back from my trip

Well, I'm back! I had a marvellous, though exhausting, three days in the north of England, saw some great things, and took some nice pictures. So I guess that means that it was all a success. Let me elaborate below. (NOTE: the links don't work yet, except for the Sutcliffe ones, but they will soon.)

Monday I left campus (via taxi, as the buses don't run that early) at 6:45 am to catch my train to York. I had to change in Leeds, and the train I was on was amazingly cold. In fact, I found that I was rather cold on all the trains during the entire trip -- except the last one (of course) from Carlisle to Lancaster.

Anyway, I first went to York. There I looked around at the Minster (cathedral), which was phenomenal. I would say I preferred it even to Notre Dame, although in different ways. I never knew it before, but apparently Constantine was declared emporor of the Roman Empire in York, at the site of the Minster. I don't know if that was the only place ... I would assume that he was proclaimed emporor in many different places ... but in any case, there's a statue of him in front of the Minster, which was quite nice. The Minster itself is just indescribable. The choir was especially intriguing to me, with its intricate and detailed wood-work. I also walked around much of the medieval wall that still surrounds York. Parts of it have been torn down, but by far the majority of the wall is still intact today, and in good repair. It makes for quite a nice stroll. I also went to see Clifford's Tower, the only remaining part of the castle that used to be in York. It was first a typical motte-and-bailey wooden fortress built by the Normans, although I think there may have been something there before that, too. That wasn't the most wonderful thing I've ever seen, but interesting nonetheless. Mostly York is just a pretty town, with a nice quayside and a woderfully well-preserved old town that still looks much as it must have 500 or 600 years ago.

I then went on to Whitby, found my room for the night, and slept soundly. The next day I spent almost entirely there in Whitby. Ever since going out there Halloween weekend of this year, I'd thought that I would like to go back there, and that really was the impetus for this whole trip. Whitby was lovely! Even in November. Unfortunately, two of the things I really wanted to do I couldn't. I'd been wanting to tour the abbey ruins and then see the Captain Cook museum. The Abbey is closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays during the winter, and the Captain Cook museum is closed entirely during the winter. *sigh!* Oh well, I guess that means I'll just have to go back there again some time! ;) But the rest of the town was still wonderful. I wandered out for a stroll along the west pier, where I watched the locals fishing; I spent a good hour or so in the churchyard of St. Mary's, taking ominous-looking pictures of the graves and the abbey beyond them; and I toured the Grand Turk, a 1997-built replica of an 18th-century man-o-war, and the main ship used for the Hornblower series. That was quite nice, and I was glad that I had read up about ships in the age of sail ... although I wished that I had read something a little more recently, as I got the mizzen-mast and the fore-mast mixed up. How embarrassing!

Wandering around St. Mary's Church yard, I took several pictures of the graves. They're so fascinating to me -- the epitome of sinister Halloween-type gravestones, the kind that you see in cardboard on somebody's lawn at the end of October and think to yourself, "Yeah, right! That's so fake! Graves never look like that. There's no way they could stand up like that!" But they do. And they also get that great coloring, where it looks like the whole gravestone was dipped in white paint, and then somebody else came along and artfully poured a bucket of black paint across the top. As I wandered among them, I occasionally got a whiff of some foul, rank, pungent, smell, and I thought that must be what old, damp graves smell like after 100 years in the North Yorkshire mists. But then as I started back down the 199 steps, I realized that it was probably the goats that were grazing behind the wall on the other side of the steps from the church!

I also took the time to go eat fish and chips at the "world renowned" Magpie Cafe. It has a reputation for the best fish and chips in England ("and consequently in the whole world!" -- movie quote, 10 points), and deservedly so. I kept wondering how good fish and chips could actually be. But I asked the guy at my B&B the night before, and he assured me that, although he had been skeptical at first, he also had found the fish and chips at the Magpie to be worth the price and the wait. Luckily I went early enough that was no queue, and the fish and chips really was delicious! Much better than anything else I'd ever had before, definitely.

Also while in Whitby I learned of the famous Frank M. Sutcliffe, who was a local photographer and revolutionized the photography industry with his techniques. He has some really stunning photographs, and I bought postcards of a few of them, which I'm linking here for your enlightenment, edification, and enjoyment. Toy Boats| St. Hilda's Abbey, Whitby | High Seas on Whitby's West Pier (my personal favorite)

That night I went on to Newcastle, where I again found my hotel and immediately went to a nice, sound sleep. The next morning I got up bright and early and went to wander around in Newcastle's city centre. The problem was, I got up a little too early. When I got there, nothing was open, and the only people around were those going to work. But I found my way to the quayside there, too (which was a feat in itself), and got to see the famous Gateshead Millennium Bridge. Quite facsinating -- unfortunately I didn't get to see it in operation, I'm sure it's quite a sight! I popped over to the Laing Art Gallery for a minute, mostly to see the "Blue Carpet", which was not at all what I had been expecting. I wandered along in the shopping area and was pleased to find a high-class department store with a huge display in the windows telling the story of the Nativity. It's not often you see that sort of thing, at least not in the States anymore, so I thought that was great. I then went down to the Discovery Museum, a free-entry, family-oriented museum. It was fun, but a little skimpy on details -- that is, until you got to the 20th century, which I thought was funny. There they had absolutely every decade in its own little section, with tons more information about each decade than you could possibly want. I skipped that part. Partly because I had to catch a train ... but not entirely.

After Newcastle, I hopped a train to Carlisle, where I did a tour of the castle and met some fellow Americans (from Lancaster, Pennsylvania), and then looked through the shopping centre before heading back home again. By the time I got to Carlisle, I was so tired and exhausted I didn't have the energy to do half of what there was to do. I just wanted to get home, to my own bed, and massage my poor little (ha!) feet, and go to sleep in my own little bed. Which I did. It might sound like I didn't like Carlisle that much, but that's not true. Besides Whitby, it was actually my favorite place that I visited, and I would love to go back sometime soon, maybe to do some shopping (as they had some great stores there that, as far as I know, we don't have here in Lancaster), and to see the cathedral. It was a lovely town, and it is built mainly with sandstone, which is prevalent in the area.

So all in all, I had a great time, but was really glad to get home again. I gave myself a little pedicure last night, which felt great, and then I read parts of Jane Eyre before going to sleep (which I haven't read for years, literally), and fell in love with Mr. Rochester all over again. :)

Oh yeah, when I went out to do some errands this morning (including getting a much-needed book from the library, yay!!), I decided to wear my flip-flops, as my feet are so swollen and sore that I didn't want to put them back in shoes again. But I hadn't quite even gotten to the main campus yet when the right one broke! The little strap that goes between your big toe and ... the next toe (?) ... broke, and so I couldn't walk at all in any way that would keep it on. So I had to take it off, and walk part-barefoot back to my room to put some shoes on. LOL!