York

Two weekends ago, we traveled to a city called York. We were delighted to discover that it was less than a 45 minute drive from our house, and that parking and navigating were very easy.

York is one of England's most historic cities. It started as a Roman fort, and was then a Viking settlement for years after that (called Jorvik). What's really neat about York, is that it is one of the best-preserved walled cities in all of England.
Here you can see Ethan and the kids as we made our way around the city on top of the wall. In the background, and in the next picture, you can see York Minster.
The city itself was really neat. It is full of museums, historic buildings, and snickelways (hidden alleyways) lined with shops and restaurants. As we walked around, we found out that the city was having some sort of sword festival. There were groups of performers doing sword dancing. (Don't worry... the swords didn't appear to be sharp!) Basically, the dancers would always be holding one of the ends of a sword in each hand, and weave their way through and around until the person in the middle would emerge with the swords all woven together in a star-like pattern. It was interesting.

We walked around for a while, and then made our way to the National Railway Museum. This museum holds many, many preserved trains and displays. They had trains historic to England, but also quite an international collection (like the Japanese bullet train). It was quite an extensive collection, and the best part was that it was free!
All in all, we had a great (and inexpensive) day out. If you ever come to visit us here, York is a must!