Welcome to the City of York !

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Welcome to the City of York !

Unlike Bath, I did not have much expectations from York and I must admit that my knowledge of the town was quite limited to the House of York so I visited this city for the first time on a beautiful Spring day with a totally opened mind and was I in for a pleasant surprize indeed !

I left my car in the carpark outside the city walls and just could not resist climbing up the steep and narrow staircase leading to the walls and walk around the town as the first visitors would have done and seeing these perfectly preserved walls filled with thousands of daffodils in bloom on each side were a truly unforgettable sight !

I then ventured into the town through a very pleasant street with a great variety of shops leading to the Bridge upon the River Rouse and the other side viewed from the bridge was pleasant indeed.

But the surprise - I should say the amazement - really came when I entered the Medieval District which is very large in size and wonderfully preserved with a unique architecture and a variety of shops second to none.

At its very heart, one finds the truly magnificent Minster which Nortern Europe's largest Gothic Cathedral and standing at its feet truly gives a scale of insignificant can a human being be compared to the sheer size of some monuments.

The nearby parks were in bloom and very pleasant places to sit down and enjoy.

And last but not least, the cherry on my cake undoubtebly was the National Railway Museum which features some of the rarest locomotives of the world including a replica of Stevenson's Rocket, The Mallard and the Flying Scotsman to name but a few. Being a passionate modeller ever since I was 7yo when I started building my first railway model network on a HO scale, I simply cannot express my joy at seeing those "giants of steam" standing in front of me.

I maybe French but I love finding quaint little places for my afternoon tea and the place I found was just one of the cutest I have seen so far as it was in one of the towers at the entrance of the bridge over the River and a cappuccino and a Victoria Lemon sponge were the perfect ending to a perfect day.

Yes ! I truly was enchanted with my visit to York and its many charms !

Karim

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