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On Saturday, March 3rd Angela and I ventured out for our second Reading Week day trip. Thankfully the heavy rains we had overnight had stopped by the time we were walking to the Uxbridge tube station. We made it to Kings Cross Train Station in London with plenty of time and headed out to the city of Leeds. The train arrived nearly two and a half hours later to an overcast sky but still no rain. We walked around a bit and took in some of the sites while the sky began to change to a beautiful, sunny blue! After consulting my guidebook and the pamphlets we picked up at the tourist centre, we decided that since we also wanted to visit York we would head there. Leeds is a nice city and had quite a few shopping centres, but there were more things we wanted to see in York. And what a busy day we ended up having there! Some of the sites/activities of the day:
*York Minster: WOW! York Minster is the largest medieval gothic cathedral in Northern Europe. York Minster is both a cathedral (the mother church of a diocese) and a mynster (the Anglo-Saxon name for a missionary church). The first Minster in York was built in 627 A.D. The current building dates from the 13th century. It is characterized by three towers built in the 15th century. It is approximately 518 feet long and 249 feet wide. Another characteristic of the cathedral is its stained glass from the Middle Ages. York Minster is absolutely breathtaking and is filled with an amazing amount of history. My photos don't do it justice.
*York Minster Undercroft, Treasury & Crypt: We also took the audio tour of the undercroft, treasury and crypt (sadly no photos were allowed). This tour took us through the history of York Minster under the cathedral. We saw remains of the Roman fortress and Viking, Norman and medieval carvings. Also on display were treasures and jewels of the archbishops. The crypt is the final resting place of St. William of York.
*Explore Secret York: This walking tour began in front of York Minster and took us all over the city. The guide shared some of the secret historical sites of York and the stories that went with them. We saw Mad Alice Lane where Alice poisoned her husband, Grape Lane which used to be Grope Lane and part of the red light district, Roman ruins complete with stone coffins, and King's Manor where Henry VIII lived for a while. The walk was entertaining and great exercise.
*Medieval City Walls: York is still encircled by its 13th and 14th-century city walls and you are able to walk along the 2 1/2 miles of walls. We didn't walk the whole way around, but we did enjoy walking along part of it and looking out over the city.
*National Railway Museum: This was the first national museum to be built outside London and you can't beat the free admission. Although we only had a short amount of time to spend in the museum, we got to see a wide range of different trains. This included the Royal Coaches (Queen Victoria sure traveled in luxury!), the Japanese Bullet Train, and the Flying Scotsman.
Even though there was more we wanted to do, we ran out of time and had to head back to Leeds to catch our train to London. We got very lucky with the weather too--it only rained a bit in the afternoon and we were able to avoid getting too wet by popping into a couple shops. I would love to go back to Leeds to do a little shopping and to York to see more of the sites. We both really enjoyed our day but were exhausted by the time we headed home. I certainly didn't have any problems sleeping Saturday night!
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