please empty your brain below

Gosh! That does sound a busy day. I hope you drank something this time.
Many years ago, I went to a fascinating lecture by the chief glass conservator at the Minster, about the restoration of the Rose Window following the fire.
Pleased that you enjoyed York's Chocolate Story - I went last year and really enjoyed it (and my wife had her hen party there) but not everyone seems to agree.

Despite living in York until I was 18, I've never been to Fairfax House.
Keep meaning to visit York, but keep getting put off by the distance and the cost! Once again, I'm inspired to go.
I even went so far as to look up trains from Sheffield yesterday. It's on my list of things that might encourage me to get out more.
Today, Matthew, I am the pedant....

"York Pass, which permits entry for nothing if you pay up front"

Surely: York Pass that, for an upfront fee, allows you free access to....

cf. when I first read your script it sounded like the pass didn't allow you to do anything with it!
I was lucky enough to do about a month's worth of work there a couple of summers back, so spent a weekend doing some of the sights. I loved Jorvik (which I'd wanted to see for decades, after it was featured on Blue Peter when I was a child) and also thought the Castle Museum terrific (anywhere that has a life-size Mercury capsule replica is fine by me - the "warden" was urging me to get inside but I had a horrible feeling I'd never be able to get out).

As for the pricing - yeah, not good. Though like other places (e.g. Beamish) the tickets I bought were valid for repeat entry for the whole of the following year - which isn't a bad old deal if you're local, though not so great if you're 200 miles away.
Your does indeed have a surfeit of excellent museums. I love the Castle Museum's old school approach as it's basically just a collection of fascinating old stuff.

And it's a shame you didn't have more time as, aside from all the museums, York is one of the most pleasant of our provincial cities for just wandering around.

dg writes: And I 'did' The Shambles, and I bought lunch from Betty's, and I walked round a long chunk of the city walls. So I did a fair bit of wandering around too :)
Hmmm: I find your comments about the Chocolate museum a little hard to swallow
You seem to be writing about it in a way that suggests you enjoyed your experience there better than your visit to M&M's World at Leicester Square.
Nah: can't be possible ;-)
That's the first time I've seen a city pass with a limited "purse value" on it. So it would have been impossible to swap, say, the Railway Museum for, say, the Dungeon. (Ok, you would not want to. But even if you would you could not.)

dg writes: That's a bit sneaky. According to the York Pass website there's a daily cap of £55 on the attractions you can visit. Meanwhile my plastic card says it has "Entry value £65", which is a tenner more. I wonder what the upper limit really is. And I'd be much more impressed if there wasn't one.
I have been to all of these places except the chocolate factory and possibly Clifford's Tower. Never fails to be a good day out in York.
I visited the Minster back in the early 80's, some 10 years after the central tower had been reinforced to stop it falling over.
The architects and civils were very proud of this work, so much so that they pointed out in the accompanying descriptive panels that the original construction was faulty which was why this work had to be carried out. Since the tower had last fallen down in 1407, I thought that accusation a bit of a nerve given how many structures built in this century have had to be pulled down after a few decades (or less) thanks to structural failure.
Best thing about my visit to York were all free: the walls and the Shambles.










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