Looking back over our pictures from yesterday’s excursion I realised that Meg looks like she is freezing.  It was a misty, windy day.  Not terribly cold.  It was in the 50’s with a bit of a misty rain.  The train station near the National Railway Museum.  We had heard great things about it so we dashed in for a look.

When Joshua was very little we, and the grandparents, aunts, uncles, invested a small fortune in Thomas the Tank Engine and all of his accessories.  When Joshua was 2 he would wake up early each morning and go “work with his engines”.  All of the Thomas movies and shows we watched during those years make sooooo much more sense to me after visiting the National Railway Museum at York.  There is a large “round house” and “works”.  We saw trains from many different eras and even the train to Hogwarts from the Harry Potter movies.

Very impressive place and for the most part free.  They do request a 3 pound donation

This was a royal train which carried Queen Victoria.  Now after viewing the ornate interior I understand the “Victorian” era too.  Yeah me!  I am finally learning history.

We spent some time walking the “shambles” a quaint shopping area.

It is a very beautiful and has a shop for almost anything you could dream up.  In need of Medieval armour?  They have a shop for that.  That same shop can also sell you a medieval sword in case plundering villagers or fire breathing dragons show up in the night.  What is that you say?  You fly home next week?  No worries they will wrap it so it can travel as checked baggage and will meet all airline qualifications.

It had some curious shops to say the least. 🙂

This specialty shop below Rob likes.

We ventured over to the castle and the castle museum.  I believe this was my favorite part of our whirlwind half day trip.  The castle museum host a recreation of a Victorian Era Street.  You can walk along the cobbled path looking in houses, shops, schools.  If ever in York with children I would HIGHLY recommend the castle museum.  Good for adults too.  A fun way to brush up on your history.

I could have spent a whole day in there.

At one point I thought I was looking at Black Beauty pulling a cab straight from Anna Sewell’s book.  

The other side of the castle museum contains dungeons.  Meg was not fond of that.  A bit too creepy but history none the less.

We stepped out of the dungeons and back into 2013.  We thought about all that we had seen as we walked back to catch our train.

We boarded the train and found we had the whole car nearly to ourselves.

photo bomb by Meg

Traveling to York is very simple via the rail system.  I found York to be a friendly, clean, easy to navigate and history filled city.

I see more field trip Fridays here in the future.

– Beth