Tweetup Day!! We'd arranged to meet up at 9am at Betty's Tea Rooms so we'd have to leave about 8.45am at the latest, and breakfast didn't start till 8am on a Sunday. Yikes! We went down the three flights of stairs to the basement and into the breakfast room. We were welcomed with a smile and advised to pick a table. We were presented with cereals, fruit, yoghurt, fruit juice, specialty teas and soon after, freshly cooked croissants were brought out.
Our cooked breakfast order was taken - full for Paul and I, with full veggie for Di, no problem! Tea or coffee and toast too. We had to rush but we managed to fit in a good breakfast, then a dash back up three flights of stairs to grab our bag and we all set off into town.
The sun was out! Wow! We walked back up to Micklegate Bar as we had yesterday and I took another photo with the blue sky, then we had to carry on as we were going to be late! I let Di lead the way as we'd passed Betty's yesterday so she knew where we were going. Or so I thought. D'oh! Never put the humans in charge. I looked up and we were at the Teddy Bear Tea Rooms which is past Betty's. I turned us all around and we made it back to Betty's, where Reddy was pointing and laughing because he'd seen us go straight past! There goes my Tour Guide reputation! Stupid assistant!
We (me, Frank and Theo, with two assistants) went inside and joined Reddy (@Reddy1408), his wife Pink Ted and his humans at their table. BooBoo (@BooBooBearGreen) with his pal Jingle Bells and his Mummy arrived shortly after. Then Kenny (@kennykoalabear), his sister Sheila and their human arrived - they'd made good time. Reddy's mum had knitted most of us panda sweaters so we looked like Team Panda!. Some of the group hadn't had time for breakfast before leaving home to get here, so there was time in our schedule for a little breakfast - I ordered a hot chocolate. Soon, our #NorthernTweetup group was ready to go!
Our first stop of the day was at the Jorvik Viking Centre. We'd allowed ninety-minutes for this, as per their website. I'd been with the assistant years ago, but couldn't remember much. We'd pre-booked our time so we could legitimately jump the queue and a Viking outside invited us in. The tickets, combined with the Dig York were a discounted £14.95 and remain valid for twelve months. We had a bit of a wait while they switched our group ticket for individual ones, in case any of us went back. However, that was soon sorted out and we headed inside.
We started out in a room where we could Discover Coppergate. The Coppergate reconstruction is based on archaeological evidence, with buildings reproduced in their exact position, as though they'd been uncovered on this site. This all sits beneath a glass floor, with a map supplied to explain what we were looking at. It was hard to make it out, and very dark in the room so it didn't hold our interest for long. They also had television screens on the walls, explaining the dig and the Viking history.
We were soon lined up for the next part - a ride in a tiered car through a full reproduction Viking village. There was just room for six humans (all of them) and all the bears, but unfortunately, they do not permit photographs to be taken in here. Booooo! The ride through Jorvik shows activities of Viking daily life, including their smells (though I didn't really notice much). There are workers' houses, traders in a market, children, animals, an antler worker and a blacksmith. The narrator does chat to some of the animatronic characters around the route and they respond in their native language, but it's not brilliantly done.
You get to see how they used to live, and a degree of normalcy is demonstrated, even down to an argument over dinner! I'm also not sure we needed to see the Viking in the Viking toilet, but I'll bet younger kids love that! The problem for me is in part the weakness of the humans - some move, most don't and when you are used to Disney animatronics, this seemed weak, though I can only imagine how tiny their budget is compared with Disney! So it's not entirely their fault!
After the ride, we were let out amongst some exhibits. There were a lot of bones of people recovered during the dig. A man in Viking garb was giving a talk about some of the fossils found during the dig - he'd drawn quite a crowd. As we progressed we found a lady explaining how coins were made. For two pounds you could buy one of the coins and a couple of children were quite excited as she explained and then stamped a coin. It was interesting but I wasn't spending my money on Viking currency! Below right is an exhibit of some of the bone and antler work carried out by the Vikings during their time in York.
We saw a few more exhibits before exiting out into the gift shop. It was a little crammed in there, with not much room to move about but they had some interesting stuff. No bear shirts without a bear so I didn't get one, but my buddy Reddy did, the new bear would be mugged later (they'd find him other stuff to wear). It probably only took us an hour at most for the whole museum, which was bad for them (dropped a Ted) but good for us as it really improved our schedule for the morning! I dropped them another Ted as it was quite expensive and there wasn't much to it and I would have liked to take a few photos of the ride. Even with the special Viking weekend events, there wasn't a lot to hold my interest. So they only managed to achieve three Teds.
Our next stop was the York Castle Museum. We were due there at 12.15pm, but arrived at about 11.40am. We hadn't prebooked here as they didn't have online booking, but they did have an offer of £10, for here and the Yorkshire Museum (more about that on tomorrow's tour) so we took that option. Like Jorvik, the tickets last for twelve months so if we pass this way again, we're ready.
Before heading inside, BooBoo's mum changed her taxi booking from 1.45pm to 1pm as we were now ahead of schedule. She also made it a car for all six humans - we'd whizz to lunch at the Teddy Bear Tearooms.
Not sure this Museum has really grasped the whole access for those with disabilities as we were presented with a staircase at the entrance - a bit offputting. Apparently a lift (elevator) is in the pipeline, but it's not there yet. That said, we all headed inside. We started with an 1870 Victorian Parlor, with cheaper mass-produced furniture for the middle classes in this industrial age. They had a small display of mobile phones too - was funny cos the assistant remembered several of them (and she's not even the Ancient one. Heehee.
We looked at more historic houses, with a Yorkshire Moorland rural cottage from the 1850s (below left), a c.1780 Georgian room (below centre) and a Seventeenth Century dining room (below right).
We went up another flight of stairs to a more bear-furendly toy-zone! Who remembers the Chopper bike? Who always wanted one and never got one? It's a funky looking bike! I prefer this nice red convertible though - look who is driving? It's Paddington! Lucky bear! The room below right was 1950s I think - the fireplace looks like the ones in Assistant Di's 1930s house (that she tore out - no period features for her!) The television in the corner is like one the Ancient Assistant used to have!
They had a marvellous little carousel. Now, some of the exhibits had alarms covering the whole area, so we took that as an invitation to take a seat on the carousel (we're just mostly harmless little bears after all). That's my buddy Reddy, below centre.
They had a lot of toys - some more, or less, familiar. We recognised Spirograph. We certainly knew Muffin the Mule a puppet from a 1940-50s television show. What do you mean, you don't remember? I'm not that old either!
So, do you want to meet the gang? Back row, my buddies Theo and Frank. Front row, left to right, we have Reddy, with his wife, Pink Ted, then me, Kenny Koala and his sister Sheila, then Jingle Bells who is BooBooBearGreen's furend, BooBoo is in the green panda sweater. Oh, and if you were wondering, it was Reddy's mum who made all of our panda jumpers (sweaters). Aren't they awesome? We found this throne, so did what we do best - sit and have our photos taken!
We met this old bear in one of the cases, he said life there was okay as overnight he got out of his case and got to play with all the toys, not to mention ride the carousel! We past cases of more toys!
Call me sick, but I just had to take some photos of this great horse-drawn hearse. Isn't it brilliant? Well, provided you're not dead, obviously, although, I guess, even if you are it's a great way to go (as long as you're not going far, or it could take all day!) Moving on...
Next were the kitchens. Below centre is a 1940s suburban kitchen. This one was in the era of post-War food rationing. Then we got a bit closer to home with their 1980s kitchen (below right), with the fitted kitchen units and all kinds of essential small appliances.
Below left is a 1900 Ice Cabinet. They had another oven and hearth, but I didn't get particularly warm! There was even a sink with a hand-pump - I don't remember those!
They had an agricultural section, with a variety of farming implements. Below right is a Pearling Mill, which ground the husks of barley and wheat forming pearled barley and pearled wheat.
We headed back down to the ground floor and into Kirkgate Victorian Street. Originally created in 1938, this was updated in 2012. There's a cobbled Yorkshire street and now added backstreets, with a variety of period shops, like this one selling leather goods, a funeral parlour and some on the street entertainment - now, where did my monkey, er assistant go?
BooBoo and I just had to take a ride on this lovely horse (please don't read the sign we were sitting on - it's for humans, not cute little chaps like us, I'm sure!) Reddy and Kenny joined us for another photo with this uniformed chap. They had a few horse drawn vehicles in the streets.
Another horse and carriage, this time including the horse. Ah, I also found out where I'd left the assistant. She'd feel right at home in here! They'd got a few flags up - must have heard I was coming!
They have a sweet shop and, while a lot of the sweets are just decorative, they do have a few sweeties for sale - not that my assistants opened the moth-keeper for me! I did think the sugar mice were pretty cute.
Not sure the chap behind the counter knew what to make of BooBoo and me, but hey, we do like to make an impression!
We headed into York Castle Prison. I think our assistants were getting the wrong idea about this prison stuff! This bed was totally uncomfortable and I didn't appreciate being chained to the wall! Grrr. We didn't mind being behind bars in the cell though - as someone kindly pointed out - we could just walk out through the bars! MWAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAA!!!!!
The Museum is housed within the walls of an Eighteenth Century prison. A collection of prisoners and guards are projected onto the walls of the cells, explaining what life was like. One of their most famous prisoners was Dick Turpin.
We headed into the Sixties. It covers all aspects of the decade, from space travel, pirate radio, fashion, the Beatles, television, the home and my particular obsession - the scooter! This one's a little bigger than mine!
The Exercise Yard and Half Moon Court is an expanse of space outside, used - as it says - as an exercise yard for prisoners, but also by prisoners awaiting transportation, before they were taken to the ports. Kenny and I thought we would try out the lives of the Highwayman and his victim! I think we look pretty good.
This next group of photos is self-explanatory. It just had to be done! Bad bear!
We saw a sign for Raindale Mill and set off to find it. It was outside the castle walls along the riverside. It wasn't hugely exciting however as it was all locked up. Apparently, they moved the Mill here in the 1960s and brought it back to working order in 2012, so that it is possible to see the waterwheel turning. It wasn't turning the day we were there! At least the sun had come out!
Done with the museum, we took a few minutes to check out the gift shop - which was quite extensive, but no bear shirts - before heading outside, ready to meet our 1pm taxi. Clifford's Tower is just outside and looked great in the sunshine. Not bad for February!
We were a few minutes early and, as this was half term, there were a few viking activities going on around the city. We met these two outside the museum - they seemed nice enough, but then the younger one was a little rude about koalas and Kenny took offence!
Our next stop was lunch at the Teddy Bear Tea Rooms. We'd initially only got an hour, but our short stay at Jorvik, and the taxi ride, meant that we had nearly two hours, which was a good job, considering the speed of service! We took a quick photo of everyone. The Tea Rooms are above the Stonegate Teddy Bears shop. It's a small shop, jam packed with teddies of all types, although even this place didn't have much in the way of clothing for bears (without buying the bear too). They had some great chaps in costume - policeman, Robin Hood and others. Booooo!
The Tea Rooms are on the first and second floors (second and third floors in American, as UK has a ground floor, and the US has a first!) There was a tight staircase, and a few tables and chairs on each floor. When we arrived there were no free tables, but soon a family was leaving so we were able to grab a spot. With six humans and a lot of bears, we asked and they were relatively happy for us to push two tables together so we could sit as a group.
We perused the menu, before ordering. Sandwiches, coffee juice and Coke all around, but I chose the cheese on toast. The boys and I shared a slab of lemon drizzle cake, with a little clotted cream for afters! The food was nice enough, but the service was incredibly slow. The layout is tricky - with the kitchen and drinks being made on the top floor and the waitresses running up and down stairs a LOT! You can imagine they must get pretty tired at the end of the day. That said, it took ages to get the cake and coffee.
We dropped them a Ted for the service, but also because, even though these are Teddy Bear Tea Rooms, we were nine teddy bears and no one mentioned it! Bizarre! It wasn't bad, and four Teds is a good score, but I couldn't - in good conscience - give them five! (Besides, I'm not Janice Nicholls - go look her up!)
Our next activity was a little archaelogy. We set off through The Shambles, possibly the best preserved medieval street in the world. They are predominantly touristy shops these days - chocolates, gift shops as well as a sausage shop!
We got to Jorvik Dig at about 3.05pm for our 3.30pm tour. We got a discounted combined ticket with Jorvik but we were still here to get our paws a little dirty-ish. The reception staff were a little dismissive of all our adult humans - "there is a tour, but it's mostly aimed at children and we have an exhibition." We replied, "Oh, no, we're here for the tour!" We had time to spare so headed into the exhibition area.
I have to say, it's not huge. There is an explanation about how digs are carried out, in particular the Hungate dig in York, carried out between 2006 and 2011. There is a small collection of artefacts here There is also access to more information via an interactive database. The whole exhibition took me ten minutes (I didn't read every little thing, but there were just two rooms of stuff).
Kinda bored with the exhibition, I spent my remaining ten minutes or so in the gift shop. This was much more fun. Better prices in here than Jorvik (I thought), with some nice stuff - a little safety helmet bottle opener, but it was too small for me. The usual pads and pens, bags and t-shirts, but nothing too exciting. I bought a notepad as they are always useful for my travel notes. Oh yeah, and they had helmets, swords and shields. Woohoo! This is more like it!
We were led into a private room by our Dig guide, Bethany. Unfortunately, there weren't enough seats for all of the humans (let alone the bears) so standing was required. Bethany then talked us through some of the findings of the Hungate dig, letting us handle some of artefacts as she passed them around. Not sure she'd had a class of quite so many bears before as she seemed a little unnerved by us, initially ignoring our paws in the air when she asked questions, though she did come around a little towards the end, when she'd asked all the stickies first. We saw animal bones as well as pots from different eras.
Then it was time to go digging for treasure! Sort of. There are four pits representative of four different ages. The group on the tour split themselves up so that we got a pit each (and then rotated around). We started in Blake Street, York, a representation of a dig carried out in York in 1976 of a Roman Fortress, built from AD160 to AD210.
The bear-sized trowels were provided and we got stuck in, uncovering the walls of the Roman building by moving aside the rubber pellets in the pits. it was great fun, although Bethany left us mostly to our own devices. To be fair to her, I'm not sure we were as serious about finding the treasures beneath as we were playing in the pellets.
Our next pit was Medieval Fishergate, which had an old priory, with burial remains. So the sign says, not sure we found any. BooBoo preferred standing on his head, and we got a bit carried away with Reddy and the burying thing. In Victorian Hungate we did have a look for artefacts, almost properly. In the doorway BooBoo and I found an old brass buckle pressed into the floor!
Our final pit was Viking Coppergate and a Viking workshop that was in operation a thousand years ago (AD876 to AD1066). If I'm honest, we didn't find very much, but we didn't spend a lot of time looking, we were too busy messing around (and the humans were too busy chatting!) That said, it was a great laugh and we certainly enjoyed this part of the experience.
The final stage is to stand around a U-shaped table with two trays (red and blue) of artefacts, such as bones, antlers and other bits and pieces. Bethany told us about stuff and got us to rootle in the trays. It didn't quite go to plan as there were a couple of 'oh, that shouldn't be in there' and the like, but overall we learnt a little bit about archaeology. Bethany certainly knows her stuff and had warmed up to us a bit so she was more relaxed - to be fair, I don't supposed she gets a lot of furry guests!
I couldn't help bashing Reddy with a femur, cavebear style! I found this jawbone in one of my trays - I think it's dead! At the very end of the session, Bethany passed round some real Viking artefacts, albeit in protective cases. We saw a comb and this here is a sole of a shoe! Amazing.
They lost a Ted because of the weak exhibition and the cool attitude to start. It's quite expensive to do just this, but combined with the Jorvik Centre it's not too bad. Still a little pricier than I think it's worth - compared with other attractions in the area - but we certainly had more fun at Dig York than I expected to. It helped to have my pals with me, so we were in our own little group hanging out. All that said, it was informative, very hands-on for kids and quite a good way to spend a little over an hour.
We left Dig York right on time to make our 5pm Chocolate tour at York's Chocolate Story. It was a good job we pre-booked, as the two folks in line in front of us were the last ones they let on the tour, as it was full. Having pre-booked we were in! Phew, that would've been a big letdown after the great day we'd had.
Once we'd checked in, we had about ten minutes to wander the shop. If I'm honest it was a little disappointing - they had quite a big shop but everything seemed so expensive. I expect some premium stuff, but that's all I found! I ended up just buying my Twitter buddy Jeremy (@JezzerBear) some orange Space Hopper chocolate!
We had to go up to the second floor to begin the tour in The Story Zone. There were no photographs allowed of this part of the tour (boooooo!) so you'll have to take my word for what happened. Our guide - Dougie - introduced himself and took us into the chocolate covered lift (no, it wasn't a Great Glass Elevator!). We stepped off the lift into a room with a big tree and just a few chairs. Here, we saw a bit of a movie and Dougie explained about the origins of chocolate. Then he gave us a sample of early chilli chocolate - it seemed very thin and watered down, but with a chilli kick (below left).
I have to say that here, Dougie embraced the stuffies. He was a bit surprised to see a bear, then another and another as we explained we were on a stuffie tweetup but he welcomed us to the tour. As we progressed through the tour, we learned a little more about the history of chocolate, from the Mayans through to the London chocolate houses.
Through interactive moving pictures, we met the leading players in chocolate in York - the Quakers, the Cravens, the Tukes, the Rowntrees and, of course, Terry's. It was a different way of bringing these characters to life to explain how the chocolate industry in York came to be. It was very good. The history was interspersed with a sample of chocolate drops (below centre and right) which are melted to form the chocolates we know. We then saw a little footage of real people who used to work in chocolate in York! Then we finished off the Story Zone with a sample of Quality Street. Yum!
The next stage of the tour was on the first floor and now photographs were permitted. Dougie took full advantage of this! So, while he was getting his photo taken, we figured we'd join in too - it was our #northerntweetup after all! He was happy to oblige. They had three types of cocoa bean on display. From left to right there was Criollo, the rarest and most expensive cocoa been in the world - chocolates made from these beans were, I think £162 a piece! The Forastero is the most common cocoa bean and the only one grown in Africa. It provides the "classic" chocolate flavour. The third bean is the Trinitario and is a hybrid of the other two, the bean is more resistant than Criollo but with a more delicate flavour than Forastero.
Dougie decided that I should volunteer to demonstrate how they actually make the chocolate. Phew, it was hard work, I had to keep spinning wheels and stuff. It starts when the beans are picked and left to ferment for several days, then they are left to dry in the sun or a kiln. Once dry they are washed and roasted, the temperature depending on the the required result. This is where I came in. The beans are placed in a grinding machine so the beans are first cracked and then the lighter shell is removed from the heavier insides (the nibs) using blowers. My first spinning machine represented this process. If you can see on the photo (below left) it says "You did it! You successfully separated the nibs."
The next wheel (below centre) represents the crushing of the nibs - which can take several days - creating a heavy paste called chocolate liquor. This is a combination of cocoa fat (butter) and finely ground cocoa. This is further processed to separate these two components. My assistant had to do the next stage as it was a touch screen and it didn't detect my paw - so she had to spin the mixture - called conching - to fold the heated chocolate, creating the final flavour and smoothness of the it, removing any moisture.
The chocolate is tempered by cooling and heating to create chocolate crystals that determine how crispy and snappy the final chocolate will be. I may have taken the distribution stage a tad too seriously as I filled the moulds with chocolate (below left and centre). I found if I overfilled the moulds, the chocolate was rejected, so I kept doing this - someone, after all, would have to deal with (or eat!) the rejected chocolate, I figured. I couldn't help myself in the pretend chocolate lying on the counter (below right) as I had to have a roll around in it!
Demonstration over, Dougie took us across the room to another wheel, which shows the array of flavours that can be added to chocolate. In the dish in the middle are some pieces of chocolate and we all got a bit - Dougie explained how to properly taste it for best effect - it really worked. (You'll have to ask him!)
We were then let loose on the rest of the exhibition. They had a special Smarties event on for half term, so we got to try our paws at Guinness Book of Records sorting Smarties with chopsticks - Kenny and I were both rubbish! Chopsticks aren't easy for bears! Smarties were created by Frenchman August Claude Gaget, who was hired by Rowntree in 1879. For them he developed Chocolate Beans, Rowntree's Pastilles and Rowntree's Clear Gums. The Chocolate Beans proved very popular, selling by weight in Woolworths and Marks and Spencer. In the 1930s, George Harris took over responsibility for branding, renaming Chocolate Beans as Smarties and placing them in brightly coloured tubes and cartons. Today Nestlé make 146 billion Smarties per year!
Not sure who this chap is (below left) - I guess he was involved in advertising at some point. It probably said, it's just the assistant was too lazy to take a photo to remind me! I do know about this tin of cocoa though - it belonged to Captain Scott! Rowntree's staff raised money for Scott's expedition and he visited the factory, giving lectures, leaving with armfuls of cocoa. This tin of cocoa was found in his camp by the rescue party who found Scott's remains. Amazing, eh? Below right, well, that's a box of chocolates - if there's a story, I don't remember it! Nice though.
This next part was great fun! Each of us got to make our own chocolate lolly! Pawesome! With two people (or bears) per tray we were each served with a circle of chocolate on the stick. We then had buckets of small Smarties, large Smarties, white chocolate shavings, strawberry balls and nibs to make our lolly creation.
I asked for - and got - extra ears on mine!! Woohoo! Extra chocolate and the chance to make a TourGuideTed chocolate lolly - which I did! I used the shavings for my fur and Smarties for my eyes, nose and ears. Can you see the likeness? Close-up shortly.
While our lollies were left to set, we got another demonstration, this time of the tempering process. This chap had a big bucket of melted chocolate (below right) and added some of those chocolate chips I described in the early part of the tour.
He demonstrated how chocolates could be hand made - dunking the mould into the melted chocolate, wiping off the excess and leaving to drain and cool. This created the upper outer casing which he then filled before spreading more chocolate on the top and wiping off the excess. A quick cool and he tipped them out onto a serving tray. Fortunately, we got to sample them! We also got a pawful of the mini-Smarties as they'd had two tons (one of each large and small) delivered for the half-term week Smartie extravaganza! What a shame!
To finish our visit to York's Chocolate Story, we were presented with our chocolate lollies. Aren't they fabulous? Well, mine is! It tasted darned good too! Yum!! Don't you think it looks just like me? Heehee, you're probably right!
That was it! We headed back to our starting point, Betty's Tea Rooms. There we said goodbye to Reddy and Pink Ted, Kenny and Sheila and their humans. They were heading home, while we were staying with BooBoo and his mummy for dinner. We had about a half hour wait for a table before being seated inside. Not sure why, but it took another half hour before we got our drinks order, so we dropped them a Ted. Boy they were slow. We ordered our meals and they arrived soon after.
The food we had was pretty good when it arrived, although the five of us bears were a bit crammed onto the spare chair. It was pretty hectic in Bettys, but it's a nice place and there was a pianist present on both of our visits. The food we ordered was Goat's Cheese and Beetroot Open Sandwich, Bacon and Raclette Rosti and something with chips! I can't remember. What do you want? Blood...er, stuffing?
Once dinner was over, we said goodbye to BooBoo, Jingle Bells and his mummy, who were catching the train home and then we walked back to our B&B for the evening. Yawn. What a fabulous, fun, but tiring day.
