Travel: York and the Jorvik Viking Festival

About a year ago, I took a short trip to the old English city of York, to try and seek out the Jorvik Viking Festival.  I was generally unsuccessful, but did experience enough to make the trip worthwhile.

The Viking Festival specifically runs around this time; the end of February, beginning of March.  You can expect to see re-enactments, with people dressed in traditional Viking or Saxon attire and staging mock fights and battles for your amusement.  This year, I had the good chance to see the Vikings duking it out in front of Clifford's Tower.  There are also a number of other events:  other demonstrations, goods for sale (such as furs, jewelry, pottery, and other interesting Norse-themed tidbits), activities for the kids, and more.  These fests will have schedules of events available, either in brochures throughout York, or on their official site.

Vikings besiege modern York!

If you aren't already aware, the city of York is an old old place.  It was originally settled by the Romans, who took to calling the place Eboracum; they built a good-sized fort to house some seven thousand soldiers, and a town eventually built up around it.  It was here that the Emperor Constantine was crowned the Emperor of Rome by the troops stationed there; he was the first and only Roman Emperor to be crowned outside of Rome.  York has also been subject to conquest by the Vikings, under the reign of Eric Bloodaxe.  The Viking name of Jorvik would eventually evolve into the current name of York.  In time, the Vikings were sacked by King Eadred, and York became a proper medieval English city.  To this day, ruins from the times of the Romans, the Viking, the Dark Ages, the Tudor Age, and more can be found throughout the city.

If it's history like this that interest you, there is a museum there that covers all these different eras, and more.  It does have a neat collection of artifacts, statues, bones, and plenty of information to offer.  It even has interactive stations for children to play with, and a theater to show a short film.  It's a modest-sized place, but still pretty fun to walk through.  The museum is surrounded by some interesting ruins.  In addition to that, there are other museums throughout the city:  my mom could probably tell you more about the quilting museum on the other end of town.

Medieval statues in the basement of the York museum.

One other interesting museum is the Rail Museum, which is free, but donations are appreciated.  This is a huge space with a bunch of old locomotives and train cars, and they're all pretty cool to look at.  You can expect plenty of old steam trains on display; you can't climb around inside them that much, but you can look through their windows and see their decorated cabins and the array of brass and copper instruments in the locomotives.  There are some really distinctive trains, such as the Rocket, which almost looks like an old-fashioned yellow car with a giant smoke stack and giant train wheels.  There's the queen's train on display, which looks very lavish.  There's a Japanese bullet-train, which you can walk around in, to experience the comfortable seating and high-tech TV displays (the place looked like an airplane cabin to me).  The museum also has a lot of cool old-looking signs, and there are some activities and sights for kids to enjoy.

One of the many locomotives at the York National Rail Museum.

The Rocket.

The biggest, most prominent, and probably the most beautiful attraction in the city will be the York Minster.  It's a massive cathedral in the middle of the city, with some of the most intricate and detailed stonework I've ever seen.  Its exterior is a thing of beauty as it is, with its towering spires, its impressive towers, and its many statues and edifices.  On one side of the street, you can find a statue of Constantine.  Inside, the place is cavernous, with vaulted ceilings reaching up for hundreds of feet, supported by giant pillars.  There are some very nice stained-glass windows along the walls, including the exquisite rose window on the southern side, and the Heart of Yorkshire near its main entrance.  The cathedral does offer church services and is open for all.  There is a tower section that you'll have to pay for to get in; it's a long and strenuous climb for hundreds of steps up a spiral staircase, but it does offer a very nice view of the surrounding city.  Buying a ticket can also be good for up to a full year, so you could revisit the tower repeatedly if you desire.

The York Minster.

The Rose Window at the York Minster.

Close to the Minster is the York Treasurer's House.  It is run by the National Trust, and is free for members.  The house is only open at certain days and times, but they do have tours, even on days when the house itself is closed.  The tours offer plenty of interesting information regarding the house's original owners, and the ominous ghost stories from the people who had lived and worked in the house.  The house was bought and refitted by a man (I forget his name...Mr. Greene, I think it was) who just wanted to show off, so he had the rooms refitted with lots of historical influences, albeit they were very mixed.  You can expect to see things, like a room with Roman columns and a medieval exterior wall in the main hall.  The place is probably most famous for the story about the guy working in the cellar, who suddenly saw an entire Roman legion coming out of the wall he was working on.  He reported seeing these ghostly soldiers sporting green tunics and round shields; such remarks were disregarded at the time, but it was later discovered that Romans did indeed have green tunics and round shields, giving the story some ominous credence.

The Treasurer's House.  Ghosts live here.

As far as ghost stories go, York is considered the most haunted city in England.  Places like the Treasurer's House, the Golden Fleece pub, and probably everywhere else, will have ghost stories and alleged sightings.  There are walking tours, mostly at night, where guides will take you around the city and tell you the stories.

Another major historic attraction will be Clifford's Tower, run by English Heritage (members can get in for free, everybody else may have to pay a small admission).  It's a small medieval keep on top of a tall, steep hill.  Inside the castle's grounds, there's just a small courtyard with some information plaques, but there are also stairs along the wall that offer some modest views of the cityscape.  It's not a terribly impressive place, but it looks very stoic and solid on the outside.  It's also a place of some interesting history (in addition to serving as a fortification, the place also fitted up to serve in the English Civil War, it served as a jail, and it was once the site of a mass suicide).

Clifford's Tower.

The rest of the time was spent walking around, checking out the shops, eating a little, and taking plenty of pictures.  It's not a big city; I was able to walk around most of it within a matter of hours.  Parts of the old medieval wall are intact all around the city, allowing citizens to walk along it for more elevated views.  These walls also feature some nice-looking gatehouses, some of which may contain more attractions.  Inside the city, the Shambles is one of the most distinctive-looking streets, with its incredibly narrow passages and its real-looking medieval storefronts.  Throughout the city, there are plenty of pubs, restaurants, eateries, stores, and shops to be found.  Inns and B&Bs offer some small but hospitable opportunities for extended stays within the city; I'm not sure if there are really any major hotels around (likely outside of the city).  We almost went into a chocolate place at one point, but refrained due to the price (and possibly the calories).  There are a ton of street performers to be found, all offering unique sights and sounds to accentuate the ambiance.  It is a very busy, bustling city, so you can expect to bump into lots of people as they crowd up the streets.  It will be especially crowded on nice days and weekends.  A market does open up sometimes on certain streets, offering more goods for sale, and also drawing in more crowds.  Also be aware that traffic can be horrendous all around the York area; I personally find it more agreeable to take the train into town, rather than having to contend with the dense traffic and struggle to find parking.

York is one of the biggest, oldest, and most distinctive English cities, especially in Yorkshire.  It is definitely worth visiting, for it offers a lot of attractions for all manner of travelers.  Just be aware that it is a rather small and dense place.

For more information, you can see my mother's post on York.