Day 11-12-13
York Minster is quite a building. Seems they had to dig up the foundations in the 70s to reinforce the sagging main support piles with concrete, and in so doing dug up the old Norman and Roman sites.
Gotta love how the old Tudor buildings are all leaning at odd angles, without a single 90-degree angle anywhere.
We ran into people we know. Don't you have to do that at least once when you're across an ocean?
After a metric ton of antiquity, it was fun to go and ogle a collection of old train engines. Some of them were absolutely monstrous, with five-foot wheels. They had the Hogwart's Express engine, too, which was fun to see. I guess if you need an engine to appear in seven movies, you keep it around. One of the big steam engines was cut away so you could see the inner workings. That was cool. Amazingly complex piece of machinery.
We found where they took all the armor that was in the Tower of London- Leeds! Thankfully, this was a short train ride and a bit of a walk away. Also, free admission and photography permitted sans flash.
This new Royal Armouries building (I assume it's new, certainly since I was last in England some... 18 years ago?) is a quite nice presentation space. Some multimedia blather, but lots of conventional displays too. They had a sweet collection of European stuff, as well as Indian, Persian, Arabic, Chinese and Japanese gear too. Lovely!
It must be a little odd to run a B&B, to have strangers in your house all the time. Then again, if you're the type who loves to host, it's perfect.
Paddington Station is a zoo. Welcome back to London, land of eight billion tourists who are all hauling their luggage.
I've lived the London experience- got to hear someone shout "You fucking wanker!" unironically.
By the far the crappiest internet "service" is the one we pay 5 pounds for, natch. Thank goodness it's only for one night.
Tomorrow, home! I'm ready for home.
Gotta love how the old Tudor buildings are all leaning at odd angles, without a single 90-degree angle anywhere.
We ran into people we know. Don't you have to do that at least once when you're across an ocean?
After a metric ton of antiquity, it was fun to go and ogle a collection of old train engines. Some of them were absolutely monstrous, with five-foot wheels. They had the Hogwart's Express engine, too, which was fun to see. I guess if you need an engine to appear in seven movies, you keep it around. One of the big steam engines was cut away so you could see the inner workings. That was cool. Amazingly complex piece of machinery.
We found where they took all the armor that was in the Tower of London- Leeds! Thankfully, this was a short train ride and a bit of a walk away. Also, free admission and photography permitted sans flash.
This new Royal Armouries building (I assume it's new, certainly since I was last in England some... 18 years ago?) is a quite nice presentation space. Some multimedia blather, but lots of conventional displays too. They had a sweet collection of European stuff, as well as Indian, Persian, Arabic, Chinese and Japanese gear too. Lovely!
It must be a little odd to run a B&B, to have strangers in your house all the time. Then again, if you're the type who loves to host, it's perfect.
Paddington Station is a zoo. Welcome back to London, land of eight billion tourists who are all hauling their luggage.
I've lived the London experience- got to hear someone shout "You fucking wanker!" unironically.
By the far the crappiest internet "service" is the one we pay 5 pounds for, natch. Thank goodness it's only for one night.
Tomorrow, home! I'm ready for home.