Historical York and the Jorvik Viking Centre

The city of York was one of the great cities of the medieval europe. A historic capital in the north of England. Among the attractions are the viking city of York called Jorvik (pronounced as Yorvik), castle museums, magnificent architecture of churches & towers.

According to history, the city was first ruled by a group of Celtic tribes and then by the roman invader and later, annexed and ruled by the Anglo Saxons in the 5th century of which these german tribes (Angles, Saxons & Jutes) were the ancestors of the modern english.York was conquered by the Danish Vikings in the 7th century. Later, it was ruled by Norweign Vikings and then by the Normans in the 10th century (The tribes who lived in Normandy in France at the time). Actually Normans invaded England, not just York. It took only people in one region of France to conquer the whole England, how powerful they were!

We went there on easter monday, 23rd Mac 2008, almost a month ago, the whole clan, to the city of York, in northern England, in a county called North Yorkshire. I had wanted to write about the trip much earlier but I was such a lazybone with a big M (Malas). So What I did was writing bit by bit because I really need to make some references and write in this blog of mine so that the story will be forever immortalised. The journey took two hours and It was during the previous school holidays where schools were closed for 2 weeks (easter break). I drove up north along M1 motorway traversing through five counties namely Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, South Yorkshire (sheffield is the county city) , West Yorkshire (where Bradford and Leeds are) and North Yorkshire.

The Jorvik Viking Centre is actually an exhibition centre built over the excavation land in the area that was discovered in 1970 at the heart of York. Many artefacts have been preserved since viking times due to soil conditions. Most part of Jorvik is underground. On entering the building and after paying for the tickets, we walked downstairs and past a 'soil wall' showing the layers that have built up on top of the Viking settlement.

We then came to a holding area where a guide told us briefly about the Viking history.In this area we were told that we would be travelling back in time to the Viking era. We were then guided to make our way through to a room where we will be transported back in time (A ‘time capsule’ machine). We were asked to remain seated and were shown on a LCD projector screen, a series of pictures of a couple whose clothes changed over time from the 1980s, 70s, 30s and so on, back through time to finally arrive in the Viking age. Each time the pictures changed there was a slight judder of the floor to give the time travelling effect, something akin to the TV series, Dr Who’s time machine. Dr Who is a very popular tv series here with kids and adults alike.

Once the time machine was over, we were guided to board the ‘time cars’ (something akin to cable cars), which took us around the Viking Centre. Each car can hold 6 people maximum and have speakers for the commentary as visitors go around. (There’s a children’s commentary also). We had one car all to ourselves. The time car took us gently past a variety of recreated street scenes and houses. These range from a market place, to a blacksmiths home, past a butcher, and even past someone going to the loo. The commentary stops in places to allow visitors to experience the noises that would have been heard. There are model people in each area, and they are wearing typical Viking dress. The replica buildings have been made with knowledge from the actual excavation of the site. The shops and houses have been laid out in the way that they would have been in vikings time. The final part of the time car tour took us over a reconstructed archaeological dig where it was shown to us how skeletons would have been uncovered, and took us past some of the actual timber from a building to show how well preserved it was.After leaving the time cars it was into the museum where we spent our time looking at helmets, wielding swords, other weapons etc on display. A guide was on hand to explain how battles would have been fought in Viking era etc.

Before exiting the Centre, we were taken through the gift shop. The shop sell souvenirs ranging from coins to little replica Vikings and books. So if anyone is interested to know more you could browse to this site. We enjoyed being there and also the sight seeing in York. It was a such a great day.

http://www.jorvik-viking-centre.co.uk