roverandom | Apr. 24th, 2006

17 April:

Went to York today. Wow. I've just done a lot of walking this trip. IT's good for me; I've probably lost about 5 lbs (I hope), but then I definitely gained some by eating the traditional English breakfast at this cafe called Bailey's. It was facing the wall that the Anglo Saxons built to try to keep out the Vikings (Figure A and B). That definitely did not work.
A

It's cool becasue there are some parts of the wall that are built over Roman fortifications, dated back to about 300 AD! We walked along part of the wall (Figure A and B above and C below) and there's just nothing like that experience in the US.
C

But then I almost feel that Britain's history is so old, and so recked with turmoil and disgrace (maybe not as much as other places, but still...) that I think the land is very weary of it. I wonder if the buildings are more reminders of that weary past than of something to ogle at. I ogle anyway, because it's so different. York Minister (Figures D, E, and F) was really cool. Very impressive. The ceilings were so high my eyes couldn't focus on the top -- the ceiling seemed to go on forever. Now there's a cathedral for you.
D

Also, the pipe organ was amazing and we got to sing a hymn to it (because they were having a communion service). I am not really big on high church as my main mode of worship, but there definitely is a place for rituals in Christian life, and the Catholic and Anglican churches do a good job of having rituals that have been the same for awhile. Saw also this guy/street performer who was singing with his dog (the dog was howling). It's cool too how the Starbucks' here are in really old buildings and are two stories. The US needs to have some two story coffee shops. That would rock.

19 April:

Yesterday was really fun: we got to see a cute English village with the old Georgian style brick buildings. Haworth is its name, and it was the home town of the Bronte sisters. Their house is now a museum, and the whole little town is centered around the fame they garnered (for example, we ate in the Villette cafe and bakery; I had my first fish and chips since I had been in England -- they didn't taste too different from American fish and chips, but they were still good). The Parsonage where Mr. Bronte preached at looked like it was right out of a Bronte or Dickens novel -- the courtyard/grounds were literally littered with old stone graves (Figures 1,2,and 3)
1

But unlike the ones in Leeds or York, there were no modern stores or restaurants aroudn them. I think that was one of the most impressionable things about England to me: just how much the old is set in contrast with the new and emerging. It's so strange. There's this one old Neo-Gothic church next to the Parkinson building (I think) in Leeds that is a nightclub. I asked if it was a goth nightclub, but apparently it's just a regular one. So weird. In Haworth, we walked along the footpath in the fields and saw the edge of the moors (figures 4 and 5) which had some smallish shrubbery on them. For some reason I thought the Moors were rock. Don't ask me why.
4

There were sheep and two horses in the fields and the horses were very friendly. I wonder what breed they were; they had really thick coats (figures 6, 7, and 8).
6

Also wandered around the small town: the streets were cobblestone! I almost fell down from walking on them, though. England seems to be the prime place for used books -- we went into a lot of bookstores with both old and new books, but a lot of them were overpriced. The best used bookstore was in York, though I didn't get anything because I have little room in which to pack it. I did get two framed old advertisement/postcards for Haleigh (dang, now she knows what it is haha). I think they'd go well with her London sign in her bathroom. Oh, and to end this entry, I will post a picture of me sitting on the stone wall because I wanted to sit on it (it was very uncomfortable), and also will post pictures of the awesome steam train ride that we went on in order to get to Haworth: