York Museums

Ok, a slightly lopsided view of Medieval York - from the Yorkshire Museum.

I've been doing the tourist thing with Ali today. And the first time, I've been into the Castle Museum and Yorkshire Museum since I was a teenager. A great shame really considering they are quite pivotal parts of York.

The Castle Museum is vast and contains themes and memorabilia from Victorian and Georgian eras (including a Victorian Street representing the street Kirkgate that would presumably have run through that area)... the Castle Prison cells - the site was still a prison even in the 1920s, and was surrounded by a huge wall even in that era.... a Sixties section... and also surprisingly lots of modern items including a Game Boy, a modern toothbrush and a pack of Nurofen (seriously!!)(is that how our era is going to be remembered???)("In the early twenty-first century, the natives frequently suffered from headaches - as is demonstrated here - but as you can see, they would have had very clean teeth)

I suppose the Game Boy isn't modern.

The Yorkshire Museum is smaller, contains bits of dinosaurs, the most perfectly formed roman helmet, someone's hair from roman times(????), pairs of roman sandals to try on - that are presented in little cubicles like you find shoes in a bowling alley. I may possibly have dressed in a tunic and looked stupid. The museum also contains a surprisingly large theatre, a timeline of the ages of the city, and a woman who moans to you about her claustrophobia (actually I don't think she's always there)