York

York, York, York...so good they named it once.   Not quite sure why I wrote that but in seemed a good way to start.  Anyway, I spent the day in York and a mixed experience it was too.  For anyone who has never been to York it is a really strange place.  It is a small provincial town with a huge Minster in the middle.   Beyond the city walls there are the usual urban sprawl but within the walls it a very cramped a claustrophobic place.

The reason for the visit was to take in the York coeliac food fair.   This was a bizarre experience.  There was a huge scrum of people trying to get free samples.   I have to say that most of the food was excellent and the producers seemed to be mainly local to Yorkshire.   You can go overboard at these place and many people appeared to be doing just that.  They were coming away with bags bulging with produce.   

By the time we had got to the food fair we felt quite hungry.  However, by the time we had left that hunger had subsided.   But there still was the problem was where to eat?   After much frustrating searching we found a wonderful christian charity restaurant.  It was fancy and I felt like I was back at school queuing for the food.   However, the food was excellent and the service first rate.  It was situated in one of the many churches right in the centre of York.  Compared to the usual corporate/chain feeding places you get in most town/city centre this was a refreshing change.  Well worth another visit.

So why mixed experience? Well the Minster was stunning as ever and the streets were packed.  However, the real low point of the day was the National Railways Museum.   Perhaps I was feeling tired but the place seemed so boring.   This was captured by the 3:30pm demonstration of the huge locomotive turntable in the centre of the museum.   Now I couldn't understand what would be so exciting about this so I didn't know what to expect.   My underwhelming sense of dread was not disappointed.   After about a 10 minute talk from one of the staff, which no one could hear,  they started the demonstration.   Guess what turntables go round.  That was it the turntable went round once.   I felt my life draining away.

The offending turntable

The one and only reason why anyone should go to museum would be to view the outstanding exhibition about the Indian railway system called 'India on the Move'.  This comprised of a series of portraits of the people who live on, under next to the railway and the numerous people who work on the railway.   This really gave me a sense of the magic of the human spirit.  Here was a series of people whose whole life revolved around the railway.   They sold/hawked all manner of things.  The employees also seemed to have a huge sense of pride in what they were doing.   This is a well worth the visit even if the rest of the museum will live you cold.

After the Railway museum we walked back into York and guess what - it rained.   To be fair this is what the weather forecast had predicted so no real complaints there.  I do love making photographs in the rain everything gets a rich colour do to the wet.   Had a great time getting some street candid shots.  Not sure my wife was too happy about this - still it did give her time to look around the shops.

We eventually made our way home on the train.   Whilst this seemed to dawdled across Yorkshire until it got to Sheffield where it remembered it was an express where upon we rattled along at reasonable speed.   This was a York special and so it stopped at numerous small stations.

So overall a good day, I just wish the National Railway museum could put some life into their exhibitions.