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York, my old friend

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 We've arrived at York. After a tasty, albeit large, breakfast at Art Cafe (across from the Lebanese restaurant we went to last night), we returned to the accommodation and set off for the train ride, almost four hours, to York. 


Here's our view:


After we arrived at the new accommodation and unpacked we set off to get lost in York's Shambles. York feels a lot more comfortable than Oxford. I don't really think the Oxford place was that much further from "things" than our place is to "things" here in York, but it feels like we are less on the periphery and we are much more comfortable here. For me personally, and this might be a bit TMI, but I think I felt a mixture of anemoia and nostalgia for my time at Western. 

York is fun though. The first shop we found was a Harry Potter themed shop with everything from scented candles, to robes and expensive stylized wands. We then stumbled across a shop that served alcoholic (and non) Harry Potter themed drinks called The Potions Cauldron. Tommy had Snakes and Ladders and Bob and Libby had a Drunken Wizard1. 


We made our way to the York Minster where we were presented with all its majesty. It really is a beautiful building--even with the scaffolding that marks it's southern side. Old stone buildings always need maintenance and ancient buildings like York Minster are no different. What was fun to see was freshly carved stone decorations on ground level ready to adorn the spires and other pinnacles of the minster. There's even a "Scaffolding tour", but the next one isn't until Monday at which point we'll be in Edinburgh. 






After taking a turn around the minster we headed to dinner and went to a spot on the river Ouse called Slug and Lettuce. The restaurant was and not packed, but we were used to the latter as it is Europe and we don't know how to eat late yet. Tommy had "chili beef and rice with nachos" which amounted to rice and somewhat sweet flavored chili, a pile of tortilla chips, with sour cream and "salsa" (which tasted closer to chutney than what we at home consider salsa). It's unclear whether they forgot the cheese or whether "nachos" is a confused interpretation on the English's part. Libby had a giant uninspired fish and chips, and Bob had his first Tikka Masala. He liked what he got but we weren't told upon ordering they were our of naan which was annoying. They brought out a baguette type bread instead which was also leavened bread I guess.... Libby isn't bothering to post pictures of dinner, it wasn't worth it. She was taken in by the fun and unusual name "Slug and Lettuce" but she won't let that happen again.

A bit of an aside, but something I wanted to mention. In Bellingham Zeeks has gone to (or is trying to) a system whereby you pay order and pay for your food and drinks over their app. The idea is you go to the app, throw what you want into the cart, give the site your table location, and order. Then when it's ready the food comes to you. Libby and I experienced this with a few friends and were not fans of the system as it seemed inefficient, and like away to reduce staffing (and therefore jobs). We tried to use a coupon and it didn't work and ended up having to have a waitstaff (who seemed to be non-to-pleased about the system) help us anyway. Anyway, this, and contactless/tap payment is literally everywhere. Just tap your card on the POS system.

Want to buy something from a shop? Contactless. 

Want to buy something from a man trundling down the isle of a train with snacks? Contactless. 

Want to give some money to a busker for their CD? Contactless 

Want to donate to a church you wandered into? THERE ARE CONTACTLESS KIOSKS THERE TOO! 

I kid you not. Going east is like going into the future. The last time Libby and I were here there were mobile POS systems at every restaurant. It was great. I've seen like....three or four in Bellingham since then, and they have yet again leapfrogged us. The only place I see folks pay via contactless is Haggen, and breweries/Clover POS. 

/rant

PROOF




Tomorrow we go to the National Railway Museum and Jorvik! 


1Snakes and Ladders

  • Venom of Snake
  • Drops of Orange
  • Poison of Whisky
Drunken Wizard
  • Gin
  • Tears of Wizard
  • Blackberry flavors
  • Berry Garnish (blueberries in this case)

 




Comments

  1. AnonymousMay 19, 2022 at 10:48 AM

    Too bad anemoia isn’t a 5 letter word…

    ReplyDelete

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