Fun Times in York

We apologize for the long time in between the blogs. We were able to get internet access at Hadrian's Wall, but they had many firewalls which didn't allow us to get to the blogging website. Emily and I will try to catch you up on our adventures of the past couple days. Again, we are very sorry it has taken so long.
4-30-09
We ate breakfast early and then rode our own private bus to Mount Grace Priory. It was a Carthusian Abbey where each monk who lived there had their own private quarters complete with a bedroom, study, living room, garden and corridor. At Mount Grace, we even saw early examples of a drainage system complete with latrines. Exciting! Most of the priory was in ruins, but it was our first example of a Carthusian Abbey.
Next we got back on the bus and went to Rievaulx Abbey. En route, we ate our packed lunch from the hostel. Once at Rievaulx Abbey, where Sarah gave us a wonderful tour of this quite well preserved Cistercian Abbey. There were many buildings still standing, most obviously and predominantly the chapel area.
Next we boarded the bus again and went to Helmsley castle. This castle sat high on a hill with a "moat" surrounding it and then another ditch to ward off intruders. Not very many of the buildings remained, but it was still a pretty neat site complete with an extensive garden. The main tower and west tower still remained along with the guest houses and gardens. Here though sadly, it started raining and became really windy, so we quickly left back to the bus.
Next we went to Pickering Castle, which I thought had the least amount of surviving material thus far. Only some of the outer wall along with one or two towers was left. It was still raining and becoming more windy, which made this castle even more dreary.
We then boarded the bus back to York where some of us went to a pub and other bought dinner at a local grocery store.
We then played some cards and completely packed up our bags because we would be moving out of York completely the next day.
5-1-09
We ate breakfast early at 7:30 and then finished our last minute packing and got ready to travel all day with our packs. We completely moved out of the York hostel and then walked along the river back to the railway station. We made it to the train station and took a train to Newcastle. Once in Newcastle, we got on the subway to get closer to the hostel. The people at the hostel were very kind and let us leave our packs at the hostel so we didn't have to travel all day with them. Then we made our way towards Durham where we visited Durham Cathedral and Cassady gave us a tour of this awesome building. Durham Cathedral sits atop a hill overlooking the city and a river. We also went into the basement of the cathedral where there were many artifacts of the Roman period. We walked back to the Metro station to Durham and took the Metro quite a ways to the coast and visited Tynemouth Priory. It was a Benedictine Abbey that was on the coast. Here it was very windy, rainy and cold, so we tried to make our way through quickly. There were alot of graves present at this Abbey and a wall surrounded the priory. Most of this abbey and castles were in ruins as well.
Then we took the metro back to Newcastle and walked around for a while to find food and eventually ate at a fast food chicken restaurant that turned out to be really good. We took the metro back to our hostel and played some cards again. Some of us met Irish folk at the hostel and were able to hang out with them a bit before bedtime. Again, we had to pack because we were leaving the next morning for Hadrian's wall.
--Stephanie