Thursday 14th july

Today dawned lovely and sunny and after doing our washing went down to breakfast. The web page of this B&B raved about the breakfasts here. What they said was pretty much right too as we both enjoyed our light cooked breakfast. We had heard from Jane & Paul and they were going to come into York by leaving their car at a park and ride on the outskirts and get the bus into the city centre. There are five different park and ride bus locations and we found out about them and when Jane rang we found out that they were on the green bus so we set off through the town centre to get to the drop off point. They arrived - nice to see them and to understand what they were saying. Found a coffee shop and sat down to catch up with what they had been up to and to tell them just what we had seen and done. Lots of laughs and all trying to recall just what beach or town we had seen what and sometimes with lots of confusion and more laughter.

We decided to go for a boat ride on the River Ouse - it's a 45 minute cruise up river first and the turns around and heads back through the town with commentary all of the way. There is regular flooding on the River Ouse and our B&B has gates that are shut whenever the river is likely to get above bank level. We hadn't noticed these gates previously but when we got back to the B&B later in the afternoon I had a look at them and they are solid steel gates with rubber strips around three sides to seal the gates against the second wall and all of the houses on the edge of the river have them. Got off the boat at King's Straith and walked along the river looking for a place to eat. Two pints and 3 tapas for £15 - very tasty.

The centre of Old York is not very big, with narrow streets and "The Shambles" is an area of markets and real old buildings. We walked through there with J&P before the Yorvik centre.

After lunch we headed for the Yorvik Centre. The Yorvik Viking Centre is a site where they discovered a Viking Village in 1976. Between the years 1976 and 1981 archaeologists unearthed houses, workshops and backyards of the Viking-age city as it stood more than 1000 years ago. The actual dig is beneath a plate glass floor that we could walk across and look down at the actual walls and areas of the houses. We went for a ride in a six seated pod that was suspended from an overhead track and were taken through a replica village - complete with lifelike people and all of their tools of trade and wares. Back through the museum and saw more of the life as it was in 866AD. What a great exhibition. We all loved it. We walked with Jane & Paul back to their bus and saw them off. It was so nice to see them and do a bit of a catch up. It was fun to give them a hug and say "see you in Paris"!

Hey girls - we saw this chap in the town square who had about six owls of all sizes. He was putting a big leather glove on people's hands and setting an owl on their hand to have a photo taken. He then went to his computer and out printed a photo of the person with the owl. Very cool. Now Gma tells me she wanted to have an owl on her hand too but that I didn't encourage her to do so. May have to go back so she can eh!!

Dinner tonight was at Michael's Hotel and Restaurant - a salad of prawns wrapped in smoked salmon for moi and steak and guinness pie for the lady.

A little history of York:
71AD City was founded by the Romans and they called it Eboracum and of course they built a wall.
400sAD Romans left the city.
627AD First Minster was built and the Saxons arrived under King Edwin.
741AD Cities second Minster, made of stone was destroyed by fire.
866 Vikings capture the city.
1066 Battles of Stamford Bridge weaken Harold's Army.
1190 Massacre of the Jewish community approx. 150 people.
1220 Building of the present Minster commences.
1390 Richard II makes York the capital of England.
1472 York Minster is completed.
1644 The great siege of York by Cromwells forces.
1739 The highwayman d*** Turpin was hanged.
1840 York Minster is damaged by fire.
1984 York Minster has another fire which destroys the south transept roof.
2006 1700th anniversary of Constantine the Greta's proclamation as York's Roman Emperor.
2011 Jan & Kev were here.