gargoyles

This weekend I journeyed up to Pickering, with a quick stopover in York. It has been an interesting experience re-tracing some of the trails that my family travelled on ten years ago in 2000 when we spent a month in England. I was 13 at the time, old enough to remember, yet still young enough to forget. So many things are forgotten! I have vague memories of that month in England, where we visited so many friends, family, friends of friends, relatives of friends... Most of these memories are all blurred together where I am unable to distinguish between them. I can remember some places, but I may not remember where it actually was, who I was with, what we were doing there at the time.

York is one of the places that I do actually remember!! I remember the narrow cobbled streets, the wall around the city and the big cathedral (York Minster). I particularly remember the Minster being completely covered (inside and out) with scaffolding. As you can see from the pictures, that is all gone now!

I decided to go inside and climb up the tower -all 275 narrow winding steps. From the top of the Minster I got quite a nice view and was able to check out some of the gargoyles. They are pretty cool critters. I don't know why but I like gargoyles!!

I like his cheeky grin!

I ended up getting a waterproof jacket while wandering around the streets of York. It's only taken me 4 months!! Good thing too, as probably about an hour later after leaving the Minster it started to rain and didn't stop. My feet were pretty wet but at least my upper body was dry. I got a bit lost on my way out of the city! I'd parked outside at one of the Park-and- Ride carparks (brilliant invention), but York has about 7 different routes of this and I kept finding the bus-stop for the wrong one!! Eventually I did find the white one, only to wait for about 20 minutes. But I made it back to my car safe and sound and then drove up to Pickering.

It was great catching up with the Cowards - the parents of Bryan and Diane (Wilson) who my parents are going to be working with next year back in Zambia. We know them from our Zambia days, but the last time I saw them was ten years ago when in England. I went to church with them this morning as well. It's funny the things you do remember. Of Pickering, I remember the view of the Cowards backyard, the front of the church and the inside of the church. That's probably about it!