Holy Island & Lindisfarne Priory

Way up off the coast of northern England just shy of the Scottish border is a special place called Holy Island. It is only accessible from the mainland during low tide, when the North Sea recedes enough to expose the Lindisfarne Causeway and allow cars and hikers to pass. The white box on stilts is actually there as a water shelter in the event that anyone gets stuck in the middle of the causeway as the tide comes in. I think this is mostly a concern for hikers in the event that they underestimate how long it will take them to cross the causeway as the tide comes in. And btw, there's no coast guard to come rescue you; you stay put until the tide goes out again.

A little over 150 people make their home on the island in one village, mostly employed in the tourist trade/hospitality. The island is known as a spiritual retreat, but its main tourist draws are Lindisfarne Priory and Lindisfarne Castle.



The castle was built in the 16th century (so quite late) and served largely as a fort in an area long held in contention between the Scots, the English and earlier, the Vikings. The modern castle was largely remodeled in the early 1900s to serve as basically a grand country manor. It is located on the highest point of the island, about a mile away from the village/priory, but a bus service runs every quarter hour between the two if you don't feel like making the hike.



But the real draw, I think, is Lindisfarne Priory. Lindisfarne is one of the oldest Christian establishments in England, founded around 635 by St Aiden, an Irish missionary monk from Iona (a monastery in Scotland also established by Irish missionaries) who established a community on the remote island, which became the center of conversion for northern England. In the 700s, Lindisfarne was a flourishing text-production centre, producing high quality manuscripts, the most famous of which is the Lindisfarne Gospels, now on display in the British Library.

St Cuthbert, perhaps the most famous of the medieval English saints, was a monk, abbot and bishop (not at the same time!) of Lindisfarne, but his relics are now resting in Durham Cathedral as a result of the community of monks fleeing the island in the wake of a Viking attack in 875. An earlier Viking attack in 793 was the first major Viking raid in England and caused quite a bit of consternation and fear among contemporaries, even on the Continent. Monasteries were an attractive target for the Vikings because the monks generally couldn't put up much of a fight, and the monasteries were rich with treasures- golden chalices, rich tapestries, various jewel-encrusted treasures, etc. And in the days before banks, wealthy lay people often entrusted their wealth to the religious houses for safekeeping.

So speaking of Vikings, after 805, the monastery was basically abandoned, since the community had fled with Cuthbert's relics and eventually settled in Durham. After the Norman Conquest, religious life was reintroduced to the island and a priory under the authority of Durham was founded. The ruins you see today date to this period of religious life. The priory also has a fantastic visitors centre display, well worth checking out before you make your way out to the priory itself. 

But I think my favorite part when I visited was St Cuthbert's Isle. Now, you have to time it right to actually be able to get to it. St Cuthbert's is located just off the shore of Holy Isle and is only reachable during the very lowest part of low tide, but we lucked out. You have to bounce from rock to rock, trying to avoid the large puddles left by the receding sea, and you'll probably end up crushing a fair few shell-dwellers clinging to the rocks in the process (oops), but so worth it. 

Cuthbert's Isle is little more than a big rocky outcrop marked with the above simple wooden cross. It is thought that this is one of the small islands near Lindisfarne that Cuthbert retreated to in order to live as a hermit before he was dragged back to become Bishop of Lindisfarne. And I can honestly say there is something incredibly powerful about the place. On a clear day like we had, there is just rocks and sea and sky blending together with the mainland far off in the distance and the wind whistling across the sea. Perfect for meditation and contemplation.

You can do the major tourist sights in a day or a very busy afternoon, but the next time I go back (and there will be a next time by golly!), I'd try to stay at least one night to really have time to enjoy the quiet and solitude and the natural beauty which drew the early Christians to Lindisfarne in the first place.

Selby Abbey

 

Behold, Selby Abbey. One of very few surviving monastic churches (most got torn down following the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the late 1560s as part of Henry VIII's creation of the Church of England). You may recall from an earlier entry that Westminster Abbey also survived the transition, but unlike Westminster, which was turned into a cathedral by royal decree, Selby managed to survive because it had already become the parish church for the local community and so continued to fill that role just minus the monks.

Selby was founded in 1069 and clearly reflects its Norman heritage; the chevrons over the main entrance are classic Norman architectural features, as are the engraved columns, which are similar to ones found at Durham Cathedral. Selby also has a few little oddities that set it apart. The picture just above is looking through the Leper's View- this is actually a 17-foot passage through the walls of the church which allows someone standing on the outside to look in to the sanctuary. Legend goes this was so lepers & other undesirables you wouldn't want parading around your church could still participate in worship. This is unusual, because most of the time these leper portals actually just allowed someone in a side chapel to peak at the main altar, but this one legit goes outside. Whether it was ever used by any lepers is unknown.

This is actually looking inside the carved capitol of a column adorning an outer wall of the church. I forget who this was supposed to be, but it is one of the more bizarre things I've seen in a church. You have to use the provided torch (US: flashlight) to even see he's there at all.

This came as a surprise to us Americans. Who knew there was an American Heritage Trail in the UK? Apparently not very many people since I can't even mind any mentions of it online. Selby is included because the family coat of arms of George Washingon's ancestors is included in a stained glass window. The window dates to the 14th century and is thought to be the earliest representation of the Washington coat of arms. So why do we care? Well, there's some thought that the crest, which features three red stars above alternating red & white stripes, was the inspiration for our own Stars and Stripes on the American flag. No one's quite sure why the crest is here; presumably some long-distant relative of George gave the monastery a sizable donation to be thus commemorated, but like many things, the details are lost to time.

Whitby

Greetings from Whitby! Whitby is a Yorkshire town on the northeastern coast of England, about an hour (2 by bus) north of York. Modern Whitby is a bustling tourist town, but also supports an active fishing fleet. And you know what that means? The best fish and chips in the country. Seriously.

I'd suggest the Magpie, above, for some really excellent fish and chips, but there are any number of good places serving the fresh fish practically right off the boat. FYI, the Magpie has a take away window and the lines can get pretty darn long. But trying going inside to their sit down restaurant- you can usually just walk right in and be seated. The Magpie's not the cheapest option, but it is delicious and you can have your choice of several types of fish, or try one of their other non fish & chips options.

Whitby Abbey is one of the main attractions in Whitby. The town itself came to exist as a result of the abbey, which was founded in 656 by the king of Northumbria. St Hild/Hilda served as the first abbess over a double monastery (meaning it had both monks and nuns) and she played an active role in the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity in this part of England during the 7th century. The abbey is best known as the site of the Synod of Whitby held in 664; it was at this meeting that the King of Northumbria decided that the Christian liturgical calendar in Northumbria would follow Rome's traditions of calculating Easter, rather than the Celtic traditions practiced at Iona, a major monastery in Scotland founded by Irish missionaries. This sounds silly, but it was actually a big deal at the time; both sides of the debate firmly believed their version of Christianity was superior/more correct, and the decision at Whitby spelled the doom of the Celtic version of Christianity for much of what we now call England. The abbey was destroyed by the Vikings in the 9th century, and the current ruins are what is left of the refounded monastery built in the late 11th century.

Of course, they can't make it easy to access the monastery. If you want to visit, you'll first have to climb up 199 steps and then it'll cost you 5 pounds to get in. But the steps aren't that bad, and you can get some really nice shots of the town from the stairs.

Whitby is also known for an important literary connection. Part of Bram Stoker's Dracula is set in Whitby. He used to summer in Whitby and contemplate the ruins of the abbey; in the book, Dracula arrives by ship, runs up the stairs, and hides out in the ruins. During the 1700s, Captain Cook lived in Whitby. The Captain was best known for his surveys and maps of the St Lawrence River and Newfoundland and for being the first European to sail to the east coast of Australia and Hawaii.

History lesson aside, Whitby is a really fun little seaside resort town. The harbor front has some rides and games, while the town itself is full of fun shops. You can tell it is a tourist town by the presence of ice cream _everywhere_. Whitby is an easy day trip from York, and if you are willing to rush things like we were, can be combined with a trip on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway. But more on that later :)

Westminster area (London part 8 of 9)

Behold, Big Ben! NOT! Big Ben is the bell that hangs out in that clock tower, not the tower/clock itself. I have about a million (ok, more like 20. But still a lot) pictures of the tower, so it was a challenge to pick just one. The tower anchors one end of the Palace of Westminster, which serves as the home of both houses of Parliament, the House of Lords and the House of Commons. Once upon a time, there was another Palace of Westminster, but it burned down in the 1800s, and the current building was constructed.

I think it is quite pretty. You can visit Parliament and even observe politics happening in the two houses, but the building is only open when Parliament is in session. They are usually there rather late at least one day a week, which makes this a great place to visit after 5 pm when most things close down. Sadly, I was there after Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, resigned his Parliament, so everything was closed down until after elections. British politics are quite different from our own since it is a multi-party system.

To broil it down to the most basic level, basically elections are held for the seats in the House of Commons, while the members of the House of Lords are drawn from the nobility (either elected from the ranks of eligible hereditary lords by the members of the aristocracy who once held a seat in the house by privilege of their rank) and from the higher-ups of the Church of England, namely the archbishops and a number of high ranking bishops, and include a number of appointed members whose descendants do not get hereditary right to be considered for the House. Anyway, once elections for seats are held, whichever party holds the majority of seats is the party from which the Prime Minster is chosen by the Queen; usually she picks whoever happens to be the head of that particular party. The problem comes in when no one party holds a majority (i.e. like right now as election turmoil still rages). When this happens, two or more parties will try to put together a "coalition" government. They'll be buddy buddy and work together and then the Queen gets to pick who she thinks will be the most successful to form a successful government (usually the leader of the largest party in the coalition). As a result of the general election held just last week, the parties are trying to jockey into position and get a coalition government formed. Oh, and did I mention that there is no set time frame for elections to occur? Parliament can cast a vote of no confidence in the current government under the leadership of the Prime Minster and force an election. Or, the Prime Minster can resign his government as no longer functional and force elections. Anyway, the point of all of that was that it would probably be pretty cool to check out the Palace of Westminster, but try to time your trip for when Parliament is actually meeting!

And here's Churchill keeping an eye on things, just in case ;) 

Right across the street is Westminster Abbey. The abbey is considered a "royal peculiar." This means that it is a church outside of the diocese system and instead operates directly under the monarchy. There's only a few of these; by operating outside of the diocese, Westminster Abbey is not subject to the rule of the local bishop. This is the traditional site for various ceremonies involving the royal family, including coronations, weddings, and burials/funerals. In fact, all British monarchs have been crowned here since Harold Godwinson & William the Conqueror, both in 1066, although the building has certainly seen some changes over the years. Like everything else in London, it isn't cheap to visit, although at 12 pounds for a discounted student ticket, it is on the cheaper end. However, they throw in a free audio guide with admission, which is unusual, and a great perk.  But as with most cathedrals/churches/abbeys, no photography inside.

It is really neat inside. There are a number of monuments & tombs within the church, including King/St Edward the Confessor and a number of other kings/queens including Mary Queen of Scots and Queens Mary and Elizabeth Tudor, Charles Darwin, Sir Isaac Newton (Da Vinci Code fans may recall Langdon's visit to Westminster Abbey to visit Newton's tomb), Charles Dickens, Geoffrey Chaucer, George Frederick Handel, Robert Browning, Laurence Olivier. Westminster also holds a tomb of the unknown soldier adorned with poppies.

Now, if you're a medieval dork like me, you would be wondering how on earth Westminster Abbey has survived in such great shape. If you recall any of my other entries featuring monasteries, you may recall that the pictures showed monasteries in much more, well, ruinous states. Between 1536 and 1541, Henry VIII "dissolved" all of the monasteries in England. This Dissolution of the Monasteries effectively outlawed the monasteries and allowed the king to take over all of their property and wealth. When this occurred, everything valuable was stripped from them, including the stained glass windows and stone that could be used for building projects. Add centuries of re-appropriating the stone and you wind up with some very ruined monasteries. So how did Westminster avoid this? Well, Henry VIII made it a cathedral. That's right, he wrote a charter and declared that Westminster was henceforth a cathedral and thus was spared in the Dissolution. This lasted for 10 years, when Mary Tudor re-established it as a Catholic Benedictine monastery. Then nine years later Elizabeth I did away with that. Then in 1579, Elizabeth turned it into a royal peculiar as the Collegiate Church of St Peter, which meant that there were no more monks, but the church maintained an attached group of canons under the leadership of a dean. Guess who the first dean and his canons were? Yep, the abbot & his brethren who were losing their monkhood (that's not really a word but I don't know what the correct term is!). And that's how it has continued to today. It has also been a notable seat of learning due to its attached school. A good chunk of the translation of the Bible known as the King James Bible was written here and the more recent New English Bible was also created here.

Here's a not-so-great shot of the Banqueting House as I zip by on the bus. The Banqueting House is pretty much all that remains of the Palace of Whitehall that once graced this street and lends its name to the road which runs past Westminster Palace and houses a number of government offices & buildings along it. The Palace of Whitehall was constructed for Henry VIII and destroyed in 1698 by a disastrous fire. At the time of its destruction, Whitehall was the largest European palace, bigger even than the Vatican or Versailles. And just down the road from the Banqueting House is a little side street. You may have heard of it. It's called Downing Street.

See that black building? That's the UK's version of the White House. Only they actually know the address. Try asking a generic American what's at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. 10 Downing Street is the home of the Prime Minister. After the IRA tried to bomb it in 1991, the government installed these big gates and security officers to keep everyone well back from the street.

And now I'm just about wrapped up with London. I think I'll do maybe one more odds and ends post and then we'll be on to Istanbul. Are you excited yet? :)

Spring! (Thank goodness...)

Today I thought I'd do something a little bit different. Instead of my customary whining about the lack of good mac & cheese or Mexican food, I thought I'd talk about some of the things I love about living in York/England. That, and gush about how happy I am that spring is finally here. I don't think I could've stood the constant cold, windy, rainy winter days much more. I now understand why they advocate those sunlamps for people who live in areas that don't get much sun over the winter months.

First up: Jumbo Chinese Buffet. I only recently (read: yesterday) tried out this wonderful, wonderful restaurant, but that was enough to propel it onto the list of awesome places. For 5.99, you can enjoy an all-you-can eat lunch buffet of deliciousness. Dinner costs more, but you get more options. You can enjoy all kinds of rice, noodles, entree dishes, soups, veggies, and appetizers. Plus, these amazing pineapple-fried dough ball things. So good. So I finally found good Chinese in York. Only downside is that it is pretty much just a buffet and as far as I know, doesn't do take out. Alas.

Next up: Bootham Bites. I didn't think to take a picture of the restaurant, so instead you get a picture of my favorite option there- the Yorkshire Ham & Mature Cheddar (or as I call it, the ham & cheese) panini. I'm pretty sure I've already waxed poetic elsewhere in this blog about chicken and bacon sandwiches, but these are quickly growing to rival the chicken & bacon for my affections. And I don't even normally like ham. But they don't really do ham lunchmeat like we do in the states, instead you get slices of real ham on a sandwich. After living here, I've come to the conclusion that it was never the ham that I disliked, it was the honey-baked hams that I disliked. I prefer ham to be kind of salty rather than sweet. Congratulations, England. You've overcome my dislike of ham, mayonnaise, and onion (although after a certain point I start picking them out of my food again. So maybe I've only sort of gotten over my aversion to onions.) In a country where sandwich shops rule the streets, Bootham Bites makes some excellent ones (the bree, bacon & cranberry sauce one is also really good).

Nom nom nom

Boots' sparkling blackcurrant apple juice: This is to England what Club Orange was to Ireland for me. So good. And for the record, my love for it has NOTHING to do with the fact that the bottle is purple. That's really all I have to say on that front. :)

Street food: I have yet to have bad street food, with the possible exception of the kind of cold paella I had one time (but to be fair, it was the first week of February so I totally blame it on the weather. Oh, and the Brits insist on pronouncing the l's. I made a point of pronouncing it properly and the vendor guy gave me the biggest smile ever). I love the international market that pops up on Parliament Street every so often. Yeah, its the same stuff all the time, but its yummy. Danish pancakes with Baileys & whipped cream? Yes please. Baklava? Heck yeah. Polish potato pancake things? Yum. But even when that's not running, there are all kinds of stalls with crepes, "kinky donuts" (I have yet to try those but they're on the list!), sausages, etc. And the ice cream carts have recently reappeared!

You can't see him in this picture, but the crowd gathered be hind the ice cream cart is watching a street performer juggle & do balance tricks. It isn't Faneuil Hall, but it'll do :)

I just liked the slogan on this one :)

Now let's talk pasties. That's "past" like something that has already happened + ie, not like the glue. These flakey pastry envelopes of delicious filling are classic inexpensive British eat-on-the-go, or eat on a bench watching everyone in the square, whatever floats your boat. The traditional pasty is steak & onion, but I tend to prefer the varieties with a bit less onion. Cheese & bacon is delicious when you can find it, other good choices are pork & apple and ham, brie & cranberry. 

While it isn't a food, I'll stick the Gap on this list. I _never_ shopped there in the States because I tend to be a "Can I find something comparable elsewhere for less?" kind of shopper. But England has this great thing called the "Midseason sale" when ALL of the stores have big sales. So I wandered into the Gap one afternoon and emerged with like 5 layering shirts and a navy jacket that I love and adore (and for 18 pounds! That's like $27 for a jacket! And from Gap! Who knew?) I think part of why I'm more open to the Gap here is because pounds are smaller #s. 6 pounds for a t-shirt feels like a deal (even thought its like $10 and that's about the most I'd spend on one at home). Either way, I got some much needed layering pieces for spring. At home I usually go straight from light sweaters to t-shirts, but we've got a bit more of spring here.

Which is a perfect segue to my next topic: spring time in York. The endless rain is mostly gone (although we still get the odd rainy day/s) and temperatures are up in the high 50s/low 60s. Sunglasses have been worn 3 times now (oooh, aaaaah!). But more importantly, flowers are springing up everywhere. Daffodils are up in pretty much every patch of grass in the city:

along the walls,

 in the alley off my street,

Museum Gardens in the ruins of the abbey  

and in front of the Yorkshire Museum,

even among the gravestones in church graveyards.

I love all the daffodils. Yellow flowers are my favorite because they just seem so cheerful. They help make the city a bit more sunny, especially on overcast days. Sadly I think my little yellow rose plant has bit the dust after a month. I probably should have bought it a real pot instead of leaving it in the plastic one it came in. Oh well. On Friday, I'm taking the "Harry Potter train" to "Hogsmead," but in the meantime, I have paper writing to do (boo!). See you next post.

Rievaulx Abbey

So in case you didn't know, I'm mildly obsessed with monasteries. The ruined medieval kind, not the modern kind, although I'm sure they're cool too. Rievaulx is a particularly impressive ruin. The abbey was founded in the 12th century by a group of wanna be Cistercians from St Mary's Abbey in York (which was Benedictine). The Benedictines were once pretty much the end all and be all of monastic orders, but in the eleventh/twelfth  centuries, an number of new orders arose either as a reformist sect or to fulfill specific niches in pastoral care. For example, the Franciscans and Dominicans started up as mendicant (i.e. owned no property and relied on the charity of others) preaching orders who were based in towns and served the religious needs of townsfolk. The Cistercians on the other hand withdrew off into the countryside to live in more austere conditions; they felt that the Benedictines had gone soft and were living too comfortable of a lifestyle, which went against the original view of monasticism. The group at Rievaulx was eventually accepted into the official Cistercian order and built a great big monastery with new additions and expansions added on over the years.

Originally, the abbey would have been built with no elaboration/decoration and with very minimal concessions to comfort. But over the years, the Cistercian monasteries throughout England relaxed their policies and more decorative features were introduced, along with renovations to increase the comfort of the brothers; deprivations of warm clothing and fires in every room worked in warm Mediterranean climates, but up in Yorkshire? No thank you!

Here's one end of the abbey church, and you can see just how big the thing was.

The relaxation of the policies against decoration can be seen in some fancy carving within the church, although I don't expect you can see much of it in this photo.

And here's the church from one end looking down towards the altar area.

Big big church. Not rivaling the cathedrals or York Minster perhaps, but as far as monastic churches go? Big.

Here you can get a closer look at the carving I mentioned earlier:

And here is a reassembled section of the cloister walk. The cloister garth was a square/rectangular open courtyard that likely had some gardens. Surrounding the garth was the cloister walk and the major buildings of the monastery- dorms, refectory, chapter house, etc- would be on the four sides of this compound. A covered walkway would lead around the garth. Originally this would have been open stonework like in the photo, but most monasteries converted these with windows to keep out the chill winds. I'm not sure if Rievaulx did or not; if they did, it didn't survive the Dissolution of the monasteries, at which point all of the glass and some stone from the abbey were carted back to York for reuse.

Behold! A medieval cafeteria!(Or in Brit-speak, a refectory)

Pretty cool huh? Rievaulx is notable for just how much of the monastery is still standing. A large contributing factor to its survival was the fact that in the 17th? 18th? century, a rich guy landscaped the ruins as a folly for his manor house, thus largely preventing further destruction of the abbey. Plus, the fact that it is pretty remote helped too. Because the Cistercians were seeking to withdraw from the world, they sought out sites away from towns and people, and their monasteries tended to survive the destruction following the Dissolution better than their counterparts in more populated areas. There's a whole slew of other photos in my facebook album if you're interested.

Catching Up Part 2: They get snow here?!?

That's right, they do. Or at least they did this year. I missed most of it while I was home for Christmas, but the "arctic blast" as the headlines called it started two days before I flew home and made for adventures getting home for most of us.

The snow started in earnest on Friday, when our essays were due. So I went off in the snow to print my paper and turn it in and by the time I got out, there was REAL SNOW on the ground!

 So Rachel and I went to play in the snow in Museum Gardens. We made a friend :)

A maintenance (that word is tricky to spell...) guy popped out from behind King's Manor and offered our snowman a construction hat but it was too big for his head :(

Then there was general frolicking in the snow and I swung by Borders to pick up some ridiculously cheap books. Border's UK went out of business just before Christmas so the entire store went an additional 10% off every day until closing. When I was there they were down to 70% off and everything was going FAST.

So here's an artsy collection of York in the snow. Haven't seen it since a few days after I got back because it all melted.

You might not be able to tell but the snow was coming down HARD. So it was kind of nice to get inside for the CMS Christmas Party. All the papers were in and free food- who could pass that up?

I had my first mince pie at the party. Mince pies are apparently a treasured Advent tradition here. I can't say I really care for them though. It is basically mushed up fruit plus raisins and spices in a pastry. I guess the closest American parallel would be fruit cake, which I also am not a fan of. And no, the "mince" in mince pie does not refer to ground meat in this case. I spent a long time explaining that to several people who were very confused :)

Anyway, the snow messed with a lot of people's travel plans all over the place. (Especially because it was almost simultaneous with the Nor'easter that hit the mid-Atlantic in the US.) I actually really really lucked out with my travel arrangements.

I didn't fly out until Monday morning (Dec. 21st) so by that time the UK was starting to run on schedule again. People traveling over the weekend had some problems because the trains were really delayed as they tried to get the tracks cleared. And then the storm hit at home over the weekend and flights to Philadelphia and DC were all over the place. Anyway, here's my getting home story.

Sunday night I book train tickets. It cost like 15 pounds (Blogger hates my pound signs, sorry) less to take the 6 am train to the Manchester Airport instead of a 7 am one, so I went the cheap route. So I arranged for a cab to pick me up at 5:30 (no way was I walking the 25 minutes to the train station in the snow with a suitcase). I get up at like 4 in the morning to shower and finish packing. Then around 5, I check my flight status. I was flying US Airways and connecting in Philadelphia. Philadelphia got lots and lots of snow over the weekend. Flights to Philly on Sunday were pretty much all delayed or cancelled. US Airways has you enter in a flight number and either "today" or "tomorrow" for flight status. So I put in my flight number and Today and it shows up "CANCELLED." I immediately begin freaking out. But I figure, well, I've already paid for the train ticket, might as well go down to the airport and beg/plead my way onto a flight going SOMEWHERE in the United States and figure it out from there.

So I get to the train station and get my luggage stowed. I'd requested a forward-facing window seat near a luggage rack. They gave me a rear-facing aisle seat near a luggage rack. Oh well. I learned that I don't get motion sick on trains while seated backwards if it is so dark out that you can't tell what direction you're going. Anyway, about five minutes into the 2 hour train ride, my iPod freaks out: screen freezes blank lit-up white and I can't get it to turn off. I have since looked up how to force it to shut down, but at the time nothing I pushed did anything. I was forced to just leave it on in my purse until the battery drained out. Only took it like 12 hours..! I was stuck with no music for the whole trip. I was not a happy panda. Anyway, 2 hours later I collect my stuff and trundle off across all the moving walkways to the airport proper and find the US Airways Reservations help desk.

The blonde girl behind the counter finally stopped ignoring me and asked if I needed anything, to which I mumbled something incoherent about flight and canceled and Philadelphia and me plane yes please? She was all "Oh, well, there's one leaving today around 1:00, you'll need to wait in the queue to see if there are seats available." And I was like, "Humina what? But I thought today's flight was canceled?" "Oh no, yesterday's flight was canceled. If you were originally scheduled for today's flight, you're fine you'll just need to check in," she said, pointing halfway down the terminal towards the US Airways signs. So off I trundle with stuff in tow and find the "Philadelphia 1:00" sign where a woman sends me ALL the way back to where I had been. That was the end of the line. The only people that got to use the special, clear lane where the buggers that managed to check in online before US Airways disabled web check-in for the flight.

Now unlike pretty much every other airport I've been in, Manchester didn't really care about the stupidly long line of people trying to check in for this flight. (Think 2 full A330 flights trying to all get seats on one flight. Oh, and they had to reschedule everyone's connecting flight out of Philly because the transatlantic flight was delayed.) Instead of keeping the line/queue in an orderly fashion, they just let people stand wherever, so the line just went straight back across the terminal, blocking access to basically every other airlines' check-in desks. And for some reason every single person decided to cut through the line to the other side right in front of me no matter how far up the line had moved. The British gentleman behind me told me I was too nice to them. And I thought Americans were supposed to be the pushy ones! I think travelers everywhere are basically the same- harried and not terribly interested in being polite.

Anyway, 3 hours later, I make it up to the desk and get tickets and a rescheduled flight to DC from Philly. By the time I make it through security, I had about 20 minutes to grab breakfast/lunch before my flight was supposed to board. So I grabbed a "bacon breakfast roll" which is exactly what it sounds like- a roll that they shove some bacon in and microwave- and scurry off to the gate, where, surprise surprise, boarding has been delayed. By the time I'd finished my sandwich roll thing, they were ready to board. So everyone hurries up and sits down to "make up the delay" and then we sit there until 3, at which point I begin to worry about making my rescheduled connection, since I had a 2.5 hour layover time to go through customs and immigration and if we were leaving 2 hours late... that was going to be tight. But you know, worry about those things when you get to them.

As an aside, if you're looking at international airlines, I've ranked the airline food from some of the carriers I've flown.

1) Aer Lingus. Both the chicken and the lasagna are yummy, everything was recognizable and free Baileys. (granted, this data is a few years old at this point.)

2) US Airways. The pasta dinner entree was pretty good, and REALLY good panini type sandwiches for "lunch".

3) British Airways. Decent tea, yummy breakfast scones, dinner was ok. Weird British sandwiches for lunch. Although that goes for Britain in general. Really, is ham and cheese too boring for you? They do however inundate you with free alcohol if you're into that kind of thing.

4) KLM Royal Dutch Airlines. They told me I was eating chicken. The package said bbq chicken. That was neither chicken nor bbq as far as I could tell. You know its bad when the pile of peppers and corn is better than the meat. (Says the no-veggies girl.) I have no idea what was in the salad (some kind of meat and beans and other things I couldn't identify), you grabbed your own roll off a tray (that puts other people's germy hands too close to my food for my comfort) and I don't even remember what we got for breakfast because the dinner was that funky. Good inflight entertainment selection though.

Anyway, back to the point. Watched Postgrad on the in-flight entertainment, that hit a bit too close to home for comfort. At least I'm not working at my dad's luggage store. At least my dad doesn't HAVE a luggage store. Slept a bit. The plane lands and then proceeds to rumble over snow drifts and ice. That was the bumpiest part of the ride! Got off the plane in a mad rush because I had 45 minutes to make my connecting flight. I get to Immigration and of course I pick the line with the fewest people in it and it ends up being the slowest line EVER. But I get through it and then find I have to wait for my bag to redeposit it on another conveyor belt. Luckily my bag wasn't the last one. Unluckily I had to get clear across the Philadelphia International Airport.

The airport staff getting my bag said I'd be fine, just take the shuttle at the A gates. The shuttle wasn't running out of the A gates- too much snow. I had to run down to the C gates (at which point I'm halfway to my gate anyway...). So I get on the shuttle and we bounce along off-road style over snow and ice that still hasn't been cleared the tarmac and I'm deposited at the gate just as they start to board. So all 12 of us get on the itty bitty plane to DC and then wait some more. Then we roll off to the runway. And wait some more. Finally we take off. The row in front of me has a mom and one two-year old twin while dad had the other one across the aisle. Now maybe I'm crazy, but I would have stopped trying to feed the kid in front of me after the first time he threw up. But not her! Determined mom! Vomit kid! Thank goodness it was a short flight. And thus I got home for Christmas because I always pick the cheapest travel options. If I'd gotten a later train or paid extra to fly home sooner, I'd have had a lot more problems.

And I came home to this:

That WAS over 2 feet of snow. It had kind of melted a bunch by the time I thought to take a picture. But you can kind of tell how much it was by using the mailbox as a reference.

Luckily the flight back to the UK wasn't so bad, although I flew back the day after I spent the day curled up on the couch with a fever. And I didn't get to sleep thanks to the baby sitting on the lap of the woman next to me that kept kicking me the entire flight. And then I got the last train to York that afternoon (weather problems struck again apparently. I didnt know, I was asleep as soon as I got back to my room).

Alrighty, so now we're basically caught up! I should do something exciting so that I have something to write about.

In the meantime, you can check out this:

http://www.york.ac.uk/medieval-studies/york-1190/

I'm assisting with the conference prep work. I'm putting together the book stalls so if you're a publisher and you want to come sell books, let me know! ;)