York

We had our first visitor from home this past weekend! Brigid is a friend and colleague from Girl Scout Council of the Nation's Capital. It just so happens that her husband was lecturing at Newcastle University this past Saturday, so she came along and visited with me for the weekend. We had a blast visiting the Discovery Museum (describes the history of Newcastle) and Castle Garth, just a few blocks from my flat. This is the view of the River Tyne from Castle Garth. You can see the High Bridge, our tallest bridge for the high volume traffic of the highway into town. You can also see the Sage Gateshead, a big performing arts center that looks like a big shiny slug behind the bridge. Sadly, we spent much of the weekend in search of entirely too elusive local ales. Every time we went to a pub for dinner, they had already stopped serving dinner (apparently, the focus here really is on the drinking, so they stop serving food at 6pm). Lesson learned, though, so for future visitors we should be better prepared for showing guests around.

Brigid also reminded me that it has been a while since I've posted -- you've been dying to hear about York, haven't you?! So for Easter Dan and I ventured down to York for a day out. We managed to see an incredible amount in just one day. York is still surrounded by it's medieval wall, so most of the cool sites are inside the wall (perhaps you notice a theme in the cities we visit). Here's Dan on the wall. You can just spot the York Minster in the background behind him. The Minster is a huge church on a site that has had a church or temple since Roman times. Emporer Constantine is reputed to have been crowned Caesar here (instead of in Rome) back in the day because there were some fears the Empire would be taken over by some other guy after his dad died. We climbed more than 200 really narrow spiral stairs up to the top for a commanding view of the city. There were some folks who looked like they weren't going to make it, but we all got to enjoy the view eventually. The minster has the largest and oldest intact stained glass window in Europe (from 1300s, if I recall correctly).

We paused for lunch, then headed over to Yorvik, the Viking Center. This is the next time period in my tour of England -- about 1000 AD the Vikings moved into York and really settled in. Luckily, part of their village was buried in an area with mud that never dried out (gives you some idea how often it rains here), so even soft stuff like socks and shoes were preserved. They can tell you whether they crocheted or knitted their socks because they're that well preserved! Sadly, we weren't allowed to take any pictures inside. However, I do think it is important to note that they did live up to their promise of authentic Viking smells in their recreated Viking village. You could smell the meat drying, the leather workshop, and the latrine as we went by. It did take a little effort to get that authenticity out of our clothes, though.

After taking a look at the outside of the local castle tower, we moved on to the world's largest railroad museum. Some of you may be familiar with Dan's slight infatuation with Lego trains (we'll have a little New Jersey constructed before you know it). So we had fun checking out everything from early steam engines to a Japanese bullet train, to signage and switch systems for railroads. We were especially impressed by the Mallard train, which reminded us of our friend Mike (M.Allard). It was the world's fastest steam locomotive. There was an American train that could have gone as fast or maybe even faster, but to go that fast would have been illegal in the US, so the Mallard's record stands.

We finished off the day with a lovely dinner at a vegan gluten free restaurant that had been billed as Mexican. These English folks must be confused. What at Taco Bell is vegan? This restaurant even sold salsa separately from nachos!! I was saddened and embarrassed that I had convinced Dan to eat there, but he was a good sport about it and may have even enjoyed his Moussaka (think about that one for a second).

I've got a few other trips to report on, but I'd hate to overload you all at once. I'll sign off for now. Please keep my mom in your prayers as she is not feeling well at present.