The Lendal Bridge

I was convinced that the day would not be a scorcher by any stretch of the imagination, and so I had several layers of clothing on. Most of the items were mine, but I did "borrow" some bits and pieces from Johnnie Boy! In fact, I did not feel the benefit of my multiple layers, despite the late summer sun, until well after the Chinese Buffet (adjacent to the York Bus Station and round the back of Aviva) sometime around14.30 hours. Excellent value for money at £17.00 in total with drinks and two courses each (as much as we could eat in an hour and a half). We parked up near the Mound, and were disappointed to find the our Mercedes driver's door had been badly dented by some arse (in a crap car) when we came to leave the town, around three hours later. Shan't be going back to York for some time.

In the interim , we "did" York Museum. Shame. The "Museum" has a collection of enviable pieces from antiquity, but the exhibition methodology is straight out of the 1970s. Where was the multimedia? What happened to a guidebook? Audio? There were several pamphlets (I do mean "several") at a £1 each, but none of what we wanted nor needed to know about. The whole building was poorly lit, with disparate displays poorly linked. Items in display cases lacked decent-sized descriptions. As I said, where were the multimedia units? I can only view a drawing of a medieval "palace" once before I get bored to the point of screaming, so what chance of younger people when confronted with yet another (excellent) crayon sketch of "what it might have been like". Not worth the £5 each to get inside. I dearly desired to pay another £2 or £3 just to get outside again in double quick time just as soon as I realised that the place was a maze in the style of museums of my youth. At least the gardens and ruins surrounding the venue were lovely and worth the free walk through.

Coffee was great in Starbucks! I would have loved to have said that we found a great little book-lined independent café near the Minster. This would have been untrue, despite looking for one such for almost 30 minutes. The Starbucks we found was small, ancient, welcoming, clean, and within a stone's throw of the Minster - just off Minstergate - opposite "Shared Earth". Super for people watching through the great big bow windows at street level.