Trip to York

York has a very rich history by going all the way back to the medieval times. In fact some of the building still remains standing. They are the city walls and the minister. There are a few museums that show case the rich history of York and one in particular that I find interest is the exhibit of the Viking city Jorvik. Over here I learnt that the Viking actually successfully invaded York around AD966 (could be earlier) and ruled the lands around it. The city later become very prospers and holds up to more than tens of thousands of Vikings. In fact the city become so crowded they actually start to build houses with double stories. Bottom layer of the house was used to do work and the top layer used as sleeping and eating area. With such a big city, it invertible becomes a centre of trading. With goods from all over Europe and Egypt. The exhibit was quite detail showing all the stuff use by the Viking such as their clothes, utensils, weapons, housing, skeletons and etc. How do we know if all these data are real? Well back in the 1980s archaeologists discovered a large amount of artifacts dating all the way back to AD900s inside the city of York. In fact the museum is built on the site of the discovery of the artifacts. All these skeletons and artifacts are very well preserved under the moist earth which including leathers and even the Viking’s stools (shit).



After the visit to Jorvik, we walked around the city within the city walls and discover a lot of the shophouses are preserve or build to give the city architecture a feeling of the medieval times. Also there are also quite a few shops that sell unique services or products.





We were also lucky to see a small parade held outside the castle museum (not actually a castle but just some short building). The parade is to commemorate the victorious sea battle (Battle of Trafalgar 1805) won by the British against the French when Napoleon was king.


Of course the highlight of the trip was to visit the minister of York. But first I like to check if any on knows if there is any difference between church, cathedral, minister and other Christian building for worship? Cause the minister of York is actual a very big building for worship to Jesus. Now what make this place special is that the building actually stands on the foundation of two other building with the earliest dating all the way to the Roman Empirebetween the 9-10 centauries. This was only discovered when the minister was in danger of collapsing around 1990s? (cannot recall the actual dates)

A crypt was build beneath the minister to show some of the actual remains of the previous two buildings build on the site. The first dates back to the Roman Empirewhich is actually a huge barrack use to train the Roman troops. There were quite a few artifacts such as the famous Roman columns use to support the roofs of the building. There is even a cut of into the ground that shows the drainage systems that remove water from the city ground into River Ouse outside the city. And it is still intact and working today! The second was a big church build by the Saxons. I was a very simple but a huge church. Actually, I do not see the actual remains of the church. Except some glass panels and quite a lot of rocks that claims to be from that time. The glass panels are unique because back in the AD1200s (I presume because the current minister was build around 1400s) the Saxons were able to build colourful and elalaborate design on glass. The colours were every rich and even till today they are just as beautiful and rich.
And of course the current minister was build when the Saxons was defeated to showcase the power and influence of the feudal lord back then. And the story goes on and on. To know more about it, you can always read up more about it.

National Rail Museum is up next on the list where the story of the famous railway history is being told. It shows all the different trains that had served UK in the past. There are also exhibits on the present train such as the eurostar and the Japanese Bullet train.
This ends my trip in York and my next trip is to Oxford and Cambridge home of the top two universities in UK.

Cheers!!!