Snow in York

On Saturday 6th April the Gordon family packed up their belongings in London, said good-bye to the lovely nuns and the other visitors staying with them, and journeyed by rail to York.

This photo is taken in the dining room of the Sister in London. Elizabeth and Xavier are here with Sister Connie, a beautiful sister from Malta who has been in London for 10 years.

The train experience was again excellent. We took the underground from Victoria Station to Kings Cross Station where we saw two very interesting things: the first was the massive crowd going to see the Porsmouth V Arsenal match and the almightly police presence checking bags. The second was a very special platform at the station - Platform 9 3/4 - the platform that Harry Potter uses to travel to Hogwarts - anyone who is a Harry Potter fan will be aware of what I mean. After taking the obligatory photos at this spot we then journeyed to our train.

It is a very interesting experience travelling through the Underground, particularly with 4 children and 3 very heavy suitcases. When you travel down escalators (and they are very long escalators) this experience is more extreme. You do pray that the 4 year old you are holding hands with makes it to the end in one piece, especially when you arrive at the bottom of the escalator to hear the words - big drink spill, please mind your step. We did have some rather hairy experiences on the escalators, but came through thanks to a few prayers and alot of luck (and good management).

The train trip to York took about 3 hours and sitting in comfort, connecting to the interent and having the trolley come round and offer tea/coffee/drinks and food is a real luxury - and that was in economy. I believe that in first class you are treated even better - if that's possible!

We arrived in York and, taking a taxi (actually 2 as we don't fit in one) to our accommodation which we had booked via the internet, we were able to have a quick look around York. What a beautiful city it is. Another walled city like Chester, with the wall being again built by the Romans, it is a city full of history, beauty and dafodills.

We were met by the father of the man we booked the accommodation through and he was a lovely man by the name of Gerald. He showed us around and gave us a big of a low down on York. I think we will easily be able to fill a week here. The rest of the day was dedicated to rest and relaxation which was lovely.

Sunday morning we awoke to sunshine and chill. We found where the local church was, St Georges, and walked to 10.30am mass. It had a children's liturgy which was an added bonus. The service was beautiful and the children enjoyed (all except William that is) the children's liturgy. After mass we stopped and had a chat to a few of the locals: an hour later we were on our way. The people made us feel very welcome, offered us a cup of tea and biscuits, and went out of their way to tell us the good sights and the bad sights within the area. Both Scott and I realised the importance of making visitors feel welcome and will hopefully retain that thought when we go back to Mornington.

After going to the Visitor Information Centre we then found it to be 3.00 and thought some lunch was in order. On the advice of the locals we went to the Red Lion for lunch and oh, it was very yummy. 3 meals of roast beef / pork filled us all, and sitting in a pub that was over 400 years old and had great character made it even better.

We walked back to our accommodation and had a rest. You can't imagine our excitement when James came down stairs to us and told us he had a secret - Scott followed him upstairs, looked out the window - AND IT WAS SNOWING! You can only imagine how exciting this was for all of us. The children quickly got some coats and shoes on and ran outside. James exclaimed that 'it was the best day of his life'. What a comment!