the car for all of us, playing tourist!
It was off to Fountains Abbey. Fountains Abbey is (was) a Cistercian Abbey, founded in 1132 and in operation until Henry VII (he is, he is) dissolved all the monasteries in 1539. It’s now a ruin, but an incredibly huge and complex ruin.
It’s also a World Heritage Site, sort of like a National Park for the planet. We’d never heard of the World Heritage program (though it turns out we’ve been to a couple sites already, closer to home). Anyway, we walked around the ruins for hours. There’s a whole huge section that was dormitories or an infirmary or something, under which a river (or large creek) flows. We figured that provided cooling, plus, well, an outlet. For privies. Anyway, it had several outbuildings, several clusters of other buildings, cloisters, a huge storage room, and, oh, yeah, a cathedral.
We could have spent another few hours there, easily, and that’s not even counting the other more modern buildings, terraces, and what-not further down the river.
After leaving there, we took a quick detour to snap pictures of a couple odd road signs, for Matt. Then we rested (which we all needed), and had a great dinner at a Tapas restaurant in town. After that, it was The Reduced Shakespeare Company, in the Harrogate theatre, performing “All The Great Books (abridged).” It was sort of funny, in England, seeing a play that’s sort of American (it’s set in a US High School Gym the morning before the big literature final), especially with some of the Bush-bashing that sort of slipped in accidentally throughout the night. After the show, we walked around a bit, then back home to watch Catch Me If You Can (which Andrea and I had still not seen). Great flick. <yawn!> Time for bed.
Day 9 – May 23 (Sunday)
Sunday was a “goofing off” day for us. Andrea and Lauren went to Tea at Betty’s Tea Room, and then visited the Harrogate spa. David and Matt, meanwhile, did manly things. Well, no, actually, they did a bit of driving down to Leeds, poked around a warehouse looking for clues to a cache (“Resistance is Futile” &emdash; more on that in a few days), and drove all over the countryside finishing up another puzzle cache, planting a cache (“Enigma Redux”), and helping to move a table for some friends. We also passed a beautiful Ford GT40 on the road. It looked like it was only about 2 feet high, was painted with racing colors, and even had right-hand drive!
Later in the evening we all regrouped, then drove back out into the countryside for dinner at the Hopper Inn &emdash; a little pub & inn not far from Fewston Reservoir. After dinner, we drove by the water hole where we’d stashed the new cache, and went home to watch The Simpsons. While getting ready for bed, we reviewed our plans for York….
Day 10 – May 24 (Monday)
Ahh, Monday. And we’re not at work! Ha, ha! (sorry, couldn’t resist). It’s up, pack up a day bag, and off to eat… (wait for it…) …sausage rolls. Then, to the train station we go! Today, we’re visiting York, and the trip is pretty short (about 40 minutes with stops), and cost only about £6.50 each, round trip. Along the way we passed through some of the beautiful Yorkshire countryside, spooking countless rabbits along the way. We finally arrived at York, and basically follwed the crowd towards what we hoped would be the city. (We also had a map, but it was pretty obvious which way to go).
We first climbed up on to the wall. Old York is relatively small, and its circumfrential wall is still completely intact. We walked along it for a short while, then had to go back down to ground level to cross over the river (I guess they didn’t need a wall over the river). After crossing, we turned a bit away from the wall and found ourselves facing the York Minster, one of the largest Gothic cathedrals in the world. It’s massive East Window is the size of a tennis court. The cathedral was completed in 1472 and is absolutely amazing. They built it atop an earlier Norman church (and even incorporated some of the stained glass into the “new” building, so it now has some 1000-year-old windows). The Norman church was built on the ruins of an old Roman basilica, at which a young Constantine I was proclaimed emperor in 306 (the only time a new emperor was proclaimed outside of Rome).
We could go on for hours talking about this church – the glass, the clocks and bells, the ceiling, bosses, and flirtations with disaster (fire, war, and an ancient Roman sewer that was undermining the foundation). All we can really say, now, is if you’re ever going to be anywhere near York, arrange to stay an extra day and see this (and the town, too) (it’s also the only major cathedral where we were permitted to take pictures inside).
Once we’d completed the tour (oh, yeah, if there’s one thing we’ve learned on this trip, take the guided tours of the big churches), we walked south into the old town to look for food. We ate at a small pub, wandered around a bit, and finally managed to stumble into the shambles. This is a short street that reportedly served as the inspiration for Diagon Alley, and we could really understand the inspiration. The buildings on either side are relatively close, but what’s really crazy is what happened over time. The landowners decided, over the years, to build upward for more space. But each time they added a floor, they’d extend it over the street a few feet.
Until, by the 3rd or 4th floor, some buildings across the street from each other were just about touching. It’s kinda wild. Today, the street is filled with touristy shops (and some not-so-touristy ones), and we spent some time window shopping and bought some coins at a nice shop at the end of the street.
We then walked back to the wall, stopping at the Monk’s Bar (a gate) and poked around the Richard III museum (he was from York, you know). Then we walked back to the train station along the wall, enjoying some lovely views of the Minster’s back gardens along the way.
When we got back to the house, we gathered up ourselves, got some Pizza Hut pizza, and went to Valley Gardens Park for a picnic. They took us to their favorite picnic spot, where Lauren and Andrea investigated the anatomical correctness of the baby statues in the fountain. The park has some really great park benches, too, made to look like snakes. Then it was off into the woods to plant Matt & Lauren’s first cache, “Yorkshire Yankee Doodle.” We wandered along the trails for some time, marveling at the beautiful flowered trees, until we found Just The Right Spot. We took some pictures, walked back to the house, watched the Alias season finale, and then collapsed into bed.
Oh, yeah. There’s a mouse in the house. Lauren is not amused.