Exploring York: Vikings and wizards and trains, oh my!

The boys’ school runs more like what we would call a year-round school in the U.S., starting in early September and ending in late July, with lots of 1-2 week breaks throughout the three terms. It gives lots of opportunities for little trips.

It seems this is a popular time for many families to head over to France or Switzerland or Italy and ski. We knew that wasn’t in the cards for us this time, so I started asking for recommendations for a quick getaway. Several people pointed me to York, noting it was beautiful with tons for kids to do, so we decided to head there next.

York is known for their Viking history, as it was settled and ruled by the Vikings for a period of time. There’s a Viking museum there, and it was even going to be “Viking Festival” time during our visit. However, when I went to book tickets for us for anything Viking-related, it was full. The museum, walking tours, activities – mock Viking battles, anyone? – were booked. We would just have to take in whatever Viking experience we could.

The boys and I arrived around lunchtime. It’s only a couple hours to drive, and Tim was working, so we got a head start on the fun. When we approached York, I kept repeating to the boys, “Now just give me a few minutes here…I don’t know where I’m going…I just want to find parking and we’ll walk…we’re just going to take our time…” I was saying all of this for my own good. I was trying to avoid the center of town but I had just plugged in the museum address and ended up on a series of crowded, one-way streets in the heart of the city, which made me slightly nervous. Eventually, I pulled over and typed in the hotel address instead, getting us out of city center and closer to a parking structure.

We walked the 20 minutes back down to the Jorvik DIG center, a children’s museum focused on archeology. We waited for our tour to start and soon were huddled into a little room filled with other families looking for an educational but fun outlet (i.e., kill some time) for their children during half-term break.

The archaeologist tour guide explained some key terms and what their job consists of before instructing the children to grab some plastic rakes and move to the next section. Here, there were three different “dig sites,” covered in tiny rubber bits. The objective was to use your tool to dig and uncover artifacts that would tell you more about how this family lived, based on their era. Everyone got to work.

I watched Nate start digging, and Bennett too, less enthusiastically. It made me pause – he wasn’t the oldest child there, but I don’t think the “pretend” activity interested him much. He digged along, but mostly was ready to see other things. Pause for a sad, single teardrop for my boy growing up so fast.

The tour concluded with an interactive session where the boys got to hold and sort bones from all sorts of different animals and hear more about how ancient settlers may have farmed. Once it was finished, the tour guide pointed out that it was also “Poo Day!” and there was a free activity upstairs. The boys were so excited, especially Bennett. Pretending to dig up artifacts? Meh. Pretending to create your own poo? HILARIOUS.

Poo day, thank goodness, involved only red clay. Once you rolled it out, they had various extras you could roll into your “poo” – seeds, nuts, fruit to represent their diet and even cooked spaghetti to represent worms that were often found in poo, usually indicating they were sick. I know this sounds gross, but the boys had a blast creating their masterpieces, and they so helpfully even offered us foil to wrap it up and take it home. I must have carried around that fake poo in my purse for a week before I threw it away.

After the museum, the boys and I wandered. We had walked by a cool-looking street on our way to the museum and I promised we would come back there. Turns out, it was the Shambles. The street dates back to the medieval times, with Shambles being taken from the term for butchers and the hooks of meat lining the window front stores. While there aren’t any butchers left, the old, timber-framed buildings remain. They overhang the narrow street, and appear a bit crooked and meandering. It gives the street a mysterious, magical feeling.

The shops play up on that – there were a couple of shops focused on magic, or Harry Potter, or creating “potions.” The boys loved these, and we went in and out of shops, looking at wands or potion pots and having “Hopperscotch beer” in one, hot chocolate with some ginger and butterscotch. They pretended they loved it – I made them try a sample before we bought – but soon tired of it. They like their chocolate straight up.

While we hadn’t secured tickets to anything Viking-festival related, we did come upon a row of tents not far from The Shambles that held Viking goods and demonstrations. The boys were particularly intrigued by the “Viking” who made goods out of horns and animal pelts. There were tents of jewelry, knitted goods, and even a tent of Vikings who were practicing horn calls. Let’s just say these individuals were committed to their craft.

After some relaxing at the hotel, we walked back out to a restaurant for dinner and were excited when Tim made his way from the train station just in time to join us for some wood-fired pizza at a cute Italian restaurant.

On Thursday, we woke up ready for more exploring. The boys were excited to show Tim the Shambles, but I knew they were secretly after a souvenir that I denied them the day before. We set a price limit and they explored the shops, hemming and hawing and picking up things and setting them down. They finally landed on some plastic wands that the shopkeeper specifically told them was NOT for hitting. She must have seen the mischief in their eyes. (Bennett’s broke about two hours later, after an innocent drop on the ground, leaving him upset. Ah, cheap souvenirs.)

We then walked a short distance to the York Minster, a huge and stunning cathedral. So far, I’ve toured cathedrals in Chester and Liverpool but thought this one looked pretty spectacular as well. I convinced Bennett to come in with me and paid for us to go in, got him a scavenger hunt mat and tried to pump him up.

Then Tim called. “Should I bring Nate in to the cathedral?” he asked.

“Well, it’s kind of expensive, so if he doesn’t want to, probably not,” I said.

“OK. I’m going to just take him to play and run in a park. Does Bennett want to stay with you?” Tim asked. Bennett looked at me with pleading eyes. Cathedral tour or run around in park? Tough choice for a 7-year-old boy.

“Nope, he definitely doesn’t,” I said, signaling to Bennett that let him know he was excused. He has never dashed under a rope toward the exit faster!

I explored for a while. The cathedral is stunning and grand, with sweeping arches and stained glass everywhere. Yet, there are also silent, tucked-away chapels. There’s even an entire exhibition in the basement level, explaining the history of the church. The church was built over 250 years, between 1220 and 1472. In the 1960s, he tower was discovered to be crumbling, so a huge renovation took place, complete with excavation and building a new foundation. During this time, they discovered the remains of a Roman fortress on the site as well.

I was intrigued, pausing and watching videos, but I began to feel a little claustrophobic in the underground exhibition, especially when Tim and the boys were playing in the warm sunshine and I felt like there was so much more of the city to see. I picked up the pace, lit a candle and said a prayer for Grant, and made my way into the sun and to the boys. I appreciate the beauty, but I’ve concluded that I’m good on cathedrals for a while.

We headed for the National Railway Museum, which consists of several buildings full of trains of all types and eras. They have a nice cafeteria there, and we ate our lunch amongst the trains before exploring. The boys were interested in the older trains, but mainly liked the ones you go inside to check out. The whole museum can turn into a hide and seek game very quickly, so we each took one kid around, trying to keep eyes on them the best we could. The museum backs up to the York train station, giving you a front row seat to watch the trains come and go.

My favorites were the royal carriages, where you could see the posh set-up that the royals used to commute around the country, mostly from Windsor to the Balmoral estate in Scotland. They traveled in style, with posh living rooms and sophisticated smoking lounges.

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The ambulance train was humbling, with visuals bringing to life the stories of the nurses and doctors who brought sick and injured soldiers out of the front lines of battle during World War I, working endlessly to care for them with crowded and dangerous conditions. The boys’ favorite was of course a ride – the Mallard Experience, which simulated the record-breaking ride of the fastest steam locomotive. (Bennett tells me it was 126 MPH, so we’ll go with that.)

As we headed out of the museum, we knew we wanted to see Clifford’s Tower (Nate somehow dubbed it Pluto’s Castle instead, mixing up his cartoon dogs I believe), so we walked the city walls to get there. Bennett led the way and we enjoyed the trek to the other side of the city in the beautiful sun, with the backdrop of the York Minster behind us. We took our time and took some photos and chatted before arriving at the castle, making our way up the many stairs to the top…and they shut the door in our face. Seriously, as we were trying to go in. We had made it to the castle before closing time, but not before the last entry time. We were one minute too late.

Disappointed, we climbed back down and took a picture, knowing we had conquered the day as best we could anyway. I felt it was a good lesson in exploration for the boys. Yes, we could have rushed, taken the most direct route through town and made it there in time. But would we have traded our meandering walk on the city walls? No. (OK, it was a good reminder for me too, since I tend to want to check EVERYTHING off of the list.)

That night we headed out to a seafood restaurant for dinner, and prepared for the next stage of our journey – a steam train ride and then over to the city of Whitby. Since this is long enough, I’ll save that for the next post!