York is an ancient Viking town, just like Buffalo, Minnesota. We visited the Yorvik Viking Centre where we rode on a Viking ride and explored an ancient Viking village and looked at petrified Viking poop in a glass case. Viking poop looked a lot like my poop, which proves I am descended of Vikings. Or it could mean we both ate and passed a full English breakfast.
This is the castle museum in York. Unknown to me at the time, it had absolutely nothing to do with castles. It was a museum dedicated to the history of domestic life in the UK. I cannot explain to you how incredibly boring this museum was to a guy. Within walking distance of this museum was the largest train museum in the world. This went unknown to me until after the day was over. So I wasted the better part of the day looking at displays of the evolution of British panty soaps.
This is a view of Clifford's Tower. Google it for the horrific details of its history. We did not climb its steps because we were tired of walking up stairs. I'm not sure what we missed. Had I known that Clifford's Tower would be more interesting than the Castle museum, I'd have gladly climbed that tower.
This is a famous area of old York called the Shambles. It was originally the street where all the butchers sold meat. Now you can purchase tourist crap there. It's all the same crap in every shop, in every village. Girls love looking at this stuff. Boys just stand outside the shops all looking at each other and sending the same the same telepathic thoughts, "Sorry you're stuck waiting outside while your women-folk are inside looking at crap we cannot fit into our suitcases when we leave."
While looking at the cool statue of Constantine the Great, I noticed this plaque. It was head-spinning to soak in that he was declared emperor near this spot. Then to see the result of this declaration lived out in the construction of this cathedral was a cranial-spazmodic moment.
Here he is, the man ultimately responsible for the cathedral (unless you also count Jesus).
Here you're looking at the high altar. We were fortunate enough to attend an Evensong service here with the full choir and organ. It was an amazing experience.
The cathedral is filled with graves. This was one of the more unusual ones. The man looks like the Pope of the Oompaloompas and is resting in what would seem to be an uncomfortable position. However, to an Oompaloompa, reclining in this position signals to other Oompaloompas that you are dead and not to be bothered.
This is one of the many side chapels within the cathedral. It's like a church within a church. York Cathedral was full of color and seemed to be alive.
Here is an example of one of the hundreds of gravestones that make up the floor of the cathedral. They were all like this. The cathedral is really one giant indoor cemetery. This was, sadly enough, for an 18-week-old child that died in 1639.
This was our vote for the most stunning of the chapels inside York.
The ornate gold-embossed wood carvings were spectacular.
Although it was very dark in this corner of the cathedral, I could not miss this shot. I watched this teenage boy stare at this ornately carved relief depicting the scene at the crucifixion. He stared at this relief for about 5 minutes all by himself. The irony is that he's wearing a shirt with the anarchy symbol on it promoting the band "Sex Pistols." When I walked up to admire it myself he said in a very proper British accent, "Beautiful, isn't it?" I guess you can't judge a British teenager by his Sex Pistols t-shirt.
This photo was taken by pointing my camera into a giant mirror which was placed at an angle in a device on the floor. It's a beautiful ceiling filled with color. As I said before, this was the most colorful cathedral we visited.
Here's a little more detail showing the ceiling of the north transept.
This group of kings protected the entrance to the choir. There was still paint present on some of the kings' faces and robes. I stood out here staring at this giant sculpture for about a half hour.
This is one of my favorite shots. It was taken of the ceiling in the chapter house. This was a round building to the side of the cathedral, connected by an ornate walkway. A chapter house is the place where all the priests and monks would gather to fight with each other about how to show the love of Jesus to others.
This is the west window. There's so much detail in these giant windows it's hard to take in. This was one of the windows saved from destruction by Cromwell's troops. York's windows were unique in that they are older than most places because they survived the English civil war.
This is a ceiling under a ceiling. It's a canopy above the grave of someone I forgot to take a picture of. The idea is that when Jesus comes back and resurrects the dead, this guy will see this painting, float up to heaven and bonk his head on his canopy.
Check out the gargoyles.
This gargoyle is a pig.
These are frightened priests, awaiting Thursday night room inspection.
These carvings really impressed me. they were easy to miss as they were above a well-traveled door. The entire arch depicted the book of Genesis. Here we see God's hand creating the world, then Adam and Eve.
Here you see them eating the forbidden fruit.
Then they get thrown out of the Garden of Eden and put to work.
The impressive front of the cathedral at sunset.
This is the north side taken with my wide-angle lens.
This man took a lot of money from us. He led a York ghost tour. Since my back hurt I decided to skip the tour and sit outside the cathedral and admire the carvings. The girls had a great time even though, as they put it, "He was just making up crap. But he was funny."
