Tuesday, March 25, 2008

The Castle Museum

A city street
A popcorn stand
A really cool bike
A really cool carriage
An old fashioned school room
This cake is a copy of the cake that was done for someone's coronation, I think. But I can't remember who's coronation it was. Anyway, the cake is amazing.
A city street
Another street
It was fun to walk around the museum and see these replicated streets from the 1700s.
Articles from WWII
A tribute to Jane Austen
No, seriously, she's even mentioned on the placard along with Pride and prejudice. The military uniform is reminiscent of Lydia's "regimentals."
Another dress from that time period
Punch and Judy
The museum started a collection of artifacts from the 1960's. It started the day I went to the museum so I got some pictures of the displays. Dave, this bike's for you.
Megan, I made sure to get a picture of the clothing just for you.
Check out the TV! No flatscreen HD monitors then!
I'm grateful for modern appliances.
Check out the Kitchenaid. Cool. Actually, I don't think it was a Kitchenaid, but I don't remember which brand it was.
The museum did replicas of different jobs/shops people would have had back in the day.
Another profession
Still another profession
I liked this display about the Beatles. Fitting, don't you think?
Predecessors to modern handcuffs
The jail in the basement of the museum.
This is over the following jail cell. If you were condemned to die, you spent your last hours in here.
This is where the condemned would sit and contemplate the eternities.
This jail cell would hold one man. Barely.
The mock jail cell that was part of the mock city in the earlier pictures.

Merchant's Hall

One of the sites I visited in York was Merchant's Hall. This started as a religious and civic organization. It was an interesting stop to make.An outside view of Merchant's Hall
An inside view of Merchant's Hall
A room in Merchant's Hall
A high chair
A conference room
The chapel in Merchant's Hall
How cool are these sinks!! They are modern sinks in the bathrooms in Merchant's Hall.

Haworth

On Thursday Jan and I took a train trip to Keighley and then a bus to Haworth (pronounced Hayworth). Haworth is the village where the Bronte sisters grew up. (For those that might not know, the Bronte sisters wrote novels such as Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights.) I learned a lot and gained a newfound interest in reading the works of the Bronte sisters. I'd tried reading Wuthering Heights when I was younger and found it really hard to understand so I gave up but after my trip I decided to give them a second chance. I've been reading Jane Eyre and I absolutely love it!

The train we took to Keighley (pronounced Keethlee). I really miss the excellent public transportation. Our public transportation system sucks.
I took this picture because of the great British sign "to let" not "to rent." I love the subtle differences between American and British culture.
I couldn't resist. I was in England - home to Jane Austen - and so I had to take this photo to commemorate Pride and Prejudice.
Welcome to Keighley! This was our train stop.
A view of Haworth
A view of the countryside from Haworth.
Haworth. It's so beautiful there!

Proof that I really was in Haworth.
I loved this sign! Prams! How British! This sign was outside the cutest gift shop. They sold soaps in the shapes of desserts.
These flower boxes were hung along the wall. They made the city very pretty.
Someone was growing a garden outside their flat.
A view on the way to the moors - looking back at Haworth.
A house right out of Pride and Prejudice or North and South.
The parsonage where the Bronte sisters father was the clergyman.
Stained glass in the parsonage.
The baptismal font. They actually used to baptize babies by immersion. Nowadays they use the sprinkling method.
The cemetery that surrounds the parsonage. I learned that public cemeteries came about because eventually the church cemeteries were all filled up and so the cities started developing land into cemeteries because there are just some things we can't do without. And you can't leave Grandpa Joe lying on the street corner.
Another view of the parsonage. Not only was it a lovely building, it was a great place to get out of the wind and rain.
Animals and people seem to live side by side as neighbors. These pictures happen to have been taken out in the country but I saw plenty of horses and sheep in the city, too.
Sheep were everywhere. I mean everywhere. It started to seem unnatural if you didn't see some sheep grazing somewhere.
This little lamb was SO cute! It followed it's mother around. I wanted to bring it home - in a theoretical sense.
More proof I was really there. This gate was cool. You pushed it forward and then walked around it and then pushed it backward to get out. I'd never seen a gate like it before.
The path we took to get to the moors.
Jan on the moors.
The moors.
The moors.
It was beautiful but also very cold and windy out on the moors.
There were hikes to take and sites to visit out on the moors but trying to walk through the wind was too much so we opted to just get some pictures and then head back into town for some hot chocolate.