Grand day out

We had a lovely day at the York Viking Festival yesterday.

We arrived in York at 10:30. The first thing we did was have tea, hot chocolate, a fat rascal (big scone), and an egg benedict at Betty's, a York institution. Jessamy and I shared these things of course. I can eat a lot, but not that much.


Then on to York Minster. We decided to fork over a lot of money to do the do everything tour, starting off with the free tour which was very informational, then saw the undercroft, treasury, and crypt.

And climbed the 275 steps to the top of the tower.
Then back into the Minster.
We bought yarn for my next project - socks for Jessamy - at York's LYS, Sheepish. Bought pork pies and a Turkish wrap from the continental market.

Then on to the Evening Battle: Light and Sound Spectacular where the entertainment included the amusing Horn Dancers (4 guys carrying elk horns, one guy with a bow, and another with a wooden deer head dancing and doing little formations). It would have been more exciting had the horns been on fire, but really this picture is of the firedancers who were pretty good.
The battle was entertaining, but strange. There was maybe 50 guys, dressed in chain mails and with wooden shields. Occasionally chaos ensued, chips of wood went flying, and it did seem at times like they were actually trying to hurt each other. But half of the time the sides were just staring at each other trying to figure out who to attack.


The show ended with dramatic and well timed fireworks set to Flight of the Valkyries.

Then it was back to Betty's, which was the only place we could find that served coffee after 7. I had a yummy Wensleydale soup, a very chocolaty hot chocolate (felt a bit sugar overdosed after drinking it) and cheesecake. Jessamy had a latte latino (the actual name) and a yummy ginger sponge cake.

We managed to hop on the train back home with less than 10 seconds to spare.