Trains and Boats and Planes - Boats

OK, I’m stretching things a little bit with the title but as the main visit of the day was to Jorvik, and the Vikings arrived by boat, I can justify it! 

Driving to the park and ride did mean the ‘van needed a bit more tidying and sorting but was justified by how much I got done. I can thoroughly recommend York’s bus service, with attendants at the main stops helping people and dispensing tickets, and certainly for me it worked out a lot cheaper and easier than driving in to the city. 

My ticket for Jorvik was timed for 10:40, I’d decided to locate the place when I first got there and then go for a wander but a convenient coffee and butty stall grabbed my attention. I was a bit concerned that the queue, when they opened at 10:00 was very long but in fact by 10:25 they’d cleared all the first two booked sessions so I was admitted 10 minutes early. Due to planned maintenance they were only accepting booked visitors which possibly helped. It was my first visit but I knew roughly what to expect and fortunately, post COVID, got the front seat of one of the capsules to myself - we’d visited their attraction in Oxford years ago where you travelled in a “Monk’s Bench” which was a lot less comfortable! 

You do get up close and personal with the displays, sometimes a little too close - the Viking sitting on the loo certainly didn’t look very happy at being on show! I’d heard that the smells could be a little too strong but I didn’t find them so, the fact I’m recovering from a cold may have helped there. Overall it was worth the visit and I’d recommend it. 

I decided to continue the museum theme and visit the York Castle one, I declined paying £11.50 to climb up to Clifford’s Tower, the original motte and bailey, although apparently the view from the roof deck is quite spectacular! 

The Castle Museum was the first in the world, they say, to feature exhibits displayed as shop frontages rather than in glass cases, and that part of the museum works well. Slightly less effective was the prison museum section which was basically just videos playing in several rooms. I did have coffee and, of course, carrot cake in the middle of going round so that kept me going. 

I returned to the bus stop via the Shambles and chanced upon The Last Drop Inn, a Black Sheep house. As I’m partial to their Best Bitter, and with the brewery in administration, I felt it would be churlish to not have a pint, just the one though as I still had to drive back to the caravan site. Having enjoyed that, and having just missed one bus, there was a few minutes wait to get back to the park and ride then to the site, but driving was definitely the right thing to do.