The Haunted City - Day 3

We were most productive on day 3, because we'd planned the day well. We started at the Castle museum that I was most fascinated by. Here we found living rooms from different periods and regions, the oldest vaccuum cleaners, toilets from different times, detergents and soaps from different eras, baby clothes, coffins, wedding gowns, receipts to burial plots, a magnificent clock, and a street from the past with shops, shopkeepers, a school, and a prison. We were in another time.

Victorian sitting room

A living room from the 1950s

Interestingly, all of these rooms came with accompanying sounds. In the second room the radio was on, and on the shelf an old picture was displayed. In another room from the Yorkshire moors, you could hear the breeze outside. Inside, a rabbit hung from the ceiling, and the room was scattered with some basic wooden toys.

An old vaccuum cleaner

Two old toilets

An old washing machine

A funeral (the family is visible behind)

Moi standing beside a horse carriage in the model of a Victorian street

After the museum, we ran towards the river Ouse, where we took a boat ride. While on this trip, we were given the history of the places we passed. We also passed a rowing club, where a lot of excited youngsters were competing against eachother.

After this trip, we were off to find the York Brewery. Thanks to our York pass, we were getting a tour of the brewery, but the incentive was the free beer. We crossed Dame Judi Dench walk, and followed the signs leading to the brewery.

However, as we were too early, we decided to check out the Nicklegate Bar museum first. A place that has witnessed numerous crimes, it is most well known for displaying the skulls of people who were executed. Though they aren't real now, i thought it was morbid. However i was fascinated by the wooden stairs and the museum keeper. I asked him if he'd seen any of the ghosts that supposedly haunt the museum today. A chatty old man, he explained the ghosts were responsible for his white hair. On a serious note, he added that he often sensed Sarah (a girl walking around with a key)'s presence. He even told us about a visitor who said he smelt cooking on the first floor. Incidentally it was there that a woman poisoned the food she was cooking before killing a group. He admitted to having heard footsteps from time to time, before asking me if i'd had any ghost sightings. When I said "no", he proceeded to tell me about a house he nearly bought, in which his daughter saw the man who'd killed himself in the house. Spooky!

By the time this tour was over, the brewery was open. We got a beer each before the tour, and another one of our choice at the end of it. I'm not too fond of beer, so while I made pretenses of drinking the beer, Ro finished up mine as well. He is now a fan of the Yorkshire Terrier. The tour of the brewery was boring. I barely understood the bartender's accent, and he seemed disgruntled about having to explain the process to different groups over and over again. Ro was paying attention though, because I caught him asking questions. After the tour and all that beer, Ro was full and happy, but I still needed to get some lunch. So we went in search of food.

After lunch, our next destination was the Roman bath. Another haunted spot, we were welcomed to this site by a guide dressed as a Roman soldier. Escavated in 1930, a modern steel walkway suspended above the ancient remains, takes visitors through the Tepidarium (warm room), Caldarium (hot steam room), and the Frigidarium (cold lunge pool). What I found most interesting however, was the sponge attached to a stick that the romans used to clean their butts, and the armour that we could try on. I tried a pathetic imitation of the Romans. From here, we wandered into Barley Hall, a magnificent medieval town house. Here we stepped back in time to the late 1480s, to discover what life was like in the busy household of Lord Mayor of York and Goldsmith, Alderman William Snawsell. Much of the restoration process is still ongoing in this house, but we did wander through the house, and see some beautiful tapestries.

Then we went to our last destination, the Treasurer's house. Named after the treasurer of York Minster, this magnificent house nestled behind the Minister came as a huge surprise. I didn't expect such grandeur and magnificence. Home to business man Frank Green, who lived in the house with his staff, the contents of the house have been displayed as they were during Green's time. One of the first houses acquired by the National trust, it was also one of the first few houses to have electricity. The house that once housed Prince Edward and his wife during a holiday, is proof of how wealthy green was. He was also a man who was immensely interested in decorating his house. The color schemes, the curtains, the designs on the furniture, and the furniture itself were all careful chosen by him. When the house was handed over to the National Trust, he asked that nothing be moved, and threatened to haunt the house later if it was. Of all the houses i'd been to, this was the most grand, and I was in awe, as I walked up the wooden staircase into the different rooms that now displayed huge beds with exquisite curtains covering them. The audio guide gave us information on each room. However, there was a guide in every room, so we could ask them any questions about the house or Frank Green, the loner who lived in the house with his staff, a parrot, and a dog. These guides breathed life into him, making him a real presence wherever we went. We'd come in too late, so we weren't allowed into the ghost cellar, where there have been sightings. So we left disheartened that we hadn't witnessed any ghosts during our stay in York.

After all this history, we decided we needed to get back to the present. So Starbucks it was. We had our coffee and walked back to our bed&breakfast. The holiday was finally over, but what a holiday it had been. Undeniably one of the most interesting places I'd been to, York had proved to be a memorable holiday.