Crack Yorkshire’s ancient Norse code at the Jorvik Viking Centre
Animatronics at the reimagined Jorvik Viking Centre in York will have you rubbing your eyes in delight
IF your idea of animatronics is a set of jerky old machines in ill-fitting clothes, the ones at the reimagined Jorvik Viking Centre in York will have you rubbing your eyes in delight.
Jorvik, which reopened to the public last weekend, has had a tough time in the past year or so.
When the nearby River Foss broke its banks in December 2015, the underground attraction ended up three feet under water.
Other places might have buckled, but the staff, led by director of attractions Sarah Maltby, decided to grab the situation by the horned helmet.
By the end of the first day, 1,000 irreplaceable artefacts more than 1,000 years old had been rescued and rehoused in safety.
Long-standing partner RMA Themed Attractions was also commissioned to come up with a 21stcentury version of the attraction.
Then the hard work really started - drying, cleaning and rebuilding the whole museum, pretty much from scratch.
The result of that hard work is oar-some.
The 16-minute train ride, the main draw, is miles better than it was.
Seats are comfier, the sound is crystal clear and the reconstructed village it journeys through is so lifelike, it's hard to tell the animatronics from the actors dressed in period garb around the place.
One of the models is even based on a real Viking.
New technology alowed the team to do a CAT scan on one of the female skeletons dug up on the site when it was first excavated in the early Seventies.
They were then able to make a computer model of what the woman looked like and build the machine to match.
It's spine-tingling when you later see that very skeleton in the exhibition hall.
Aside from the ride, the attraction is packed with things to see, with some artefacts on loan from the British Museum bolstering Jorvik's original finds.
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Highlights include a pattern-welded sword, the kind that would glint in the sun just before lopping off an enemy's head in battle, and a single 900-year old sock found on the site - proof it's always just the one that goes missing.
The actor Vikings are excellent too and are mines of information about what Britain was like in the Middle Ages.
One will show you how coins were made in the day, striking a piece of silver with a hammer and a stamp motif. Another does touch-andtell talks where you can get your hands on rare objects from the ninth and tenth centuries.
Almost all of them have gone to the trouble of learning ancient English - their very own version of Norse code.
Pay them a visit and you will have a cracking time.
Adult tickets start from £10.25 for 12 months of unlimited visits. See .
For more information on things to do in Yorkshire, see .