My travels for the last two years have been dominated by trains. I take joy in the fact that I can pretty much go “door-to-door” to destinations across Scotland, England, Wales, and indeed to those in Europe, and Asia. In principal, I could work out a route by rail from AUR to WTCP, in Singapore but perhaps that’s a journey for a future year. For the moment, it seemed appropriate to visit the National Railway Museum on the other side of the Ouse, so I made the 30 minute journey.
The museum is located in the former York North Locomotive Depot, essentially a large railway shed at one time used for loading, and off-loading freight. Now it is home to many impressive engines, and carriages. Highlights for me weee the “Eurostar” (a nice little salute to my holiday last year), as well as the “Shinkansen”, a more recent example of which I had travelled in when visiting Japan some years ago.
The north hall of the museum is like a giant antique shop, with items from all eras of rail transport. I surmised that many of these will have been obtained as a result of refurbishment, and decommissioning over the years. I was continually impressed by the work, and craft that at one time went into creating pieces that were functional, and pleasing to the eye.
I also enjoyed the “Flying Scotsman VR Experience”, where a virtual reality headset took me, and my fellow passengers on a trip from London King’s Cross to Edinburgh Waverley in the early days of this particularly iconic engine. I was amused to consider that not only would I be at the latter the following day, but the train in question also passes through my own home village on a semi-regular basis.
I am not a train expert, and I could tell that many of those attending the museum very much were. However, I enjoyed this place very much before taking my leave back to the centre of the city for some refreshment.
I chose to attend “Evensong” at York Minster. The comedy of this was not lost on me. Despite the fact that I was a regular church-goer as a child and young adult, I have almost never attended Evensong (or “Evensnog” as we used to disparagingly call it). However, the opportunity to see this magnificent place of worship at-work could not be passed over.
The congregation, all queued up were greeted by a jolly pastor called Tom who made his way down the line. We all snaked in to the Quire of the church for the service. I was sitting in a both with a closing door. The choir was the Bath Abbey Girls’ Choir, whose beautiful singing echoed right up to the vaulted ceiling. The elements of the service were very familiar, albeit with no hymn, or sermon in this case. I was very glad I attended, and realised that for me this is a really good way to attend church while on holiday, as I can have dinner after.
This was taken at “The Old White Swan”, which had become something of a local during my time here. I very much wanted to sample those of their pies, and I was not disappointed by the steak-and-ale one that arrived.
