The River Ouse runs through the medieval city wall which still almost surround York, England. We stayed at the Marriott and took a bus into this area. The Marriott sits on a huge race track in a residential part of York.
This Roman tower is in the Yorkshire Museum Gardens just to the right of the last photo. We have not yet become complacent about the age of the sites we are seeing. It is encouraging to see communities taking care of their history.
The centre of York is very quaint and well preserved, even if the businesses are very touristy.
It was a delight to watch Ted enjoy his first gothic minster. Minster is the name for a missionary church and this designation saved it when Cromwell destroyed all the cathedrals in England during the move from Catholism by Henry VIII. A cathedral is the seat of a Bishop and a church is a Christian place of worship. When I called York Minster a church, a cabby corrected me with a bit of scorn, saying that it was much more than a church. This a working place of worship for the Church of England with services occuring while we were there. Those are musicians taking in their instruments for a performance the next evening.
Ted really captured the beauty of the masonry. We kept talking about the book
Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett as we toured the minster.
Pillars is about the building of a grand cathedral in medieval times.
This one of many gargoyles on the exterior of York Minster. Several of them have reinforcing rods and some are very deteriorated. What can be expected from a building begun in 1080? The minster has experts in masonry, stain glass, tile, etc. While we were there, it trying to recruit apprentices to serve with some of the master craftsmen.
This is a needlepoint kneeling bench. There are several of these located near important locations in the minster. Each is a different design and look like they have been completed recently. What a great way to serve the church.
This is a composite photo of the windows that are being restored behind it. The photo was amazing. The work on the windows will take about 10 years and is being funded through donations separate from the fees collected from those touring the edifice.
Most of the carvings in the minster were saints, but the Quire screen consisted of 15 kings of England and is beautiful even if most, if not all of them, were far from saints.
This is one of two Cope chests from the 13th-century. Copes are long robes which are still worn on high days in procession. Although bombs fell during WWII very near York Minster, they never damaged it. As a precaution, all of the amazing stained glass windows were removed, stored in a bomb-proof area, and restored after the war ended. Over the years there have been fires that have destroyed various segments, but each time the congregation has restored the destruction. The lid on this chest may have become bowed during one of these events. After the last fire in 1984, school student designs were selected to replace some of the ceiling decorations in the south transept. One design is of Neil Armstrong walking on the moon. How cool!
As we walked deeper into the centre of York, the streets got narrower and more ancient. This was not a movie set. For a week day during an economic turn-down, there sure were a lot of people.
These graves sit on a small site with buildings on three sides and a street on the other. Reminded us of Boston.
The ruins of St. Mary's Abbey are not far from the Roman tower above. It was the legendary home of Friar Tuck of Robin Hood fame.
The city wall is almost intact and walkable.
That is York Minster from the city wall. The Bronte sisters grew up on the moors north of here.
The River Ouse runs through the medieval city wall which still almost surround York, England. We stayed at the Marriott and took a bus into this area. The Marriott sits on a huge race track in a residential part of York.
This Roman tower is in the Yorkshire Museum Gardens just to the right of the last photo. We have not yet become complacent about the age of the sites we are seeing. It is encouraging to see communities taking care of their history.
The centre of York is very quaint and well preserved, even if the businesses are very touristy.
It was a delight to watch Ted enjoy his first gothic minster. Minster is the name for a missionary church and this designation saved it when Cromwell destroyed all the cathedrals in England during the move from Catholism by Henry VIII. A cathedral is the seat of a Bishop and a church is a Christian place of worship. When I called York Minster a church, a cabby corrected me with a bit of scorn, saying that it was much more than a church. This a working place of worship for the Church of England with services occuring while we were there. Those are musicians taking in their instruments for a performance the next evening.
Ted really captured the beauty of the masonry. We kept talking about the book Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett as we toured the minster. Pillars is about the building of a grand cathedral in medieval times.
This one of many gargoyles on the exterior of York Minster. Several of them have reinforcing rods and some are very deteriorated. What can be expected from a building begun in 1080? The minster has experts in masonry, stain glass, tile, etc. While we were there, it trying to recruit apprentices to serve with some of the master craftsmen.
This is a needlepoint kneeling bench. There are several of these located near important locations in the minster. Each is a different design and look like they have been completed recently. What a great way to serve the church.
This is a composite photo of the windows that are being restored behind it. The photo was amazing. The work on the windows will take about 10 years and is being funded through donations separate from the fees collected from those touring the edifice.
Most of the carvings in the minster were saints, but the Quire screen consisted of 15 kings of England and is beautiful even if most, if not all of them, were far from saints. 
This is one of two Cope chests from the 13th-century. Copes are long robes which are still worn on high days in procession. Although bombs fell during WWII very near York Minster, they never damaged it. As a precaution, all of the amazing stained glass windows were removed, stored in a bomb-proof area, and restored after the war ended. Over the years there have been fires that have destroyed various segments, but each time the congregation has restored the destruction. The lid on this chest may have become bowed during one of these events. After the last fire in 1984, school student designs were selected to replace some of the ceiling decorations in the south transept. One design is of Neil Armstrong walking on the moon. How cool!
As we walked deeper into the centre of York, the streets got narrower and more ancient. This was not a movie set. For a week day during an economic turn-down, there sure were a lot of people.
These graves sit on a small site with buildings on three sides and a street on the other. Reminded us of Boston.
The ruins of St. Mary's Abbey are not far from the Roman tower above. It was the legendary home of Friar Tuck of Robin Hood fame.
The city wall is almost intact and walkable.
That is York Minster from the city wall. The Bronte sisters grew up on the moors north of here.
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