York

We had a great long weekend, last weekend, in York. Fran and Tom arrived from the US along with Dan, Matt's brother, on Friday. We had a lovely dinner with my cousin Jordan and his partner, Carter that night, and the next morning, we hopped on a train to York.

2.5 hours later we were navigating HUGE crowds (who knew!?) on a beautiful day in York. Our hotel was a 12 minute walk from the train station. We dropped our things and started exploring. The city was originally built maybe in the 00s? Then maybe the 600s? And then again in the 1000s? There are original Roman walls and evidence of life of basically all time between then and now. It's so fricken historic.

This was our hotel room. It had space for FIVE people! We never have that. What a treat.

Walking down the street was cool. You can see the city walls ahead. Cute shops everywhere.

Koby thought this bear looked like he was vaping. Oy that Koby knows what vaping looks like?

After lunch, our first official stop was York Minster, the huge cathedral. WOW it was amazing.

I thought this guy looked a bit like Koby.

Oy a sock shop that had every cute sock. And this was the one at Koby's eye level.

This is called Shambles. It's a street basically from the medieval times, and it inspired Diagon Alley from Harry Potter. It was a bit too crowded, but super cool.

Uncle Dan the traveling uncle!

This was where they stuck the Jews in 1190 and killed those who didn't commit suicide.

I needed a bit of time on my own, so I walked all around the city walls. You can walk on them nearly all around the city. 

I saw rowers on the river. And it was a weekend I was thinking about my good friend in Newton, Caroline, as it was her dad's funeral, and Caroline was a rower.

St Mary's Abbey - old beautiful ruins. from an old church in an amazingly gorgeous park/garden.

Look at the heads around this door! This was a few doors down from our hotel. Amazing architecture everywhere.

Beautiful flowers

Sam in a gorgeous archway. 

Ladybird (that's what they call them in the UK)

Matt and I walked all around the walls, and this was one of the stairways to get back up.

View of York Minster from the walls/walk.

Fran and Tom took the kids minigolfing, so after a cool morning at the Viking experience thing, Matt and I went on a long walk and had a drink in a garden in a pub. SO LOVELY. The kids and inlaws also had fun.

This is where the synagogue was in the 1300s. Now it's a Next.

In the Museum Gardens. Elie was finding nettles everywhere and identifying other plants (and birds) too!

Minster on the way home from dinner

Elie jumped on the count of three. RIGHT INTO UNCLE DAN'S CHIN!!! Photo in motion. Poor Uncle Dan. He was a good sport. This was on the way back from a Polish dinner that was so tasty!

The last morning Elie and I went to the National Railway Museum. Loads of different trains and carriages from hundreds of years.

Koby just studied the change in train travel during the Victorian age. I thought he might be more interested in the museum (he went later with the rest of the family). Nope.

But he did like his burger, and he wanted me to take a pic of him with his burger.

All in all it was a super easy trip. We had the most gorgeous weather they make in England. We managed traveling in a group of eight. I think everyone enjoyed it at least a bit, and we saw some super cool things.