York February 2017

York! The medieval city with a Viking following and quite a few stone cats.

Having visited way back in the 90s as a kid, i was determined to return and so for a day and half i did. Travelling by train i arrived about 11am and after a bite to eat had a wander. I timed the trip to catch the tail end of the Viking festival and first port of call was the small but interesting exhibition Vikings: Home and Abroad. It featured several displays and cases of artifacts and also had around 4-5 actors who were all very friendly and great to talk to. With Jorvik still closed (due to the floods) it was a nice way to enjoy the Viking history.

After watching a couple of demonstrations outside the exhibit, wood working and combat, i drifted towards the Minster and what a building!  It was huge, impossible to see it through my lens as too many buildings close by to isolate it. But was great to see and later on i managed some decent captures from the walls. I returned in the evening however and did manage a couple of nice captures.

The second and only full day saw me running about! First i checked out the Shambles, wonderful and delightfully quirky area that looked like something from Discworld. Of-course back when it was mostly the butchers yard it would have been a different story!! Managed some nice captures but hope to return and try some different ideas out.
Next was Barley Hall, a Tudor town house and museum. Initially i wasn't going to bother but i had to walk past so i headed in. Really glad i did too, fascinating and enjoyable experience! The Tudors were crafty little buggers and the house was beautifully laid out with a highlight being the Horn Window. The staff deserve a mention too especially the red haired lass in the main hall, all were really enthusiastic and knowledgeable and were fantastic people to talk too :)

Next was......er.... Oh right the market! Saw a Viking coin maker and a couple of boats, very cool indeed. It was then time for the Viking March, ha ha! Fantastic display as some 300 fully dressed and armored vikings march down the streets to Coppergate. Loud, mad and great fun to watch! Following on from that i headed to the Richard 3rd experience (another great little museum) before i headed to the Yorkshire Museum. The Yorkshire Museum in particular was impressive and well worth a visit and i was especially happy as i finally got to see a Dodo skeleton plus a stuffed Great Ark. Also on display was a Moa skeleton, another example of humans arrogance and recklessness towards nature. Other displays included various fossils of ancient reptiles, Romans and of-course Yorks Vikings.

Finally it was the main Viking event - the last stand of Bloodaxe!  Never seen a battle like this before and it was amazing! Good fights, great marches, fantastic music and incredible firework display. I enjoyed every moment - even if i didn't manage to photograph any of it as it was too dark.

Well thats the highlights, and i can safely say i will be returning to further explore the city and its sights.

Local Tourist - February

February has much like January been wet and windy, even by British standards it's been a tad damp! However damp or no i was still out and about as often as i could and made a start on my new project "a local tourist" as i visit local towns and attractions.

As such i started with the Pic Tor memorial in Matlock. I wonder how many times i've been to Matlock now? countless trips and pretty much zero images but that should change during the course of the year.  Pic Tor has been on my visit list for some time and when there was a rare sunny day, i walked into town and finally saw the memorial and surprising view.

A lovely memorial, i also checked out the large grave yard by St. Giles Church and will return to that another day.

Next up was the Snowdrop walk at Hopton hall. Incredible displays and the Rose Garden (in summer) will be a riot of color and a good place for my macro work :D The walk was a delight and the small cafe was cosy with good food and pleasant staff.  I was amazed by how well maintained the garden and paths were and would say they are a good place for kids too as they had a play area. The walk is circular and relatively short but in truth you could waste a morning there taking shots and come summer bring a picnic and enjoy the flowers!

My final outing was a castle! Bolsover castle to be precise and what a place that turned out to be.  Like many castles and houses it was pretty expensive to enter but unlike many others of it's kind there was almost full access to the rooms - no ropes!!  The castle is really 2 in one with a far older ruin being one attraction and the "little castle" being the slightly newer build that was designed by the playboy of his day William Cavendish. He spared no expense and even now the place is dripping with the most expensive of materials.  I won't bore you with a history (i recommend the guide book for that if you visit) but will say that i was very impressed by the ruins and little castle rooms. The whole place was clearly built and designed to be a show off house! There are several events run throughout the year here and i hope to make it to at least one of them this year, anyway enough talk!

 
And thats it for this blog, hope you enjoyed. My next one will concern my short trip to the city of York so stay tuned for that - Bye bye!!