Upon arrival we were shown to our room, which is perfectly lovely and particularly spacious. Breakfasts here follow the same pattern of bacon and eggs. I've yet to be offered anything really different, so the risk of me having to purchase a muu-muu is ever increasing.
We spent our first full day in York wandering the city and exploring the National Rail Museum. It was particularly interesting to see the sorts of royal carriages that have been in use... they are soo luxurious!
We had been aware that one of the theatres was putting on a production of Wind in the Willows. Todd said he wanted to go, however I'd envisaged a children's event so wasn't really keen. In the end we decided to give it a try. All seemed perfectly normal until the production began. It was actually the WORST play I've ever seen... I was periodically closing my eyes and dozing off. It turned out to be some sort of adaptation for kids that didn't even follow the story properly. This continued for about 60 minutes until intermission where Todd and I decided we'd give the rest a miss. Of course, you can imagine Todd's view on the matter - classical theatre should not be tampered with etc (especially not by amateur playwrights and local guild players, rah rah).
We then proceeded to walk in the direction of our accomodation. As we were trundling along, commiserating over the $80 wasted on theatre tickets, we were just about to pass two others on the street. Totally unexpectedly, it was Cimon's parents! We exclaimed over the coincidence! Truly, even now, the total oddity of encountering the parents of my good friend from Adelaide, in York of all places is a little mind blowing.
As wonderful a coincidence as it was, it did give me a moment of pause. It was pure chance that we left the performance at the time we did, and even more so that we were walking down that particular street (as it turned out we were going in TOTALLY the wrong direction). How many other opportunities, moments, 'conincidences' are we missing? How many other chances for something unexpected or wonderful are passing us by as we look in the other direction? I bet some of this happens in moments where we're preoccupied. Worrying about something we can't change, or focusing so strongly internally, leaving ourselves blind to what's really truly around us. We later saw them both individually on another couple of occasions and again I was struck by the randomness of it all. Being a tourist in a foreign country, you're often drinking in the view. Is this an attitude / behaviour / mindset that is actually more important to have at home, but we just 'dont' have time for it?' Not sure...
On to sweeter things, York is home to many chocolatiers and also to a Nestle factory. The history of the sweet brown stuff in this town is long and very interesting. In scholarly pursuit of this historical information we decided to undertake a chocolate making course! We were told a little about the history of chocolate in York (it turns out that Fry's Turkish Delight as well as Nestle Kit Kats are made here!) and given some lessons in experiencing chocolate. It's about more than the taste, you see. The look, the feel and even the sound! (Dark chocolate has a lower cocoa butter content so snaps sharply when you break it. Milk chocolate is more muted when you break it due to it's heavier cocoa butter mass - think about snapping a block of butter).
Once we'd selected the type of chocolate we were using, we then tempered it, flavoured it and poured it into a mould. I had intended to decorate mine with flowers made out of smarties and white chocolate bits, however it basically ended up looking like a two year old had dumped a whole lot of coloured crap in my chocolate bar.
During our scholarly pursuit of information about chocolate (whilst shoving our gobs full of the stuff) I also found out that Kraft (who now owns Cadbury) are variously pairing some of their key product lines to include chocolate. This includes crackers, Pringles and if you can believe it; Marmite. Todd is now very worried that this is the beginning of Choco-mite or Vege-late or some other ridiculous combination of milk chocolate and Vegemite coming soon to a shelf near you.
Following this, I treated myself to my first ever cut-throat razor barber shave. The Turkish guy who performed the service for me was delightful (see what I did there?) and afterwards there were about five different lotions, sprays or aftershaves applied to my face! Very luxurious.
We then walked through the markets of Newgate in York city centre and wandered along one of York's famous town walls. These walls are ancient and have survivied largely intact for centuries, dating back to when York was a Roman stronghold. Whilst they don't encircle the whole town any more, they do for most of it and it's an imposing sight as you leave or enter the city proper.
We headed home for a quick nap, having spent most of the day on our feet, before indulging in a lovely Indian dinner. We had bought tickets to see an organ recital in the York Cathedral, however this was not to be. Whilst we left 30 mins for a journey our sat nav said would take 6 mins, parking in this is city is crazy (as is navigating the narrow cobblestoned streets). As such we were only 5 (NO exaggeration!) minutes late and by then the doors were tightly shut and our opportunity was missed.
Given this now totals around $120 of money wasted on useless theatre / recital tickets, York has lost some of it's initial charm. Todd was furious about the whole thing and hence why York is now dead to him. Lucky we are leaving tomorrow. He is now insisting that I tell you all, "this town is a dump."
Tomorrow we have an early start (breakfast at 8.30!) to then head to the Victorian Science Museum in Whitby - also home to some sort of Captain Cook museum. We then head over to Chester-Le-Street to take in Durham and possibly Newcastle.
No comments:
Post a Comment