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Published: February 20th 2009
It’s half-term break once again! Our choices of travel were limited because we currently do not have our passports. Therefore, we could not travel outside of the UK. Our passports are currently with the UK Border Agency awaiting approval to allow us to remain in England until August. So, we decided to visit the historic city of York for 3 days.
York is located in the northern part of England, only a few hours drive from Edinburgh, Scotland. York was founded in AD 71 by the Romans. It is a lovely city which still has much of its original city walls in tact. We arrived in York by train on Tuesday afternoon. Total travel time was approximately 3 hours; the train from Aylesbury to London was 1 hour followed by a 2 hour trip from London to York. We stayed in a 3-star B&B which was a 10 minute walk from the city centre. Once we checked into our room we spent some time browsing through brochures and travel guides to plan our itinerary. We spent much of our first day in York walking around, getting a feel for the city. We visited York Minster and walked the 275 steps to
the top of its tower. York Minster is a Gothic cathedral and is one of the largest of its kind in Northern Europe alongside Cologne Cathedral (see our blog entry “Are We There Yet???”-June 2008 and “Three Days in Germany” - Feb. 2008 for pictures of Cologne Cathedral). In the evening, once it was dark outside, we went on a Ghost Walk. Our guide wore a black cloak and top hat and led the tour group around York, sharing with us the city’s many ghost stories.
We began our second day in York with a free guided walking tour. Our tour began in Exhibition Square and lasted for 2 hours. Our guide shared with us the history of the city and showed us a few sites that we likely never would have found on our own. We saw original Roman architecture and the ruined state of St.Mary’s Abbey; it was truly stunning. The ruins of St.Mary’s Abbey have been used as a backdrop for public theatre. This is where Dame Judi Dench got her start as an actress. Whilst on our tour we met Alicia and Deanna, both from America (Nashville, TN and Rochester, NY respectively). They are both teachers
as well and it turns out they work in Luton which is approximately 45 minutes from where we live. We exchanged contact information and met up for dinner later in the evening. We also met an Australian couple, Byron and Bronwen, who got engaged this past Christmas. We had lunch with them at a pub and shared stories about our travels and our upcoming weddings. After lunch we walked along The Shambles, the most photographed and most visited street in York. The Shambles is a very old street lined with various shops and cafés. The original name of this street was The Great Flesh Shambles, the word for the shelves that butchers used to display their meat. The street used to be lined with as many as 25 butchers’ shops, but now there are none. Although the butchers have now vanished, a number of the shops on the street still have meat-hooks hanging outside and, below them, shelves on which meat would have been displayed. The rest of our afternoon was spent walking along the River Ouse and exploring streets we had not yet discovered. We came across Clifford’s Tower which was once part of York Castle. Afterwards we went
to the world famous Betty’s Café Tea Rooms for afternoon tea and dessert. We had to wait in a queue for half an hour to get a seat, but the tea was great and the cake was scrumptious so this made the wait worthwhile! We later joined our new American friends for dinner at an Italian restaurant on The Shambles.
To begin our final day in York, we went on a boat tour along the River Ouse. The tour lasted 45 minutes and provided commentary about various sites in the city. After our tour we went to York Dungeon and enjoyed being scared by the live actors and their creepy stories. We also walked around the inside of York Minster and walked along the city walls. Before departing York we visited the National Railway Museum. We boarded a train back to London shortly after 7pm. York was a lovely city to visit. It was nice to get away for a few days and see more of England. Enjoy the pictures!
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