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Here you join us at our second stop of our initial three-city tour: the beautiful city of York, where we put on a show at the absolutely stunning All-Saints Church. York is an ancient city, which pleased Sean to no end when he and Karen went walking along the old Roman wall.

Looking down an old street in the city of York. In the background, slightly obscured by mist, the towers of York Minster rise above the building-tops.

Our first sighting of York Minster. This was taken on our way to All-Saints from our lodgings. Sean was quite taken with it.

The two-towers of York Minster, seen from across the street. The gothic sandstone architecture, with its many alcoves and pointed angles, stands out against the modern street. The tops of the towers are lost in the morning mists.

The Minster, up close. Sadly, they weren't allowing anyone inside at the time of our visit. Just means we'll be back, really.

A view from the back of All-Saints Church. Several wooden pews sit in neat rows, the paths between them paved with ancient grave markers with words chiseled in latin. The stone pillars and arches mark this as a truly ancient structure.

The first look at All-Saints Church. The church itself has been in operation for roughly the last thousand years, possibly more.The warden was nice enough to give us a tour of the building, pointing out the oldest areas and some of the grave-markers that make up the walkways and flooring. He was a nice chap, and didn't even get worried when Sean asked him how many bodies were buried in the floor. He did, however, relate to us that they were all in a pile in the corner, now, as someone in history must have dug them all up to raise the floor of the building and tossed them all in a nice heap.

Several ancient oak branches, bent and gnarled, being used as support joists in the cieling of All-Saints. In the background, almost out of the shot, is the top of their small pipe-organ.

These are original oak timbers on the "New" side of the church, still holding the walls from caving in after roughly 800 years. At that age, I'd wager they're harder than steel. The church warden told us that one of the columns these timbers are attached to, a beautiful red-stone piece, was likely cannibalized from an old roman ruin just a few hundred feet away. Why build new pillars when you can steal one from a falling building?

One of the many stained glass windows at All-Saints. This one is in three sections, showing many religious scenes.

Some of the reconstructed stained glass windows in All-Saints. Since most windows such as this were destroyed (and then saved) during the reformation, there's very little to indicate which windows originally went where, so they were pieced together as best they could.

A carved, wooden angel carrying an unknown object with it. The left side (from the veiwer) of the angel is charred and burned, while the right side is the color of fresh clay.

"The Burned Angel"
This little guy was scorched when, some years back, someone set All-Saints Church on fire. Evidently the flames spread in the area quite quickly, but they stopped at this little guy, who still hangs from the chapel ceiling, half-charred.

Sean Walter standing in a pulpit, holding a copy of Tales in Sombre Tones, with a glass of red wine in front of him. He's reading from the book, his face a contorted caricature of zealousness. High right fist is in the air. In the background, several stained glass windows have light shining through them.

When you're in a thousand year old church, you drink red wine. When you're doing a reading in a thousand year old church, you over-emote. If you don't, I just don't know if we can be friends.

Our DJ, Jay, standing in front of his music setup, in front of a large, ornate, wooden archway. A laser-bal shows bright pink lights on most of his equipment.

Jay, our constant DJ, doing his setup for our second evening party. While the party itself was small, we all had a great time. How often can you say you partied in an active church, after all?

A dark close-up view of the artwork setup at All-Saints. Dim light comes in through the stained glass windows. An orange spotlight lights up a statue of the virgin Mary, and each piece of artwork is illuminated only by a dim, white light above them. The bottom of the image is lost in shadow.

One of my favorite pictures from this stop. Karen took several, but there's something about this one. It was taken the night of our evening party, just as the sun was setting. The glow from the stained glass and the overhead lamps on the artwork is just spectacular.

A close-up of a bronze-cast cross with Christ crucified upon it is the focus. Behind it, in the distance, there stands the artwork walls, each piece suspended from a chain and lit by an art-lamp above it. A recreation of the original tile floor makes up the flooring.

Another picture by Karen, this time a beautiful pseudo-juxtaposition.  After all, what is a cross but a painful torture device? It seemed fitting when surrounded by the artwork.
That did it for York. We packed our things and once again woke up far too early to pack up and head away, this time towards Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and Vane Gallery.

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