York

Yet again I write a post and forget to actually post it. It's been a month and we're about to go on another trip so I'd better tell you about our first one...

Our first overnight trip! Museums, attractions and indoor dining were open again here as of May 17th so we planned our first trip to start - May 18th! Not that we were anxious to get started exploring, or anything :-)

First day we drove up to Yorkshire, saw James Harriot's home and vet clinic, drove through some of the Yorkshire Dales (pictures wouldn't do it justice. So beautiful! And the weather miraculously cooperated!) and stopped at the Rievaulz Abbey Ruins. A great start to our trip. I of course had to start re-reading the Harriot books before the trip so I was all ready. Then we drove back south a bit to the city of York where we had just enough time to unload into our airbnb before attending Evensong at York Minster. The kid's were pretty tired from our day of exploring so they didn't mind too much just sitting and listening to the service while taking in the beautiful cathedral although they did say they wish the choir was easier to understand. 

The next day we were up and going again. We started by walking some of the York walls on the way to the York Minster, this time to actually tour it. It had a one way system but I actually liked that because I felt like I hadn't missed a bit section on accident. I think I slightly prefer Ely Cathedral but this one is really quite nice too, I especially liked seeing the crypt with its mosaics and some markers showing were the original walls of the Norman Church were. And the kids really liked the statue of Constantiople (although Jude wasn't in the mood for pictures. He wasn't cranky, just didn't want to be in any pictures). My favorite memory from the tour was walking with Jude on my back when he spontaneously starting singing hymns. Super cute. But the best pictures goes to the end when he was done. He wanted his snack and he didn't want to talk about kings. 

The other museum we had planned for this day was closed so we had plenty of time to wander. We walked through the gardens, grabbed lunch and tea at a pub then explored the Shambles marketplace with its Harry Potter Vibe. 

Next day was Jorvic and Railroad museum. Jorvic was commercialized - and still fun and totally worth it with kids. You take a little Disney world style ride around robotic scenes to learn about viking life before the museum/archeology dig finds. Jude got mad at one point because we wouldn't let him climb on the priceless artifacts but one of the costume workers was super sweet and started talking to him and then all the kids, describing how she was making socks with an old style of knot tying/knitting then showed them a map of the Jorvic trading routes and the specific artifacts that told them what countries they traded with. They loved it and I was very grateful for the distraction. 

The afternoon was the National Railroad museum. We had heard a lot about this but I was a bit underwhelmed. But then again, all trains look alike to me. I feel the same way about the many military museums I've been too - oh look, it's plane and tanks. And more planes and tanks. Okay, I'm ready to leave now. If you are a train lover, I'm sure you'd feel differently. I did like seeing some of the royal trains. And the vintage travel posters. And some of the displays with quotes about what train travel was like were fun. 

The last day was the Van Gogh Experience then the York Castle Museum. The Van Gogh Experience was mostly just because the York Castle Museum was being done on a tour only basis so we had to kill time on a rainy morning until 11 am. It was - interesting. But it kept us dry. 

We did the Victiorian Street tour at York Castle and I really wished the whole museum had been open. I really enjoyed this one. The tour was good and it was only us and two other ladies. The whole history of the museum is fascinating. Maybe next time we can see the whole thing. Especially as Craig didn't get to the end, Jude had a big fit so he was taken to the car where he promptly fell asleep in what looks to be a most uncomfortable position. Poor Jude. One thing this trip taught us is that I need to buy some suction cup blackout curtains. Our airbnb was nice and had everything we needed - except decent curtains. And we all suffered as a result. Poor Jude didn't go to sleep until 9pm at the earliest, was up at 5am and didn't get full naps. Traveling with a toddler means we made adjustments as we go and being flexible but starting with a decent amount of sleep would definitely have helped him.

Overall, York was a great first bigger trip for us. The town has so much to do but its easy to walk around even for those with little legs. I'm not sure how crowded it is in normal times but it was busy enough to feel exciting and bustling but not overwhelming when walking with the kids like I had worried it might feel. In mom terms, I only "counted kids" every 5 minutes or so not every 60 seconds.