York - Pork Pies & Cornish Pasties!

---

Hello yet again.

Well, we made it back safely from York - it was nice to get away for the Bank Holiday Weekend (3 day weekend), as we didn't go anywhere for the last one. It was a bit of an odd trip really, but we had a great time. On the way up there in the car (Vaughan ditched the work van for a car) we were stuck in traffic for 3 different car accidents - the back-log was massive & we lost about 2 hours overall, arriving in York after 11pm (we didn't leave until after work). It still worked out fine, & it was nice to get away from London. York was another place that makes you wonder why you live in London. I think it has a population of about 180,000, but most of the main things you need are within the city 'walls', still surrounding the central area since medieval times - it looks quite cool. All the streets are narrow lanes with cobblestone paving, & the upper stories of the old shops all seems to hang out over the roadway. They all have old wooden framing & the architechture is older & completely different than a lot of other places in the UK. There seems to be a lot of pride taken in York - all the shops & especially the pubs look as if they have been painted in the last 6 months. Nothing looked run down at all, & even the houses seemed in good nick. There were no condemned buildings & no scummy areas - it really was a very well-presented & quaint kind of place. And, to our complete shock, the people in York actually make eye contact with you, & *gasp* even have a conversation with you to pass the time. So different from London - York really was a place you don't want to leave. Here's what we did when we were there:

Day One: We arrived late at night so we didn't do anything - interesting, huh!? We did see all the car accidents that had held us up though, which was good to stare & shout at for making us so far behind schedule (one of them was incredibly minor but had the whole motorway shut down - grrrr). As half of London heads out of the city for Bank Holiday Weekends, the traffic was unbelievably heavy, & it was such slow going for ages. To top things off (just when you think things can't get any worse), this warning light came up on Vaughan's work car, so we looked up what it meant in the manual. I was thinking that it would have to mean the worst possible thing, since that seemed to be the vein of our whole journey. It turned out I was right - the light meant to stop immediately & seek emergency assistance - EXCELLENT! So Vaughan being Vaughan, just kept on driving, & then declared that because the light had now gone out, there was no longer any problem with the car. Guy logic I guess. We arrived safely at least, so that was the main thing.

Day Two: We went into the city for a look around. We were staying about 15 minutes walk away, so we didn't take the car. Most of the streets inside the city walls are closed to traffic during the day, as they are so narrow, & usually there are too many pedestrians around as well. We arrived at Monk Bar, one of the 4 main entrances into the city, through the walls. In Medieval times, Bar meant Gate - it was just like an archway through the wall. We climbed up the steps at Monk Bar, onto the walls, & walked around most of the city. Sometimes parts of the wall are no longer there, so you have to descend to street level a couple of times, but generally you can get right around. It's quite far, but it's up high so you can see lots of things & get the layout of the city. We passed Mickelgate Bar (the main Bar to the city) & went inside a small room (entrance to the towers where they used to keep prisoners) where we ended up just talking to a guy about the history of York. Mickelgate Bar was where the heads of all the executed people were displayed on spikes, for all the townsfolk to see. We left the walls & had a look through the botanical gardens of the city museum (we didn't go into the museum) & then had a look around some of the small wee streets I mentioned earlier. The stores weren't all catered to tourists so it was cheap enough & you could find interesting market type stuff (instead of expensive local boutique type clothing, as in some tourist areas). I managed to find the Cat Gallery, so of course I had to look at all the cat stuff inside! There was also a shop selling Medieval clothing & accessories, such as Roman swords, helmets, shields, chain mail, etc - York had a nice historical aspect about it without feeling like it was being thrown in your face. From there we went over to York Minster (Cathedral) - I think it's the oldest Cathedral in the UK/Europe, or something similar. It's certainly the biggest - I had just seen one wing of it earlier, when we were walking on the walls, & I thought that was the whole thing. I couldn't believe the actual size of it when we were standing in front of it. I thought I had seen enough cathedrals, but York Minster really was something else. There has been a cathedral on the site for over 1000 years - the current cathedral is an excellent illustration of gothic architecture. From there we went back to where we were staying (a place called Heworth House) for a short rest, & then headed out again for some dinner. We had wanted to go to the King's Arms (the pub that floods), where a walking night tour also departs after dinner at 8pm, but it was too busy, so we had a meal in another pub nearby, also next to the canal. By the time we finished dinner we were too tired to go on the tour, so we walked back to have another look at Cliffords Tower (which we had seen earlier in the day on our wall-walking journey), & then headed back.

Day Three: Today we went to Castle Howard, which is an 8km drive out of York. There was meant to be a type of food festival thing on as well, which didn't cost any extra to get into, so we went along for that as well, which ended up being quite fun. Castle Howard is over 300 years old, & it is not designed in the usual style that you would imagine a castle to be (say, like in Robin Hood or something). Castle Howard seemed more grand, rather than functional, & is really just a huge Baroque Mansion. The castle is set on 10,000 acres of estate, which are used for all kinds of things - you can go there for day trips & go sailing on the lake, bring a caravan & go camping in a special section of the estate, or just wander around the massive gardens. It was impressive even just driving up to the castle, as you have to pass under all these archways before you even arrive, at the edge of the property, still owned by the Howard family. It really was quite impressive. You could only look around part of the castle itself, as the family still live there. The food fest was good fun - there were a whole pile of marquees with different events in each of them - one had cooking classes, one had demonstrations by famous chefs, one sold alcohol & food, & one had about 200 small stalls of people trying to promote their products (with free testers) - it was much like we might have back in NZ. Vaughan & I tried quite a few cheeses & a few other products. Luckily we had arrived early & got to try quite a few things without getting trampled, which was more what it was like later on. Vaughan bought himself a chocolate flavoured beer, some fudge, & a pork pie for lunch, in the marquee - pork pies seemed quite popular in York, as were a lot of organic foods. I bought an organic fizzy drink & some fudge, & we sat outside & listened to the brass band blast out Beatles hits - it was quite good really. We went on a little tractor/train ride thing around the property & then went back to York. In the evening we went to an excellent pub called the Old White Swan, which was made up of about 15 original buildings, all converted into about 4 different sections (smoking, sports bar, non-smoking, & covered courtyard) so you could choose what kind of area you wanted to sit in. The food there was also excellent - it was a really nice place overall. Then we walked down to go on the night tour which was good, although it wasn't dark yet. We learned a bit about the history of York, & discovered it is meant to be the most haunted town in the UK - spooky (I didn't see anything weird so I remain skeptical)! It was nice to hear a bit more about the town, & it was a great day out.

Day Four: This morning we decided to have a look around the township one last time before leaving before lunch, to beat the traffic back into London. We looked around an area called the Shambles, which we hadn't seen before, went through an outdoor market, & wandered back up towards Stonegate, my favourite area. Unfortunately it started to rain heavily, so we ran quickly to get some Cornish Pasties from the shop (London doesn't seem to have many types of pies or pasties, so it's always great to have a munch on some when on holiday) & then went back to the car. The weather couldn't seem to make up it's mind if it was completely sunny, or absolutely pouring down, so the trip back was interesting. We only had to go slow at one point, & saw a Land Rover that had had an engine fire while towing a caravan. We got back to London really easily & quickly, & ended up really enjoying the whole trip. Thanks York!

So that's it - sounds long, I know - sorry about that, but it was fun, & York really was a nice place. It would be really good to live there - it's so much cheaper than London! It's just a bit too far north - I am sure it gets too cold & snowy in Winter for me!

Hope you have all been OK wherever you are, & are coping with the onslaught of cold weather (only 2 days until Winter). Please let us know how things are going at your end - we would love to hear from you.

Love Toni & Vaughan xxx

---

Comments

[Marianne]

envy again
Gald you enjoyed York, it was one of our favourite spots, loved the Shambles, amazing how many different colours have been put together. You can almost imagine the toilet pos being emptied out the windows!!!!! You've still got a lot more to see in the UK, think you need a fix of Cornwall and Devon next. Love to you both, be nice to talk to you V, hint hint Luv Mum