This week we’ve pootled down the River Aire and along to the end of the Selby Canal. This stretch of the Aire is incredibly pretty and we really enjoyed the cruise.
Cows playing ‘follow my leader’ along the banks of the Aire
I don’t think I’ll ever get over my fascination with power stations. I love seeing them. Loads of choice in this neck of the woods!
We moored at Selby and are planning to head off on Sunday down the Ouse towards the River Derwent and the Pocklington Canal. In the meantime we found the temptation to take advantage of a ‘Northern Duo’ return fare to York (£10.50 for us both) too much to resist. I really love that city and could happily visit it any amount of times.
Our first stop was at the York Wheel. It was a beautiful day and the views were spectacular. Well worth the money even though I am a couple of months off getting my pensioner concession.
View of the Ouse and York Minster from the York Wheel
We did resist their souvenir photo pack – we’re perfectly capable of taking our own tacky photographs.
Our next stop was at St Olave’s Church which we hadn’t visited last year. I’m glad we went this time as it’s an absolute gem. The stained glass is beautiful and the ladies who were cleaning the church were happy to provide background information along with the wonderful smell of beeswax.
View of the well polished oak pews with the homely touch of one of the cleaning ladies’ cardies.
We then moved on to York Minster to take advantage of the tickets we bought last September which are valid for a year. As I mentioned in an earlier post the Great East Window of York Minster has been removed for restoration. On our last visit that end of the Cathedral had been screened off completely. Now they’ve erected an Orb under the site of the window where a selection of restored panels are displayed.
The Orb at York Minster
It was an absolute joy for me to be able to see these incredible pieces at such close quarters.
In this panel St John on the bottom right is being instructed by the Mighty Angel not to record what the Seven Thunders above have said. I reckon this must depict one of the earliest occurrences of censorship! Each restored panel is displayed so that you can examine it in detail.
Beside the panel is a picture taken before restoration with a description of the subject matter and notes on what has been done to restore it as closely as possible to its original state.
There are six panels in all and the central one changes each month. Shame we won’t be close enough to keep visiting as our admission tickets are valid until next September.
After a great lunch of bangers and mash at The Drop Inn which is allegedly on the site where York villains were hanged. On the recommendation of friends Sue and Greg, we ended the trip with a visit to York Dungeons. We really didn’t know what to expect but had a wonderful time. On this occasion we were tempted by the tacky souvenir photo and bought a fridge magnet. This is one shot we would never have managed to take ourselves!
Gordon was told to look scary and pulled off a passable Bond villain sardonic evil look. I descended straight into Carry On camp.
