Hello all! I am currently traveling through the UK. I spent Easter weekend in Edinburgh, then on to York, then a couple of days in Bath before reveling in proximity to the royal wedding in London.
But first, let me tell you about the reenactment extravaganza that was my day.
This morning I went to the Castle Museum in York. Not much remains of the castle except the name, and anyway, that's not the focus of the museum. Rather, the collection chronicles aspects of daily life from the 1600s to today: things like clothes washing,children's toys, even toilets. . . Which I admit was kind of fascinating. My favorite exhibit was on 1960s. Listening to the Beatles while examining Mary Quant fashions somehow gave me the urgent desire to time-travel.
As for the reenactment part. The museum features a reconstructed Victorian street, complete with working shops, newspapers, and a simulated transition from night to morning. I wish there had been more faux Victorians around, but who am I to complain?
Any reenactment-related disappointment I felt at the Castle Museum was quickly erased by the Jorvik Viking Center, where even the wildest animatronic fantasies come true.
After walking through a fascinating exhibit on the Vikings and the archaeological excavations in York, you step into a roller coaster car. Then, without warning, you find yourself lurching at a snail's pace into a carefully reconstructed Viking village.
The soothing voice from your headrest speaker welcomes you to Coppergate, the village whose excavations you've just seen. Look! A man carving a deer antler! (The car slows down and turns toward the animatronic Viking, in case you weren't looking). the narrator addresses him in Viking language, a romantic cross between Swedish and Clingon. Then- wait for it- the Viking answers back. His soulless face pivots toward you, Exorcist-like, while his mouth opens and closes in Viking speak.
And so on past a craftsman, a butcher's shop, a busy commercial street, and- as the tour's final joke- a Viking on an outdoor Viking loo. The museum put so much effort into this reconstruction that it even smells like a Viking village (Scratch n Sniff postcards for sale in the gift shop). Thank you for making my day, Jorvik. And possibly my year.
