Packing up for Tomorrow's Trip Home

I've confirmed my flight--with plans to print out my E-ticket at the library tomorrow morning--and packed my bags. After this final blog for the night, I'm back to reading Face of Britain, one of the books I borrowed from the Explore Centre.

York's Own Millennium Bridge

I wandered back toward the Ouse, finding a walkway running along the river, which I took heading south (south southeast, to be technical) until I reached this walkway bridge. I return to Centre York on the other side of the river.

Still Along the Foss

My Last York Excursion

After dinner I decided to take one last stroll, now that the rain had stopped. This was taken along the River Foss, a bit north of Walmgate Bridge.

Barker Tower

On our way back to the apartment the rain finally started to abate. We walked along the east side of the Ouse, across Lindal Bridge, down the west side of the Ouse, and across the Ouse Bridge. Barker Tower, on the west side of the Ouse at Lindal Bridge, was used to draw a chain across the river to prevent boats from entering the city without paying the toll.

Beautiful Roses beside St. Olave's

Okay, My Last Church--I Promise

Behind the ruins of St. Mary's Abbey is another church, would you believe? It's St. Olave's, named after St. Olaf.

The Roman Multangular Tower Ruins

On this side of the tower we saw some more stone coffins.

Stone Coffin Garden

Meisha wanted to take me back to the very first area that we had explored because she had stumbled on a few more interesting ruins after one of her research sessions at the Explore Centre.

Caught in the Act

Out the window at Barley Hall I caught a young man taking a smoke break on a tiny landing outside an adjoining building.

A Snickleway out the Window

Costume Exhibit at Barley Hall

There was an exhibit there of various period costumes from movies, including some worn by Elizabeth Taylor, Kate Blanchett, Nicole Kidman and the leads in The King's Speech.

Barley Hall

Our original plans for the day, Spring Bank Holiday, as it were, were scuttled by the rain. So we decided to go to Barley Hall, a medieval townhouse, once home to the Priors of Nostell and Lord Mayor of York, particularly one William Snawsell who lived there in the early part of the fifteenth century with his wife and three children. This picture was taken in the pantry.

Dinner

Meisha made me a "birthday" dinner. The stuffed poblanos required some modification here in York, using bell peppers for the poblanos and corn flour for corn meal, but it was still delicious. There was also a little chocolate fudge cake, compliments of Marks and Spencer.

Beautiful Plants Grow Everywhere

Along Aldwark

More Wandering

This is the Black Swan on the Stonebow.

The York Crowds on Sunday

It gets very crowded in Centre York in the weekends. This is Snicklegate.

Evensong

We sat in this chapel as we listened to the service.

Evensong in the Minster

We decided to attend Evensong in the Minster to hear the choir and organ.

We Found It!

Here's the second of the stores we found and then lost, until now. Here's the jewelry store we had been looking for. I wonder why?

A View of Goodramgate

A View of the Wall through a Mock Bar "Window"

Stairway in Mock Bar

Richard III's Coat of Arms

The museum tries to present both sides of Richard's reputation-the villain who murdered the princes or the hero of York.

The Richard III Museum

We spent the morning relaxing. Later on we headed out to check out the Richard III Museum, which is inside Mock Bar, the tallest of the bars because Richard III paid to have another level to it.

Returning to York

Remember that I said we had no trouble getting to the comic convention. The trip back to York was another story. Picture first a very crowded subway (underground) with many of the riders in costume. Now picture us winding our way, up stairs and through various corridors at the Bank station to find the Northern line to get us back to the King's Cross train station. Okay, that wasn't really all that bad. There were no problems riding the Northern line and getting off at the right station. (Am I giving you a hint of things to come?) We grabbed some food at the station, me a Whopper(I know, I know), Meisha a panini, right before we noticed that the next train toward (another hint) York left at 19:00 (that's 7:00pm for us American types), ten minute away. No problem and we're on our way. Then we begin to hear the announcements indicating that this train did not go all the way to York and that there were some issues about lines being down and cancellations. Here's the part where I, George the "Great" Navigator, should have listened to Meisha. I was convinced we had to get off at Peterborough and Meisha thought it was the next stop. Meisha was right! The woman at the ticket office was clueless, there was no one at the information booth, and we had difficulty finding the right schedule for ourselves. Finally we figured out that the next train to Gratham, where we could catch the train to York, was leaving in about 20 minutes. We confirmed this with the conductor once we reached the right platform. Onward to Gratham! As we approach Gratham, Meisha noticed that the man in front of us was especially in a hurry to leave the train to catch another one. Her intuition told her that that was also the train we wanted. And, Yes! She was right, with me following cluelessly. This train was very crowded, so we couldn't sit together, but we did at least get to sit. There seemed to be an issue with passengers who wanted destinations north of Newcastle, i.e., Scotland, due to all the cancellations. The steward was trying to be very accommodating to these people but it was rather apparent that he was a bit out of his comfort zone and was frustrated that it had become his job to figure out how to get them where they wanted to go. As for us, as 22:00 (10:00pm) approached, we approached York station--approached very, very slowly for some reason. All in all, it only took about 45 minutes longer to get back than it took to get to London. But our story has yet to end: It started raining, the first rain we'd had all day despite it being very overcast the whole time, and once we went through Micklegate Bar, we encountered a whole new phenomena. All along the street, particularly outside every pub, were crowds of young--and not so young--people, with many of the women in odd outfits, mostly in pink and black. We could only guess that it had something to do with the fact that Monday is a spring Bank Holiday. We went right to bed!

Leaving the Convention

Now tell me, just who exactly is wearing the costume?

Sample Creature

I would say at least half of the convention attendees were in costume. This specimen gladly posed for us.

The Drawing

These characters, Mildred and Archibald, are from "Bad Machinery."

John Allison, Webcartoonist

Here's a better view of John Allison, with the drawing in the foreground.

At the London Comic Con Expo

Some background: Dave (that is Meish'a husband, for those of you following this blog who are non-family members) started getting into a particular webcomic when he was still living in Boulder. It has morphed from "Bobbins" to "Scary Go Round" now to "Bad Machinery." I have to admit that I've gotten into "Bad Machinery," written and drawn by Manchester-based cartoonist John Allison. Anyway, Dave learned about the Comic Expo and that John Allison would be there, so he suggested that we could go to London to check it out. So that's just what we did and, boy, did I ever feel like an alien in a strange land. Population distribution: under 20, 30%; 20-30, 60%; 30-60, 9.999%; over 60, me! Oh, yeah, and one of the security guards. In any event, the Underground got us where we wanted to go with no trouble and with some effort we finally found John Allison, who was gracious and accommodating when Meisha asked him to do a drawing for Dave on her notebook cover. Here he is doing just that.

Again Outside St. Paul's

After we returned to the ground floor, we decided to look at the crypt before heading to our final destination. This shot was taken leaving St. Paul's. We were heading for the Bank station of the Underground because the comic convention was in Newham, toward the outer eastern edge of London.

The Globe Theatre Shot from the Gallery of St. Paul's

A View Outside the Dome Gallery of St. Paul's

So now we've moved into the late seventeenth/early eighteenth centuries. Designed by Christopher Wren, the cathedral was built between 1675 and 1710, after the Great Fire of London burned the previous St. Paul's on this site in 1666. We were not allowed to take pictures inside the cathedral so you'll have to take our word for it when I say, "It was spectacular!" We walked up a 200 plus step spiral staircase to the "Whisper Gallery" to get a closer view of the dome. The we climbed an even narrow spiral staircase to the first outside gallery. The modern-looking building shot here from the gallery is called the London Gherkin. It was completed in 2003.

Lunch

By this time we were starved! The heck with eating something "authentic." Here you can see Meisha looking at the menu at Pizza Express with a view of St. Paul's out the window.

Approaching St. Paul's

Crossing Back over the Thames

We returned the same way we came, over the London Millennium Footbridge. You can see our destination--St. Paul's Cathedral--right in front of Meisha. The bridge was opened--are your ready for this--in 2000. However, the bridge is nicknamed the "Wobbly Bridge" because when it first opened, with a lot of people on it, they felt a wobble. It took two years of work before it was reopened.

Shakespeare's Globe Exhibition

I don't remember the extensive museum exhibits when we were there in 1997. This costume was made for Jane Lapotaire when she appeared as Elizabeth I at the opening of the Globe Theatre.

At the Globe Theatre

The reconstruction of the Globe Theatre was completed in 1997, the year Nancy and I first saw it the first time we were in London. They tried to make it as authentic as research and safety would let them. It is located just a short distance from where the original was. Here you can see the actors warming up for their performance of Much Ado about Nothing. On the train on our way back to York I read a review of the play in the London Times. As for our London "timeline," we've moved into the late sixteenth century.

Leaving the Museum Already?

We made it through the Celts and Romans in Britain, into the Anglo-Saxon period, before we had to leave to make it to the Globe before they stopped doing tour because they were doing a performance of Much Ado about Nothing at 2:00.

Mummy's the Word

At the British Museum

We started in the Nubian and Egyptian section with the hopes of getting to the Medieval period.

London: From Pre-history to the 21st Century

On Saturday we took the train to London for the day. Our mission: to find a particular Indie (independent) webcomics writer and artist at the London Comic Con MCM Expo--oh, and see some of the sights on the side. Geography and scheduling (the expo stayed open the latest) just so happened to let us begin with the pre-historic at the British Museum and end with the expo--where I was pre-historic! In this shot we are leaving the station at York.

Another Snickleway

We finally decided just to stop at Mr. Chippy's again for delicious fish and chips. We topped it off by sharing a "sticky toffee pudding" with "custard" poured over it. It was heavenly!

Unusual Street Musician

When we got back we did a bit of shopping--now that we had found a certain shop of interest. We saw this street musician along the way. There was another particular shop we wanted to return to (days earlier I had found it, and taken Meisha back to show her but it was closed), but would you believe we couldn't find it? Does that give you some idea how confusing the street layout is here in York?

On the Bus Back to Centre City York

Art Work on Campus

That's Meisha escaping.

Research at the University of York

Studying the bus route map the night before left us only partial convinced we would board the correct bus to head for the University of York, but we did manage to board the correct one and spent the day at the library (me) and the archives (Meisha), eating lunch on campus.

We Found It!

This is the store that I have been looking for for the past three days. It was on High Petergate. We finished our trek by hitting the Marks and Spencer grocery store to replenish our supplies.

Bootham Bar from the Art Museum

This shot was taken from between the columns on the Art Museum's portico.