York, in December

We caught an early morning train to York. York is a good place to visit because it the only place in England with an old castle, a Minster (Church of England Cathedral), and cloister. 

One of the interesting things I noticed about being so far North was how long sunrises and sunsets took.  It created some awesome lighting and beautiful sunsets. But, it was a little depressing how short the days were, and how long my noontime shadow was.

Mike trying to get 'The Shot'

York has a region that 'Diagon Alley' from Harry Potter was based on.  The street was very narrow and had lots of buildings that looked like they were minutes from falling over.  This is on our way to Diagon Alley:

York also has a specific type of tea associated with the town. We decided to evaluate the tea over my first (and likely only) English breakfast.  An English breakfast involves toast, blood-sausage, Ham ('bacon' if you speak British English), beans, and sunny side eggs. It was very filling, but nothing to write home (a blog) about.

Russell's fellow Marshals were very fun to travel with.  They had great senses of humor and were easy going with the Beaumont travel style (relatively unplanned).

From breakfast we headed to the Minster.  The congregation was hearing church, so we weren't allowed to immediately go inside.  As we walked around the Minster we took in the scenery and the massive scale of the building.

The Roman Empire of Constantine the Great extended to York, which is difficult to imagine.

The church was the brightest church (inside and out) I have ever seen.

Russell and I so you can get an idea of height. And see our famous 'pocket pose'

The Meta-Selfie.  The beginning of the end for Russell's photography. 

Still really enjoy the ceilings of these beautiful buildings.

The Church of England churches we visited in England really had a different feel from other churches I have visited.  The church decorations blend biblical imagery with more practical identification of historical politicians associated with the church.

The stained glass windows were incredible.

Dying is such a drag.

The church, like all old churches, has been renovated and expanded upon for centuries.  We went to the museum in the basement that talked about the structural history of the church.

We got one last look above ground before heading to see more sights:

Cliffords Tower, Castle of York:

It was hard to imagine how this tower was once part of a castle because of its small size and immediate proximity to a parking lot and modern buildings.  At best, the tower was eccentric- the grassy hill was very bizarre and its angle/shape was impressively uniform.  Russell's friend matched eccentricity with eccentricity and whipped out the old tobacco pipe:

We were in the middle of a 'cheap' spell and didn't actually go inside the keep.

We instead walked around and watched Russ take a few Meta-selfies.

Joking aside, the keep was interesting in terms of the uniformity of construction as well as the perceived amount of effort it must of required.  I did a little research on the internet and found two fun facts: 

1) the keep (and no longer existent castle) are from around 1060. 

2) the keep was used as a prison until 1929

After the keep, we went for a walk to see the ruins of the cloister.  It was in a park that was beautifully landscaped; we were very tired and spent a lot of time on a bench admiring the space around us.

We finished up the trip with some cask ale, chips, and burgers.  I would recommend York to anyone- it was easy to walk, friendly, quaint/British, and it had pretty sights.