Sunday 12 June 2011

When in Eboracum

Today dawned sunny and warm but soon degenerated to drizzle followed by deluge. We considered going to the cinema but I decided to come over to York instead as one of Britain's finest cities is on our doorstop.

The first stop was chain restaurant, but nonetheless enjoyable, tapas in La Tasca. We have been a few times and it's always a meal that we enjoy, especially as it gives my son the chance to eat meat which, with a vegi Mum, is sometimes not available at home. The spread was magnificent.







However, our favourite part might have been sharing churros, marshmallow, strawberries and molten chocolate for dessert:






Afterwards I did a bit of shopping (with my son making sad faces throughout) and I ended up doing one of those self-justification things when I bought a new rain coat for £50 which I can ill afford. The justification was that originally it was £119 and therefore such an amazing bargain that it couldn't be passed up. And that it was raining and I was a mite soggy. And it's beautiful.

Our ultimate destination was the fabulous Yorkshire Museum which we visited a few months back but didn't complete. It's great for children and has a brilliant dinosaur exhibition and lots of Roman artefacts. It also houses the famous Jorvik helmet



The craftsmanship is beautiful and it's survival as a complete object is miraculous. My favourite fact is that it was not found in a careful archaeological dig but was found dangling from the prongs of a JCB scooping out the foundations of a shopping centre.

On the way home there was an appalling traffic jam on the A64 so we went cross-country. This involved travelling over the top of Towton Moor, scene of the bloodiest battle on British soil on Palm Sunday, 1461. It's an exposed and desolate place and in rain so hard that Noah would have struggled to navigate through it we weren't stopping. However, expect a blog on the site and the memorial church in Saxton very soon.

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