Tokyo

Dave with some modern art in a shopping centre

After our skiing in Niseko we spent a couple of days in Tokyo. Last time we went to Japan we flew via Osaka, which was a slightly strange choice. This time I thought we would actually spend some time in the most famous Japanese city. It is a strange one, I can understand the fascination. We were staying near the Shibuya crossing, if you ever see file footage of thousands of Japanese people crossing a road, odds are it's this one.

It's a strange city, Tokyo, for a start it's massive.  I never really appreciated just how big it is, but you'll get on the tube for 40 minutes and then when you exit it's like you haven't moved.  You are still in the middle of a massive city.  London feels big, but if I got on the tube from central London for 40 minutes wherever you ended up would feel completely different from where you got on.  Whereas Tokyo feels very much like it's all the same, these massive concrete apartment blocks.  I have to say overall it wasn't an attractive city, I mean there are bits that are nice, and bits that have a different feel.  But there wasn't like there was this single skyline view that you could recognise, and go, yeah that's Tokyo.  I mean it felt like the most recognisable shot was the pedestrian crossing in Shibuya, which is saying something.

We went to the Edo-Tokyo museum, which is in a really cool, elevated building.  And inside there are all these scale models of buildings and towns.  It also had a really interesting section on Tokyo during World War II.  I really did not appreciate the scale of devastation from that War.  Everything I have learned has always been about the damage to Europe and really how much the eventual winners suffered.  I'd never realised that basically half the city was destroyed and 200,000 people were killed.  Though it seems amazing that Tokyo is still around, given that in 1923 it was also completely destroyed in an earthquake and resulting firestorm.  So in the last 100 years Tokyo has been completely rebuilt twice.  It's incredible that there are 35 million people there, and that it actually seems to function as a city.  It certainly explains the unbelievably ugly buildings.  For such a famous city the vast majority of it is really ugly.  But then I suppose they just needed to house as many people as they could as fast as possible.

View of Sensoji Temple in the midst of Tokyo

The other thing I noticed was that there weren't many parks, given that everyone seems to live in apartments I would have thought that there would be more green areas for people to use.  But all the parks seemed to be attached to either a museum, castle or cemetery, you couldn't just have a park. There also wasn't the same feeling of villages that you get in London, where there is a definite centre of the city, then each little area has quite a distinctive feel (at least in zones 1 and 2). In Tokyo all the areas feel pretty much the same, dense apartment blocks. This makes it even stranger when you happen across a temple or museum, since it really stands out from the surrounding concrete.

The park in Sensoji Temple with an arcade ride behind

You can't visit Japan without seeing a few temples. A massive complex in Tokyo is the Sensoji temple (near Asakusa), it's really popular. We visited a few temples, sometimes you just can't help it. And in each one I was struck by how much the people still follow the religion (?) I guess you would call it that, perhaps it's just more tradition. The cleansing, the clapping and throwing of coins and the praying. Coming from the UK to another country which is quite similar in a lot of ways, and yet in this is quite different. It was a bit of culture shock for me.

Looking over the village (and animatronic cat) in Fukugawa museum

There are so many museums in Tokyo, the issue is really travelling all over the city finding them all. We had a few instances where we struggled to find the underground stations, you somehow find yourself on a massive pedestrian walkway that you can't get off and is heading in the wrong direction. I think they need a few more signs directing people to the stations, they certainly weren't overly obvious.

Another museum we went to was the Fukugawa-Edo museum which is a recreation of a full, life-size, village from 19th century Tokyo (then called Edo). It's a tiny little museum, and we didn't see any English speaking guides or anything, in fact we had some trouble understanding that the ticket seller wanted us to stow our bags. But the museum itself has a peaceful atmosphere and apparently there are meant to be English speaking guides to take you around. We just got a printed sheet. The other thing to remember (in fact should be a given for Japan) is to wear socks that you can walk around in. Since here you can take off your shoes and enter all the exhibits (or houses). I really have to remember to not pack holey socks when I go to Japan.

Gate from Imperial Palace with Tokyo beyond

Of course a must see when visiting is the Imperial Palace, you don't get to see the bit where the royalty lives, they are very well hidden from the tourists, but you do get to see some of the old Palace. Mainly it's just a massive garden. There were some buildings scattered through the gardens, but you couldn't go into any of them. So a little different from most national castles in towns you visit. The gardens were nice though, good to get out of the bustle of Tokyo. We were also getting into cherry blossom season it seemed. There was one lone cherry tree blossoming and it was completely swamped with people. There were also pear and apple trees blossoming (which to my untrained eye look identical to cherries) and yet they were getting no attention. It was really all down to the cherries.

We managed to do a lot of museum visiting whilst in Tokyo, we also got along to the Museum of Contemporary Art, these can be a bit hit and miss, sometimes they are really great. This was a better than average one. I suppose I was expecting more East Asian artists, but there was a Spanish artist exhibition on at the time. If modern art reflects the society it is created in, then Spain has a real problem with feminism. Holy cow, it was like every second piece was exploring woman's role in Spanish society, or machismo, or discrimination, man it was a bit overwhelming. Glad I'm not a woman in Spain, if that art is reflective of their attitude towards them, because man they have problems. The art itself was pretty cool though, and there were some pieces by Japanese artists.

Prada building - just one of many awesome buildings

One of the highlights of the trip was this little self-guided walk we did through the Harajuku district. It borders Shibuya, and it's like a completely different world. Shibuya is totally overwhelming with the number of people, and then you go one street over, and you are in this completely calm, but still very lively, area. Oh it was so nice, when you imagine Tokyo I think Harajuku is what you are picturing, just shops and restaurants, and bars and people strolling along. But with lots of colour and weird things in the windows.

The self-guided walk was all about architecture, perhaps the other good thing about having to constantly rebuild your city is that there aren't any Grade II listed buildings which need to be maintained. So if a rich company wants to create a flagship store, they seem to generally start from scratch, plus they also seem to be a lot more willing to try crazy things. Ever couple of hundred metres there would be another great building. I'm normally fairly indifferent to architecture, but these buildings really changed my mind about it.

Another highlight was the Asakura Museum of Sculpture. It's the artist Asakura Fumio's house (he's dead now), originally it was his workplace and school and now it's a museum of both his sculptures and his house. He had a great house, centred around this courtyard, which is basically just a pond, filled with light and his sculptures. Definitely worth a visit.

Cotswolds

In the bird sanctuary

I'm surprised we have been in the UK this long and yet still hadn't visited the Cotswolds.  It's this region off to the north east from London, it's not really a county itself, but takes in bits of other counties.  It is meant to be full of these lovely medieval type villages of stone, which have been largely untouched from modernisation thanks to the Industrial Revolution. They used to be a massive textiles area and were incredibly wealthy in medieval times, thanks to all the sheep they had round there, and their great wool. The area was known for their yarn and such like. With all that wealth came stone houses and prosperous villages.

When we started to get into the Industrial Revolution, when things might have gone bad for the Cotswolds, most people ended up leaving the area to go work in factories elsewhere. This meant the villages were never really "updated" and the great stone houses and tiny little lanes still survive. It's definitely an area you need a car, though there is the Cotswolds Way, a long distance walk, through the area.  I'm not sure what it would be like in the height of summer, it is an incredibly popular area, I imagine the driving can be fairly busy in August.

A pair of the cranes - viewed from a hide

Flamingo stretching in the sun

I unfortunately got a bit sick during this visit, so there were less outdoor adventures than there usually are, we did manage to find this great bird sanctuary, seriously if you are in the area you have to go.  It was called Slimbridge, near the river Severn, basically you just keep driving along smaller and smaller roads until you come to this wildlife reserve.  They have so many birds there, I was blown away, it's mainly water birds. They even had black swans from WA.

There were some otters there, though they weren't being very otter-y the day we visited.  Mostly hanging out the back of their enclosure.  That was about it for animals, they had a little reptile enclosure, mainly full of amphibians. Really it was all about the birds.

It's a real bird watchers hot spot, with heaps of hides around the edge, full of people with massive cameras. They were very proud of their cranes. These birds used to be native to the UK but then seemed to disappear for 400 years or so. They have recently started to recolonise parts of the country, and this place has got some funding to help breed some. The baby cranes are hand-reared, but everyone has to wear smocks and crane heads, so they don't get used to humans. We didn't see any of that, though we did see some crane pairs, which was pretty cool. Even if you aren't into cranes there are so many other birds there, a lot of ducks and swans. I didn't realise there were so many species of swans. There were an awful lot of flamingos too, that was probably the strangest bird. You don't often see flamingos against the backdrop of the gentle English landscape. None of the birds were in aviaries or anything, so they could always fly away if they wanted. I don't think their wings were clipped, that probably would go against the whole point of this place if they did that. I guess they just liked hanging out here, I'm not sure what happens during their migratory periods, perhaps the enclosures are really bare during winter.

Ducks and flamingos chilling together

I would have liked to see some more of the neolithic remains that they have in the area. There seemed to be a lot of barrows and even some passage tombs, that didn't seem to be as well advertised as what you might think it should be. We did a little visiting around the villages, I think the villages in the northern region are the more famous Cotswold-y ones. They were still nice, I just wasn't sure what you were meant to do with them.

Big skies in the Cotswolds

The weekend turned into more of a wildlife adventure, especially after we found the bird sanctuary. I also saw my first ever road kill in action, it was a poor little squirrel. We were coming towards another car and we saw a squirrel run across the road. At the time we were happy that it had got across, because it was a little close, and then straight after it, it's little friend squirrel started to go to. We even heard the bang as the other car hit it. At first it looked ok, it was still moving as we drove past. But this was basically the entry and exit road to where we were staying so there was a lot of driving up it. The next time we went past, we saw the little squirrel lying there. And then every time after that we had to see it. It was a bit traumatic seeing a little animal killed right in front of you. 

Spring time is here

Apart from that the weekend went well, it's definitely a nice area if you want to relax. I think I would avoid the height of summer, unless sitting in traffic jams is your idea of relaxation.

Duck about to lose it on the falling seeds

Bedgebury 10km

A couple of firsts for us this weekend.  Our first experience driving in London and our first visit to the Bedgebury Pinetum.  There was a 10km race through the forest, all on trails.  It was a really great race, one of the best organised ones I've ever competed in.  Everyone was split into 8 different waves, so even though there were a lot of people competing, it never felt busy, since you would only start with maybe 100 or so people at the most.  The course was really well marked, with drink stations, and heaps of marshals around.  I got the best entry shirt I have ever got at one of these events.  The price was high for a running race, I mean parkrun does weekly races for free after all. But the quality of the course and the organisation was definitely worth it.  It was a tough 10km as well, quite hilly, and a lot of the downhill sections were on really rough single track, so there was never much of a break. It would be good to go back to this forest, there looked to be a lot of mountain bike trails throughout the forest which were well signposted.  It didn't look like you could hire bikes there though, so it may be a little while before we are back.

The driving in London was an interesting experience, it was better than what I thought it would be. At least leaving London was pretty easy, driving on the M25 was a slightly different matter.  You have three lanes of traffic all moving at incredibly different speeds, that always makes it fun to change lanes.  The way they merge here is also pretty different, you have cars trying to join the 110km/hr motorway with basically no merging lane, they either get in first try or are stuck at the entrance. It's an unusual approach to road safety.

Miranda Hart

We got ourselves along to the O2 centre for the first time.  It's this massive arena at the very end of the peninsula of North Greenwich, it's actually really easy for us to get there from home. There is a bus that stops right outside our house that goes there.

Miranda Hart has been a bit of a revelation for me over here. I guess she's been around for a while and has been on a few TV shows already, but it's only here that I discovered her, purely through her own TV show. I find it so funny, but I guess I like that slightly slap-sticky humour. I'm guessing that it's not for everyone.

The weird thing is, unlike other comedians she never got her start doing stand up. One of her first stand up shows was at the O2, which is quite incredible when you think about it. It was packed, it was a sell-out and she had to keep putting more shows on to keep up with the demand. She did pretty well for her first stand-up tour. I think she started in the smaller towns first, it would have been incredibly intimidating to be facing the vastness of the O2 arena as your first live comedy show.

It was great, she was probably a little nervous in parts, and the best parts were definitely when she deviated a little from her script. Then it felt a bit more natural and way more funny. I'm hoping she does some more tours, and relaxes more, at some points it felt a little like watching her TV show. The crowd was so genuinely supportive, they really wanted her to succeed, no hecklers for Miranda. It was a great night and I would see any show of hers. If you haven't already, definitely give the boxed set a go.

Skiing in Japan

On the slopes - about to fall off a cliff - with the volcano in the background

Dave and I had our first ever skiing holiday this winter.  And yes, we went to Japan to do it. Perhaps a little crazy, given that we are next to the French Alps, and there is even some skiing available on the same island as us. But would I make the same choice again?  You're damn straight I would!!  We were staying in Niseko, which is a ski resort on Sapporo, the island up the north of Japan.  And it was like this winter wonderland.  This must be what skiing is meant to be like, coming from Australia it was always kind of hard to understand the fascination. I think I'm a total convert now.

On the slopes

This resort town is completely Anglicised, all the ski instructors speak English, as do all the restaurants, and yet the food is all Japanese, yummo!  There was 15 m of snow in the town, yet people were still driving around, the roads had just been carved into the snow.  Walking along you have these massive walls of snow next to you, far higher than you can see over, it's incredible.  They are meant to get something like 30cm of powder every day, a local we met was whinging because we had only been getting 15cm. As you are skiing you have a view across to an active volcano, which looks almost exactly like Mt Fuji. Thinking back on it, it's incredible that a place like this exists, you would not change a thing about it.  The skiing is so good, they actually have to put signs up saying that you aren't allowed to ski through the town, just because there is so much snow that you could easily ski from the slopes to your room.  Unbelievable.

Lovely, lovely slopes

Couldn't ask for better weather

There are 3 resorts on this one mountain, and if you are really experienced you can actually catch a chair lift all the way to the top and then ski down to another resort. We are a long way from that standard, but luckily we are catered for as well. In that there is a free shuttle bus that drives between all the resorts. So if you are finding it too difficult where you are, you can just jump on the bus and go somewhere else.  Or if you go bored with the same runs, you can just try a different part of the mountain. They even have a mobile app showing you all the runs, their level of difficulty, their length, and the maximum and minimum steepness.  The last two numbers were really the most important for a beginner.

We did make the mistake that I think all beginners make at some point, of thinking we could tackle a particular run. Our instructor had warned us against it, but we were growing confident, and it was still marked as an easy run. Oh boy, were we in for a massive confidence crusher. This thing was like a cliff, you come up to the edge, and you can't see where the run goes, it's that steep. It was way too steep for the snow plow, it came down to the old side step, though to be honest I actually took the skis off and walked part way down. It took a long time to get down that run. Then we decided to go back up to the super easy part, and I had the worst stack ever. Smashed the back of my head on rock hard ice getting off the ski lift. Not a good end to that day. Lucky I was wearing a helmet, I don't think I would ski without one, after that experience.

Our last resort of the holiday

We had two days of lessons, and man that was such a good idea.  Next time skiing I would go for a few days longer, and intersperse the lessons with skiing by myself and rest days.  The fact that we were there for only 4 days meant that we really wanted to get in as much skiing as we could, so we were out on the slopes all day, every day.  Our first lesson was so good, it was just 3 of us with the instructor.  We started off on tiny little slopes, and there was even a magic carpet, so you didn't have to battle with the ski lifts straight up.  I think the ski lifts were definitely the worst part of the whole ski trip. Though to be honest, I even managed a terrible fall on the magic carpet, the assistant had to stop the whole ride and help me up.

But once we had mastered the little slopes and the good old snow plows, it was up the mountain. There was this great little stretch which was almost perfectly flat, with a whole heap of powder, that we could just go down and up on.  Over and over again, it was the perfect start to skiing, since even if you fell over it was into a massive snow drift.  Though I don't think I managed to get off the ski lift properly at all that day.  I think the trick is to wait until the absolute last minute before standing up, but even then it's a bit touch and go.

Looking down from almost the top of the mountain

We did another full day lesson the next day, that was a much harder day, the weather was a lot better, the day before we had been skiing whilst the powder was falling.  But this day was clear blue skies.  There was a whole pack of school kids learning snowboarding too, they were really scary to share the slopes with. They were total beginners.  Perhaps I sound like a ski snob, but snowboarders were by far the most scary people on the slopes. I got hit twice, when I was just standing waiting for the lift.  Both times were by snowboarders. One of them actually grabbed hold of me and started to pull me along. I had to shake him off, holy cow, get some lessons before you go round smashing into people!  The sound they make when they come up behind you is really scary too, as is the fact that they have a massive blind spot.  I just tried to give them all a really wide berth.

I will definitely be back to this spot.  I might try a bit of skiing in Europe first, to see if it's as good. I have my doubts. If you like skiing, get yourself to Niseko, you won't be disappointed.

Luxembourg

View to the lower part of the town with the crazy cliffs

Luxembourg was a surprise to me. I had never really had that much of a desire to go there, I think I kind of thought it would be like Brussels, a rather clinical, boring town, full of big buildings and empty streets.  I couldn't have been more wrong.  It was almost Parisian, with a dash of Dutch austerity.  We were staying in a very fancy hotel right on the Place des Armees, which is the main square in the old part of town.  We barely ventured out of the cobble stoned area.  The houses looked very French, and the food was definitely French, but the streets were so clean and everyone felt really rich.  So much less French in that instance, perhaps a bit more like the Swiss.  It is a funny little country, only 80kms long, and yet it felt that there was a lot to offer.  I think I could definitely live there if the need (or opportunity) ever arose.  They have a region in their country called Little Switzerland after all!  Though to be fair, the highest mountain in this region is only 414m high, I think to the Dutch people settling here it felt like Switzerland, to the Swiss, probably not so much.

The organ in the church - with oddly placed camera

We went to a really nice restaurant whilst we were there as well, Le Bouquet Garni, which has a star, so we booked in advance.  And it's a really nice restaurant, very cozy, not many tables, with lovely exposed beams and a view out to the cobble stoned street.  It was all very nice, with great staff who made you feel so relaxed and at home.  I was the one who booked the restaurant, so I knew how much the various menus were.  But then when they gave us the menus in the restaurant, only Dave's had prices on it.  Aaaah nothing like a bit of casual sexism.  I guess Luxembourg is still living in the olden days.

The most hilarious thing though was an elderly couple who came in later.  We were enjoying our lovely meal, having some wine and just having a great time.  Then these two showed up, without a reservation, and they had the most sour faces I have ever seen.  They were given the only table remaining, which granted was a little smaller than ours, and without a street view.  But the way they carried on, it was like they had just been dealt a mortal insult.  The sense of entitlement those people had was unbelievable.  I've never met anyone like that before, what sort of life must they have led to think that they have so many more rights than anyone else in that restaurant.  It sure put a bit of a dampener on the mood, I kind of wanted to have a go at them for carrying on like they were.  But then probably best to steer clear of such crazies.  So apart from that couple, the food, and wine, and service and ambiance was all perfect.  Would definitely eat there again, just if you are a woman, make sure you check the prices before you go in.  I wonder what they would have done if two women were dining together?

The river through the town - often flooded in the past

Weird art in the monastery - the skyline looks familiar

We, of course, did a walking tour, because how can we not.  And as usual it was pretty good, and surprisingly run by a local.  A lot of the time in non-English speaking countries it seems that you end up with other outsiders running the show. What made it so sweet was that the guide obviously loved Luxembourg so much, they couldn't imagine living anywhere else.  They took us round to this little shop where in the window there are all these weird ceramic birds, painted in various ways.  Apparently this is a thing in Luxembourg.  And then amongst the birds are photos of the royal family.  She was a real monarchist this tour guide, which I thought was quite touching, at least the way she felt about the family, quite protective.

The town had that great feel that you can get in only these tiny, rich countries.  In that the Prime Minister would often be out and about whilst the tour was running, so would come out and speak to the participants.  And there is no security to speak of, we all gathered in the courtyard of the government buildings, and you wouldn't have even known it was the centre of administration.  Even the Duke has been seen at restaurants when he's staying in town.  It's a much different feel to the UK or Australia, where you only get close to the leaders under very artificial circumstances.

Apparently there are at least 3 languages spoken in Luxembourg, the usual are English and French (they seem to be the most common), but they also have their own language, Luxembourgish, which I didn't realise.  I didn't really hear anyone speaking that, but apparently if you go out into the countryside most people are speaking that, and no English at all.

Massive vase near the court

The town itself is really interesting from a topological point of view.  You have almost two old towns, one is on an escapement behind battlements, and looks seriously hard to invade.  This escapement pokes out into this strange promontory, where they used to have their castle.  The escapement is serious cliffs, there's no way you could scale it.  Then at the base of this you have the river and what used to be the very poor part of town.  Mainly because the river used to flood a lot and it was all quite pestilential, but now it looks like a really nice place to live.  They have sorted out the flooding issue.  This flat bottomed valley stretches for quite a bit and then you have another escapement, this is where they have all the EU buildings and the banks.  It's a good idea, because they keep their lovely historical old town untouched, and yet you get the view over to these really fancy, interesting buildings.  It is certainly a town where there feels like there could be jobs.  And you would be right in the middle of Europe too, which has to be a bonus.

York

Front of York Minster

Gosh I really am a long way behind in my adventures.  We visited York last year!  Again another really pretty city, the old part of town has been maintained really well.  I think we have the town walls to thank for that.  Apparently there have been people living there for thousands of years, but it was thanks to the Romans that it really kicked off as a town.  We did another walking tour there, I really love them, and the guy giving it was a graduated archaeology student.  I'm guessing if you grow up in York, archaeology has to be a thing, there is just so much stuff to dig up.  In fact it's so popular that the students have to pay to be allowed to go on the digs, poor kids these days.

One of the must-do activities is a walk along the top of the walls, most of the walls are from the 1100-1300's, but it's really the Victorians we have to thank for being able to walk along the top.  They liked the idea of promenading around the town, so had the top of the walls widened.  They are still very narrow though, nothing like Luca say, which had walls that seemed hundreds of metres wide, there really is only a metre or two of width to walk along.  The gate houses are also very impressive, though they call them bars here, the naming convention is slightly confusing in York.

Close-up of stained glass being restored

You have to go to the Cathedral whilst you are there, or the Minster, that's really unbelievable.  Again really quite old, and there are Roman ruins underneath it, from the first Roman fortress.  You can go down into the crypt and there is actually a great museum down there, not overtly religious as most things in churches are, but just giving the history of early York and the Romans.  As you are walking around there are volunteers making sure you don't break anything or touch stuff, as there usually is.  Except every 20 minutes or so these volunteers launch into a discussion on the history for all the tourists who happen to be milling around at that time.  They are certainly very willing to engage with you as you walk around as well, so if you like that sort of thing you will be in for a treat.

What was perhaps even luckier was that they were restoring the main stained glass window at the time, so whilst you couldn't see it in situ, they had done a really good job of recreating the windows at ground level, so you could actually get a really good close up view of the panes for once.  And there was some good descriptions about what each window meant or portrayed, which is usually lacking inside churches.  They are definitely going out of their way to make the visit more than just the inside of a church.

York Minster ceiling

Statue of Constantine - crowned emperor in York

There were some great museums in the town as well, for such a little place they are certainly well-serviced with cultural activities.  There is, of course, the Richard III museum.  This is inside one of the gatehouses, so is actually pretty small and set over a few floors.  They love Richard III in this town, as is to be expected I suppose, and the group running this museum are constantly trying to counteract what they see as Shakespearean propaganda.  Fair enough I guess.  I'm not sure how successful they are at it though.  I think the best they can come up with was that Richard III was probably no worse than any other wanna-be king at the time.

If you want a less biased historical account there is also the York museum, that had some great stuff in it, back to the Roman times.  It's opposite the ruins of St Mary's Abbey which was dissolved during King Henry VIII's time.  In the same park there are the ruins of the hospital of St Leonards, again was shut down during the Tudor time.  York really did not do well out of the Tudors.

Clifford's Tower - part of York Castle

Great helmet in York Museum

Not only do they have the walls, and the minster, but there is also York Castle.  There is not so much left of that anymore, it's mainly just a tower on the old Norman motte.  But there was another museum attached to that which we didn't go into.  The motte was actually really steep and surprisingly high.  It's always funny going into these towers, because you kind of imagine that everyone would have lived in the walls, which is the only structure left, and that they would have had a big open courtyard as well.  But really there would have been a roof, and wooden floors and all sorts of rooms, it's just that none of that organic matter has survived.  It would be great to see a fully restored tower keep at some stage, just to get a feel for how these Normans lived.  I imagine the rooms were very dark, and dirty and small.  Which is a completely different feel to what you get when you visit one now.

If you want something really touristy there is also the Jorvik Viking Museum, which I am sad to say we didn't visit.  I reckon that must be fantastically touristy, like a Viking Disney World.  York was a massive Viking town, after the Romans disappeared.  It's a loooong way from London after all.  There were some old Roman bath ruins, not quite as impressive as Bath's ones.  I think York was a bit surprised to find it had any sort of baths.  They are currently in the cellar of a pub, which found them when extending downstairs.  Now they charge a couple of pounds for people to have a look at some old pools (no water remains).

Definitely worth a visit, a pretty city and more than enough to do over a weekend.