My Travel Adventures

On the last day of our trip to Yorkshire, we finally made a proper excursion of the city itself. We started in the Museum Gardens, which house a tiny observatory and yet another ruined abbey – that of Saint Mary from the eleventh century. We also visited York Minster, which is home to the Archbishop of York, also known Anglicanism’s top dog number three following the monarch and the Archbishop of Canterbury. Although it boasts of having the largest expanse of medieval stained glass in the world (I’m not sure how this compares to Gloucester Cathedral’s similar claim), I would say its most fascinating feature is the Doom Stone. Located in the cathedral’s crypt, it depicts sinners inside a boiling cauldron as well as demonic-looking figures.

I had been intending to go to York for a while, but the distance (or rather, the bad state of British rail infrastructure) always posed an annoying obstacle to me. The connections are indirect, long, and expensive, taking up more energy, time, and finances than the visit itself. After overcoming my fear of driving on British roads, however, I unwittingly entered a whole world of new possibilities.