The City of York and Duane gets Ordained!

Dear Family & Friends,

Today was a great day! First we had an easy 1 hour ride from Scarborough to the city of York. Even the weather was very good. We got a nice room right downtown on the river and with in walking distance of almost all the major sites.

First we walked down to a section of the city call The Shambles... It is one of the oldest parts of town... Many of the buildings are 800 to 1000 years old!! This city started in around 60 AD so it has been around for while.. The Shambles section looks just like Dygon Alley from the Harry Potter movies..

The Shambles features all sorts of shopping, restaurants, and street entertainment..but the real show stopper are the buildings themselves. I posted lots of photos of them in my Blog..

Next we walked over to the York Cathedral.. Without a doubt one of the most impressive structures I have ever seen!! The sheer size, beauty, and attention to detail are spectacular!  

A few bits of information about it...

-The original structure was built on Roman ruins from 200AD.

-The cathedral was built from 1200 to 1450 AD. 250 years to build this one building!

-The cathedral needs constant repairs and restoration. They are currently restoring one stain glass window, the restoration cost is $20,000,000 for one window! (It is a big one, three stories high)

-The external stones are always being destroyed by weather, pollution, and bird poop. So they are constantly making new stones. Each replacement stone take around 4 months to hand make!

-At any one time there is 16 miles of scaffolding around the building for repairs.. The building is so big you do not notice it!

We continued to walk around York, did a little shopping, stopped for a British Tea and Scone and took a river cruise through town.

Tonight it is off for English Roast Beef & Yorkshire pudding.. Mmmmmmm

Check out my blog for LOTS of photos of York and the Cathedral.

Tomorrow it is off to the National British Motorcycle Museum, some real culture!!

Jason

Not a bad view from our hotel rooms... The rooms are reasonable is cost but only slightly larger than a postage stamp.

Stunning views everywhere.

This building was over 800 years old and still in daily use!

Heading down Dygon Alley

After 800 years there wasn't a square wall or level beam in the building. In the USA this would have been torn down years ago...

This is a living city.. This building is several hundred years old yet sell modern electrical hardware..

Today I went shopping for my "Wand" for Hogwarts...

Mmmmmm.... roast beef and real Yorkshire pudding!

It is hard to capture the scale of this building. The ceilings are 5 stories up!

Incredible detailing everywhere..

Three was a similar stained glass window in this room that was being "restored" for a cost of $20,000,000 pounds! The up keep on the York Cathedral is astronomical..

This is a three story high pipe organ!!

Gold details everywhere..

The church organ in all it's glory..

Giving his sermon on the mountss

Duane was feeling more and more religious by the moments.

Praying to the patron saint of Buells that his motorcycle would last the trip..

Looking devine..

This man was buried here in 1240 AD and he wasn' the first by a long way..

Duane secretly tried on the Bishops robes and hat. He then commanded me to refer to him as  "Bishop Duane Paul the First"..... I am sure after this he has the fast track to hell.. :(

The sculptures and detail work are incredible..

The way this priest is looking at these children it appears the church has had this problem for a long time...

The cathedral is still very actively used..

Every outside stone has to be eventually replaced. Every stone is hand made and depending on the details takes about 4 months..!!

Gender confused.. 

Unfortunately another bit of crass American culture has slipped into this beautiful city..

This man was cutting out name plates from wood using this pedal powered saw.   He would do any name free hand, no pre-drawing it, in about 3 minutes and they were perfectly scaled!

The remains of Castle York..

A very cool English Ford ice cream truck

The front of Castle York

Time for a river cruise.

This building had three sections each being built in a different era from about 1400AD to 1850AD.

This bicycle has been left there for years judging by its decay. Everything else is so clean there must be some significance to it..

That structure is a left over gate house from the Roman era over 1500 years ago!

Inside that arch is the original fresh water well for the Roman city..

Talk about a small garage!