Week 6- Eyam and York

Last week my students and I went to the plague village of Eyam.  This village quarantined itself in the 1640s to prevent the spread of plague to surrounding villages.  Like much of the UK -- the village is still much like it was over 300 years ago.  The bummer was the cold and rain the day we went. 

 

There is a great museum about Eyam and we all enjoyed that!! (pictured here)

 

We also went to Chatsworth the same day.  It is a beautiful castle/manor where the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire reside (and the family has for about 500 years or so).

Absolutely beautiful place.  There was a flower show going on within the castle.  The paintings on the ceilings from many of the rooms were amazing.  Again the cold and rain prevented us viewing the gardens, stable and petting zoo.

 

Over the weekend, Jacob, Erica and I went on the school sponsored trip to York.  The kids loved the Jorvik viking centre.  A viking settlement from 1000 years ago has been uncovered in York and a large educational center was built over the dig site.  It was like Disneyworld meets the vikings.  There were "animatronic" vikings and a ride around a recreated viking city.  They even had terrible smells to demonstrate what it would have been like (I could have done without that part!!)

 

 

We also visited the National Railway museum and the York Minister -- the biggest gothic style cathedral in Europe.  The choir was practicing and the voices and organ were a great addition to our tour of the Minster.  In the lower area you could see the remains of the Roman columns that first marked the building site and then parts of the Norman church that was built. The modern cathedral (ha) from the 1400s was built over these previous walls.  York was a mix of Roman walls, vikings and cathedrals.  We also saw the street called the Shambles where the shop district scene from Harry Potter originated.

 

We really loved visiting York!!