Postcards from the Paces: York, Trains, and a Prince

We hopped on the train this morning and arrived in York in just under an hour. I LOVE the trains in England. It is so easy to get around and you dont have the stress of driving and parking. I really wish the U.S. would embrace train travel. I am a little sad that when we get home we will be dependent on our car again. At the beginning of the summer, the kids winced at the idea of walking a mile. Now they think nothing of walking the mile to the train station, hopping a train, and then walking for miles around our destination. I will get off my soapbox now and tell you a bit about York.

When we arrived we went to York Minster. The streets were blocked off and there were police everywhere. The bus driver told us that Prince Charles was due to arrive any minute. We hurried up to the front of the church and saw his motorcade go by, but by the time we made it up to the barricades, all we saw was his back as he entered York Minster. After the crowd thinned a bit, we headed in to see the church. It cost 9 pounds to go into the cathedral. It is beautiful, but honestly, I have a hard time paying a fee to go in a church, so we opted to take in it's beauty from the back corner where we were allowed to stand for free!!

York Minster

The part that I could see for free!

After our brush with Prince Charles we headed over to the Jorvik Viking Center. Apparently the Vikings lived in York at one time and they have unearthed many artifacts. Eli wants to blog about our visit there, so I wont say any more. Check back later for his post!!

We finished our day at the National Railway Museum. This is the largest railway museum in the world and a chance for them to celebrate their wonderful rail history. We spent two hours there and did not even scratch the surface of the museum!

This is just one corner of the warehouse.

There is another room full of Royal Coaches. They are beautiful and Emma and I decided that we would prefer to always travel by Royal Coach! Some of the trains had footprints nearby that explained where each person would stand when the Royal of choice was entering and exiting the coach.

Emma is pretending to be the queen, exiting the coach. She is missing a few footmen!

We learned the history of the Flying Scotsman, which was acquired by the Museum in recent years and is being restored. We also rode in a simulator that recreated the Mallard's 1938 record breaking speed of 146 mph. This still stands as the fastest speed for a steam engine. We ended our day by walking to the train station and boarding our train for Sheffield. After a long day it was so nice to sit and relax and watch the countryside fly by. It sure beat driving in a car and fighting traffic!