Jan 18th. Relaxing in York

Today was a great day. We spent most of it leisurely yet systematically wandering through the streets of York, enjoying the sites, and paying homage to the fine eating establishments this town has to offer.

We started the day by walking all around town in search of breakfast. At 8am on Saturday there were three choices: Nero coffee, Costa coffee, and Betty's Café accidentally found by Dan. Wow! Turns out it is one of the most popular coffee shops in town with the great décor and food to match. Kids had pancakes... lightly salted & stacked between the layers of fresh cream and warm raspberry syrup with raspberries and pickled pears. After we left the line stretched all the way outside.

Then we did a pleasant walk along the river to the racecourse. There was a coin and stamp show going on. Everyone was very friendly. Kids enjoyed looking at stamps with the queen's image on it. There is an interesting story about her having to pose for hours in order for first official state image to be created for the first time. Painters had asked her to switch the royal crowns, moved them higher or lower on her forehead until she finally looked "royal enough" for that final image to be created. We saw interesting collections of British war medals, and ancient arms.

There was a booth by a Dave Greenhaugh who is one of UK only experts on the medieval coinage production. He struck a few coins for the girls. He told Dan a story of the local metal-detector club who found one of his coins and declared the ancient find of the month seemingly unaware of the year struck in the back of it.

We walked back to town the long way - on top of the city wall. Kids started getting hungry again. We decided to forage on our supplies. Georgia got a banana and I peeled a clementine for Isabella. She held on to it for a while, maybe enjoying the feel of it in her hand. Then she accidentally dropped it and we all watched it roll, ever so slowly to the edge of the wall and beyond. She cried so bitterly as if was the last one on earth. We consoled her and tried to offer alternatives. It's the precious moments like that stay with you for a really long time.

We went to Yak and Yeti near the Cathedral for lunch. Lovely Nepalese place. The waitress was hesitant about giving Georgia her Anapurna chicken because it is spicy, but Georgia went at it like it was a bowl of rice. It is interesting how different Isabella is in her eating habits. Rice was all she was willing to experiment with.

Next we finally able to get into one of largest UK cathedrals, and even get up on the tower, a feat hitherto unachievable. I must say though that both attractions are overrated. It is true that cathedral is very large. And it the second example of the church with organ up in the middle. But other than that, it is not that memorable.

Georgia and I went upstairs to see the views. Dan stayed with Isabella because only kids aged 8 and up are allowed on account of "stairs being too high and kids changing their mind." Well those stairs were no different than countless others our kids had climbed previously. What they should do is to ask adults to be dead sure that they want to do it prior to selling them tickets. They gather groups of people every 45 minutes and then everyone enters sequentially, in a long line. One half of the group decided to stay back after a few rounds and so had to reverse on a narrow staircase. The other had to take a breathing break every 10 steps or so. In that context 45 minutes totally made sense.



We contemplated going to the second main attraction in town: the multi-media Viking experience next but after the cathedral proved to be so anti-climactic decided to go to St. Mary's abbey ruins instead. That was very enjoyable. Kids climbed possible every column base for a picture.

There were some picturesque geese in the river. They looked like a proper household variety with white bellies and light gray backs and wings. Kids threw a few cookie pieces their way and we kept on walking. All of a sudden, geese, one by one, started coming up the little staircase that led from the water. They waddled to us and quaked expectantly. Both kids and adults were excited and frightened. We gave them the rest of the cookies and hoped that they would latch on to another group of tourists passing by. But they just waited for a bit and waddled back to the staircase.


We continued our walk covering even the smallest of streets until setting down one last time at the Royal Oak. Equally recommended :) At this point kids were walking for nearly 10 hours. They turned on the iPad and tuned out all the outside stimuli. Dan and I relaxed sipping the Old Peculiar.

Heading back South tomorrow.