We spent most of the day walking around York. The walls surrounding the city can be climbed on and you can walk around the top for a long way, which is quite interesting.

Because of the royal visit on the 27^th, the walls would be closed, the city center shut down and most of the stores were to take the day off. Police were combing the city and the station for security, while the local council were running around planting flowers and covering up graffiti. The news was full of bits regarding this, the first visit by the royal couple to York in 12 years. As we were planning to leave in the morning of the 27^th, we checked at the railway station as to whether there might be some delays. Sure enough, the royal couple would be arriving by train just about when we were planning to leave and there would likely be delays.

I bought a Doctor Who CD at the local Borders Bookstore and was quite surprised that the two cashiers broke out into a whole bit about how they loved the music and began humming it quite loudly and quite badly. That devolved into a discussion (and more bad humming) of the music of Blakes 7. I was among kindred spirits.

The museum in York was holding a special BBC Walking with Dinosaurs Exhibit (the other point of tomorrows royal tour). As always, where there are dinosaurs, I must go. It was quite interesting, but nothing compared to the British Museum of Natural History.

In the evening we took a Ghost cruise on the river Ouse. A Ghost cruise is a river trip hosted by someone telling ghost stories about York, the most haunted city in Europe. Sadly, daylight stretches from about 3:30AM to about 10:30 at night and the 7:00PM tour felt like it was still mid-afternoon. It ruined most of the effect of the ghost stories, but the boat trip was pleasant.