National Railway Museum and York Minster

The next day it is cold and raining.  Yorkshire is flooding and we

know that they don’t need any more rain, but we have inside things planned today in preparation.  The National Railway Museum is just a few blocks from our Air BnB and we go there first.  First, let me say that this place is FREE!!!  Always a plus and Oscar is in transportation heaven.  We go to the first big hall and they have all the Royal cars from various kings and queens over the years.  Oscar takes his time going through there and we head outside to see some other things, but 

they’re not happening because of the rain.  Even the little train that runs from the Railway Museum to York Minster is not running today and they say it’s because the driver is “in traffic”, but when else would you want to take this train than on a day like this?  Anyway,

we find our way to the “great hall” and our son is gone….he is running in between all the locomotives, tearing through the place and then finds the model trains and could stand there for hours.  John and I tell him we’re going to the café to eat something and he comes

and picks out a couple of snacks, sees a bullet train experience that he wants to go on.  He and John get to ride it, he spends 25 minutes standing and listening to a woman lecture on how a steam engine worked on a train that has been cut in half.  I wander around

seeing other things and come back to the group which is comprised of 20 adults and Oscar.  The woman even says, “ladies and gentlemen, and boy” when she ends her talk.  I can’t believe he hung in for the whole thing, but he’s loving every second of this place.  We 

 have to give him a time limit to go watch model trains for 10 more minutes after spending 2 hours in this place.  Except for wanting one of everything in the store as we leave, it was a thoroughly enjoyable experience.  Especially when the café has amazing food and alcohol so that mummy and daddy can handle all this train stuff.  I joke, because even if you’re not a train enthusiast, this place is impressive.  Just like the Louvre,

they have to rotate stuff in and out because they have so much.  We head out into the cold and rain to head to York Minster.  I’m thinking that leaving the train station to go to a church is not going to go over well, but then the York Minster gives him an “explorer 

  backpack” with binoculars, I spy cards, maps and puzzles with magnifying glass and mini flashlight etc.  This seems awesome until we can’t go look at the church because he wants things out of his backpack constantly.  He’s finding 

treasure, but won’t let John and I just come along with him.  To the point that John takes the back pack away from him….which doesn’t go well either.  Now we start hearing, when are we leaving?  He doesn’t want to go down in the crypt or to the museum and 

 starts to whine about how mommy is getting to do “two things” because I said the word “museum” and he doesn’t understand that it’s attached to the church.  We finally make it through and the chapter house is the coolest part of this church. 

Also, someone is cleaning and repainting all the organ pipes and that is neat to watch.  The Undercroft Museum that I have been mentioning turns out to be Oscar’s favorite place, so score one there.  Here you can see all the early Roman and Anglo Saxon parts of the 

church before William the Conqueror.  It was great and John’s ancestor was apparently a big supporter.  Some Gray is in the crypt, the main Bishop when the Gothic cathedral was built and I really start to wonder if John’s family is from this area.  We leave the Minster to see Constantine and his upside down Roman column out front before realizing that we’re in that no man’s zone for eating.  Past 3:30, but not 5pm yet.  We 

   promised Oscar McDonald’s anyway if he behaved in the church, so they're always serving food at least.  We get home to mentally prepare and pack for what promises to be a very cold, windy, rainy day at a Premier League soccer game.