Robot Claw – Page 636 – “Life In The So-Called Space Age”

Yes, We Went To Scarborough, Fair

July 24, 2010

Yesterday we rode a choo-choo train to the (east coast) seaside resort of Scarborough. This left from the very impressive York train station:

Anyway, here’s a better shot of the choo-choo:

It is called the Princess Elizabeth, it was built in 1936 and the one hour trip to Scarborough was the most comfortable train trip I have ever been on! Jim agrees:

The train is owned and operated by enthusiasts on a half-volunteer basis, which means they need to raise money. One of their ways is very clever. They take two pretty girls, dress them in too-small schoolgirl outfits with see-through shirts, and let them walk through the train selling raffle tickets and souvenir pens. The fogeys eat it up!

Here’s an example of one of those fogeys 🙂

Let us end this entry now as a record of the trip *to* Scarborough, and dedicate a new one to the town itself…

York

July 24, 2010

York is an old, old city with ruins and ancient buildings everywhere. And I mean everywhere, as in smack bang in the middle of downtown.

The rightmost shot shows Minster, the ~1000 year old cathedral in the city that is famous worldwide. I climbed the tower, all 275 spiralling and narrow steps . It was tiring, but not difficult, and the view of the city from above was magnificent.

Minster is also famous for its stained-glass windows. Apparently it has more stained glass than any other church in England, including the largest stained-glass window in the world. I was, of course, too cheap to pay the 8 pound admission (especially since we’d already been to Salisbury catherdral) so I simply took a snap of the window that was visible from the entrance 🙂

We arrived here in York 2 days ago now. We’re actually leaving today. When we got here we started by visiting the National Railway Museum.

This is a place designed to appeal to the opposite of people who hate trains. A train-otaku’s paradise (if you will), three large halls contain oodles (and I mean that scientifically) of train ‘stuff’, from engines and cars (dozens upon dozens of them) to signage, advertising, uniforms – even some sample tracks. AW – I think you’d love it.

Here’s KLS’s lunch that day:

In the afternoon we arrived at our B&B which is easily the fanciest yet (4 star, no less). It is very close to the city center and only a few minutes walk to such sights as York Minster and the famous medieval shopping streets, such as Stonegate, which hasn’t changed much at all in over 120 years:

Oh, and in York for the first time we’ve seen these little fellows:

Avebury & Warwick

July 21, 2010

That’s me walking a path in Avebury. We had come here today to visit the stone circles that surround the (tiny) town. Here’s a portion of the stones:

And here are a couple of shots showing the scale:

Avebury is not as stunning (or famous) as Stonehenge, but it is different in that we can walk right up to the stones and touch them. There are many stones in and near the town and we only saw a small portion.

We then headed north to Warwick, to visit the famous castle.

This is a beautiful and well preserved castle which is now owned by the company behind Madame Tussaud’s and ran as a very commercialized tourist endeavour. Despite this, it actually manages to be an educational and extremely interesting experience with quite a few good attractions.

I particularly enjoyed the giant trebuchet (which fires a burning ball of ammo), the walk up onto the battlements and the scandalous exhibit based around the love affairs amongst the victorian nobility.

That’s me with a bear, and a ‘waxwork’ figure of ‘Edward The Caresser’. Lovely stuff. And here is a clock which was apparently once owned by Marie Antionette!

And to end todays post, a fancy sheep we met in a field in Avebury (they lived with the stones, you see…)