Bartimaeus

Having had a lack of success at two pumpouts, we were pleased to be told that the York marina had a pump out and it was cheaper than the CRT one, and that told to us by the CRT employee. It wasn’t actually as far as York and it was outside the marina so no awkward manoeuvre to do, but we did need a token, which we could purchase from the marina office. I was directed to the office by a York marina employee to get there via the restaurant entrance. The restaurant was very shiny and new looking with lots of glass and an outside terrace so it turned out it had back doors that looked every bit as grand and welcoming as many a front door, so in stead of a foyer and a sign to the office, I met restaurant staff who had no idea what pumpout meant, and I really didn’t want to keep repeating it in case the diners knew all  too well.

Anyway all was achieved swiftly and easily and Bryn was prepared to try helping out, which I hadn’t expected. Shane declared that the gauge suggested it had done a more efficient job than ever before – York Marina had proved to be  twice as good, though not quite in York at all.

We headed onwards to York itself. I heard from Lingalonga, who had pressed ahead of us and were not lingering long in York, but pressing on beyond, that they had seen some moorings available. We wanted to stop in York as, in the absence of locks, we hoped the tourist city would provide Bryn with entertainment. He often wants to stay in Edinburgh, but this very week Nye was away, having been invited to a wedding in the state of New York, so we were getting photos from him of Niagara falls and a ship museum, while we were on the river Aire. And as I was taking photos of grumpy tups, he had been surprised by seeing deer at a petrol station.

Now Nye and David were in New York City and we were heading to old original York City. Shane and I have been before but decades ago, but it was a new experience for Bryn and some things would be new for us too. Certainly we hadn’t seen ice cream boats when we had been in York before, but you couldn’t miss them entering on the river.

We had been told the moorings were after the Lendal bridge. I wasn’t sure which was the Lendal bridge. Some moorings looked very inaccessible, being very high walled, and disembarking would be up a ladder. They were also beside bars so possibly noisy. We moved on under the next bridge. 

The mooring was easy and we found we were beside a York Museum gardens so had a stroll around in the evening to orient ourselves and a search for things to do to see what would appeal. Shane had a video chat the next day in the afternoon so we went weren’t going to do his favourite thing at that time. We enjoyed watching a bar boat going along the river. It then moored between us and the next bridge.

In the morning Shane and Bryn went to the largest railway museum in Britain, which was not far away at all and then we reconvened to find lunch. I felt I had to try the Yorkshire rarebit which did not disappoint. Shane returned to video chat and Bryn and I went to see The Shambles and Shambles market. Bryn liked the smells in the market.

While the Shambles ought to look much the same as decades ago it had clearly changed character post Harry Potter filming as shops called Alchemist or Potion Factory were probably not there before and the complete Harry Potter themed shops were definitely new to me.

We both thought Nye would have liked the magical and potion theme of the place. We then moved on to another place he would have liked that Bryn fancied, somewhere that did chocolate experiences. On our way to it we found that it was near Jorvik. Shane and I had been there but I had read that it had been updated a bit since then so it might be a New Jorvik for us too. Shane hadn’t sound enthusiastic about revisiting though so when we found that there were spaces in the next intake we just decided to go. Bryn scanned a QR code and made a booking. We joined the short queue. We were both slightly anxious that our chief navigator was not with us and both our phones were very low in battery. A lady in front of us turned round and handed us her paper map saying she had been here a couple of days and was going home the next day so didn’t need it. We were both delighted by this entirely unsolicited help. It was a very clear map with everything we needed marked on it.

Shane had remembered the seats going backwards through the village but they were now going forwards. There were animatronics that I didn’t remember last time. The smell was still bad though. Some of it looked familiar but I hadn’t remembered the weaving and wool dying, perhaps I wasn’t such a yarn geek then and had just forgotten it.

The museum had a skeleton I remembered. Videos of Viking music was new. Bryn liked the massive pot. Patterns made by thumb prints were interesting and I hadn’t recalled the sock. It isn’t knitting though, but nalbinding which uses a large single needle. I might try giving that a go, but I wouldn’t choose a sock as the resulting material is not very stretchy, but better for round things like a hat or sock, a very portable craft.

Our next place to call on was nearby and smelt much nicer. Bryn had noticed that York was famous for chocolate so we headed to the York Cocoa Works. We got information about the times of sessions and went to their cafe. Bryn had a hot chocolate and I had a chocolate nib tea. This had the extraordinary mixed sensation of smelling like a rich creamy dessert, but being light and refreshing as a drink. It wouldn’t put me off my dinner. 

Dinner turned out to be at a multi national eating experience food hall so we could pick any nationality we liked. We all chose Italian anyway but from different stalls. Pizza con fungi for Shane; arancini for me; parmesan chips and deep-fried mini calzone for Bryn. (We found out later Nye had chosen a pizza too that day in New York, it turned out). I was old fashioned and went to stalls and ordered food and drinks while Bryn was using a qr code system again. I need to get with it! 

The next day was forecast to be sunnier so we had got the biggest museum visits out of the way but had just as full a day with a walk in the  morning in the nearby gardens made slightly longer by stopping to see an owl display that was not Harry Potter related at all, before heading off round the city walls too.

Bryn had booked a chocolate tasting experience for him and me in the afternoon and I had time to go to Duttons for Buttons on the way and get buttons for the cardigan I am knitting. We both enjoyed the visit to the York Cocoa Works with explanations of the process of chocolate making and tastes of different chocolates for us to guess the cocoa percentage and compared chocolate made from cocoa beans from different countries.

On a whim we went to the Van Gogh experience, which was relaxing. on the way back and found one of the two castle mounds hidden round a corner.

After eating aboard we had a last night walk and enjoyed a different atmosphere, finding the narrowest Snicket and lit up church towers.

This was Bryn’s last night with us and he travelled back to Norfolk  the next morning and Nye travelled back to Edinburgh the same day. The end of the new and old York holidays.