York - or is it Yorvic??

We had an awesome day in York. Paid the most we ever have for parking
(£2 per hour) maybe that car park outside of the city walls would have been better after all! Just briefly on parking - everything we had read and had been told was that parking is a nightmare everywhere in the UK and to use park and rides for places like Bath, York and St ives. One of the advantages of this time of year is the crowds have definitely gone and while sometimes parking has been challenging and certainly costly - we've done OK.

We headed straight to Yorvic which is an award winning museum/experience intended to give you an idea of what it was like to live in Yorvic. It developed from some archeological discoveries when they have found significant remains of Viking occupation of York and York has a particular type of peaty earth that preserved wood and fabrics that allowed this very specific information gathering. The experience centers on a moving 'ride' through this recreated town and once Michael saw that he had to go now and in retrospect (at least for me) we should have stayed longer in the first room which had lots of interesting information. Anyway - the experiential ride was cool and they had a special kids commentary version for Michael. Another aside..every museum or attraction has some special for kids and to varying extents of quality but they all try.

We found the shambles and took lots of photos - this is an absolutely gorgeous street of shops that was, if my memory serves me correctly, butcher shops. Had a wee lunch there at a tea shop and then on to have a look at Minster from the outside. This is certainly magnificent. We then split up and the boys went to the Train Museum ( so all you buffs will have to ask them..i would have been so bored) and I browsed the shops. we finished the museum packed day with a very very quick run through the Castle Museum. Sadly although York still has city walls (that you can walk...but if you want to walk city walls go to Conwy) the castle was demolished hundreds of years ago. the site became a prison and as part of the museum you can see the old prison and read about the experiences of the prisoners. They have an impressive Victorian street and it is worth a visit if you are in York.

Rather than deal with end of the day traffic we fed the meter a bit more (it was £2 for the evening now) and strolled along the river. Made another visit to the Minster...the boys went ahead of me as I got distracted with a handbag shop... So by the time I got there they had bought tickets but I just looked at what you could see for free inside and listened to the choral service which was going on at the time. Of course with a very formal Church of England style it's nothing like we worship but it's certainly very beautiful.