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| Last week the girls were off school for half term so we ventured up to Yorkshire. I rented us a lovely cottage in a beautiful little village called Holmfirth, where all the houses were built of stone and the rolling green fields full of sheep were sectioned off with low stone walls. It reminded us a lot of Scotland. Our cottage had acres of woodland and gardens. Above, is a picture from our cottage window out to the pond in the back. |
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| Even in the winter, it was beautiful... |
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| The girls loved exploring the gardens and woodland. |
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| A view of our cottage through the arch in the garden. |
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| Another view of our cottage from the pond looking up. |
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| A bridge down in the woods |
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| Cool photo Charles took |
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| One of the days we were in Yorkshire, we visited the city of York. This is one of the main gates into the city. |
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| We met up with some friends of ours who used to live in St. Albans but have since moved to Huddersfield (not far from York). Here are all the kids munching down on their pasties. |
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What is the Jorvik Viking Festival?
The Jorvik Viking Festival is a way for the city of York to celebrate and remember its unique history and heritage...
And how the Vikings made this Saxon city their permanent home.
We have lots of Viking history in York...
The best place to see this is at the Jorvik Viking Centre in Coppergate.
They organise the Viking Festival in York, and host many events.
'Jorvik' was the name the Vikings gave York when they settled here.
In
Viking times, the people of York would have celebrated 'Jolablot' in
February - to welcome Spring and celebrate the end of the winter.
This is the biggest Viking Festival in the whole of Europe - and sees more than 40,000 visitors each year.
- See more at: http://www.yorkshire-east-coast-unofficial-guide.com/jorvik-viking-festival.html#sthash.PIhhlyBh.dpuf
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After finishing off our pasties, we headed toward the huge cathedral in the middle of York but on our way, we ran into a bunch of Viking warriors. Apparently, this was the Jorvik Viking Festival weekend in York. Perfect timing! The festival is to celebrate and remember how the Vikings made this Saxon city their permanent home. The Vikings actually named the city of York - "Jorvik" when they settled there. In Viking times, the Vikings would have celebrated "Jolablot" in February - to welcome spring and celebrate the end of winter. This is the biggest Viking festival in the whole of Europe. These warriors just kept coming and coming. There must have been a couple hundred re-en actors.They were headed off to re-enact battle with the Saxons since the Saxons were already living here when the Vikings decided to "make the city their home."
In
Viking times, the people of York would have celebrated 'Jolablot' in
February - to welcome Spring and celebrate the end of the winter. - See
more at:
http://www.yorkshire-east-coast-unofficial-guide.com/jorvik-viking-festival.html#sthash.PIhhlyBh.dpuf
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| I was video recording the parade of warriors and several of them would yell into my camera. It was very cool but I felt Alex flinch every time since she was holding on to my leg. (See next post for the video of the warriors.) |
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| The Queen even decided to make an appearance...The girls were excited to see her... |
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| York Minster is a cathedral in York, and is one of the largest of its kind in Northern Europe. The minster is the seat of the Archbishop of York, the second-highest office of the Church of England. The oldest part of the church goes back to 1338. There was a stain glass window in there that was absolutely massive that they are repairing. It cost 25,000 pounds and 600 hours to fix one of the small sections that make up the window. My friend said they have been working on it for as long as she can remember. (She grew up in this area.) |
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| Here is a better picture. The building is so big, it is nearly impossible to photograph the whole thing... |
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| We also saw the Guy Fawkes Inn which stands next to York Minster and was the birthplace of the notorious plotter, Guy Fawkes! Woo hoo! |
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| Next up, we visited the famous, Shambles which is an old street in York with overhanging timber-framed buildings, some dating back as far as the fourteenth century. Can you see how close they come together in the street? So cool! |
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| There were lots of lovely chocolate and fudge shops. We stopped in and watched them make fudge. It smelled so lovely. Of course we had to sample some... |
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| After watching a beard competition at the Viking Festival. We walked through some streets and found set on a tall mound in the heart of Old York, this imposing tower. It is
almost all that remains of York Castle, which was originally built by
William the Conqueror. It is called "Clifford's Tower." We were all too tired to go up into it though. |
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| On the way back to the car park, we walked on the famous wall of York. The English city of York has, since Roman times, been defended by walls of one form or another. To this day, substantial portions of the walls
remain, and York has more miles of intact wall than any other city in
England. They say it takes two hours to walk the whole thing. We were so exhausted we only walked a tiny portion. |
The following day, we visited Castle Hill and Victoria Tower. In 1897, Queen Victoria had reigned over the British Empire
for sixty years, longer than any other monarch. A permanent memorial of
this event was built in the form of a tower perched on the hill
overlooking the town of Huddersfield. The wind was so powerful up on the hill. At one point, Abby was crying because she was being blown away from me and couldn't seem to walk in the direction she wanted to. She finally made it to me just as her hat blew off her head. Charles went running after it. It flew down into the large ditch and we thought it was gone. Abby started crying hysterically just as Charles re-emerged with the hat. Seconds later, Sammy's hat went flying and Charles started chasing it as well. It also flew down into the goalie or ditch and we thought it was a "goner." However, Charles emerged victorious once again. It was pretty funny to watch Charles running after all these hats. Wisely, he kept all hats in his coat until we got back to the car. The wind was amazingly powerful. Probably the most powerful wind I have ever experienced. There were times when it was literally moving you. The girls decided to hang on to Charles since he looked like the most solid person around and seem to be a good anchor...ha ha! Alex went to nursery school when we got back and the first thing she told all of her teachers was about the wind blowing hats all over and Daddy running to "collect" them all.
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| It was quite cold on the hill too and Charles did not have a hat (a good thing since he probably would have had to run after it too) so he came up with this creative alternative to keep his little (I should say, big) head warm... |
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The view from Castle Hill. Unfortunately, it was a cloudy day so our views weren't the best. Overall, we had such a lovely time in Yorkshire. We had such lovely Indian food too. This area is has some of the best Indian food in England. I would love to come back and do more of the Peak District someday. There is so much to see. Alex misses our "new cottage" there and was very disappointed to come back to our "old house." Poor child, no one suffers like her...
(Below is the video of the Saxon/Viking warriors on their way to battle, check it out...) |
