Pillars of the Earth Cathedral Tour, day 6, part one

Having slept through most of yesterday and only seeing the outside of the York Minster at night I was excited to get inside. It was an hour before the Minster opened so I walked part of the city wall.

This part of the wall circled around half of the Minster so it heightened my anticipation.

The staircase down from the city wall.

Just wide enough for a single person to go up or down with barely enough head space for me. Neat!

Here’s some additional shots of the exterior.

This roundish building with the pointy top is the chapter house connected to the Minster. Here’s a model of he impressive roof.

And the interior.

The acoustics in the room was incredible. Since I had the room to myself I tested the echo value.

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The window in the picture below is on the east end of the church. The stained glass window is as big as a tennis court and dates from the 1500’s.

And a few gargoyles from the same wall.

As I made my way around the south side of the cathedral there was a mason’s yard where modern day masons carve stones for the Minster.

Notice the large square tower in this next picture.

Here’s the same tower from the inside looking up.

This is a beautiful on the outside. Here’s the west side entrance.

The two big doors are only used on special occasions. Clearly they didn’t know I was coming today so I had to use the side door. Bitches.

Speaking of bitches…

Constantine.

Meanwhile inside the Minster.

Jaw dropping view down the nave from the west end of the church.

This is about halfway down the nave. They’re not sure what this dragon is for but it pivots and has a hole in it so the guess is t was used to lift off the stone top of the baptismal fountain.

Above is the choir screen. 14 Kong’s are carved into the front, 7 on each side.

Above the kings there are an orchestra of carved angels.

And here’s a few of the funnier looking kings. Some are having bad hair days…

Remember the soles of the feet rule…?

The last tomb has three boys covering his feet.

These ding dongs are part of a clock. Here they are in action at 10am.

The items below were part of an exhibition in the undercroft.

That last ivory looking case was carried by one of the Archbishops. It likely contained the heart of a crusader and was supposed to give the archbishop strength or courage or something. At the very least it was a conversation starter. “Whatcha got in the box Archie?”

“Well my son, I’m glad you asked…”

I thought this was neat.

The doomstone was kind of cool, too.

More tombs.

That’s supposed to be a lion. How do I know?

And then there’s this guy.

“Hey! Where my cherub backup singers at?!”

“That’s more like it!”

And then there’s the “I didn’t realize being dead was going to be so boring” guy.

In he crypt there were several sections where the floor is see through allowing you to see bits of the Roman ruins that the church is built on.

I’m not one for nativity scenes but his one is hysterical. Look closely. See if you can find the micro-cow and the dinosaur bearing gold coins to the baby Jesus. And the out of place lamb.

Any luck?

Here’s the micro-cow and weird lamb.

And the dinosaur.

With gold coin.

Bonus points if you spotted the meow meow kitty on the ass.

Here’s a few more interior shots.

Around 10:30am I realized I hadn’t eaten breakfast yet so I headed in into The Shambles to find a coffee shop to grab a pastry and coffee.

Steve will like the above pic.

I got my coffee and croissant. I also grabbed a Yorkshire pork pie.

It was pretty good. Mrs. Lovett would be proud.