York Minister, Shambles & Medieval Walls

---

Geo: 53.9577, -1.08229



I was relaxed, refreshed and full of energy after my around the world trip and now I was looking forward to my day trip to York. I had booked the York train tickets in advance from the Kings Cross, the train was pretty full, but we had reserved seats.






York is totally unique in Britain offering examples of Roman, Dark Age, Viking, and Medieval ages; York also happens to be one of my favourite cities in England. When we reached York it was dry but it had already rained heavily earlier and unfortunately; we were expecting more rain according to the weather forecast so we headed straight for York Minister passing the River Bridge and beautiful coloured Barges on the river.




The Magnificent York Minster has a very wide decorated Gothic high alter, chapter house and the largest expanse of medieval stained glass in the world. When I was there on previous visit which was about 3 hours, I had taken a guided tour that provided interesting insights and it was fun. The ticket is valid for one year and the crypts are also worth a visit. I found the stain glass renovation project, art work absolutely stunning, one of the best I have seen so far. In short York Minister is Awesome and worth the entrance fee 😊
One of the great attractions that York is most recognised for are the City Walls. Since Roman times, York has been defended by walls of one form or another. York city walls are 3.4 km in length and with a history stretching back nearly 2000 years, the walls of York are amongst the finest preserved historic monuments anywhere in the world. The walls were built in Roman times to defend the city from outside enemies and stand as a look out platform then later the walls were restored. A good way to get great views of the cathedral and old city is to take a stroll around the walls which is an enjoyable walk and it is so incredible to see that so much of the old city walls are still intact.

One cannot go to York and not do the city wall walk, we walked the wall from near the York Minister passing a quaint street; we could see the other side of the York Minster's grounds, some nearby historic houses, lovely gardens and an elevated view of another side of town. The views of the York Ministry and the river around York from the wall are very stunning. The walls add huge character to the city, the walls are incomplete in 3 sections so you can hop on and off the walkway through a narrow steep staircase and visit anywhere you want to go or continue walking the wall. We went on a weekday so the quieter, elevated city views are peaceful and calming and even though the walls' walking space is narrow, there are occasional resting and viewing space at intervals so you could take a small break, the clouds were overcast so we did not walk the whole way due to the weather but I have done the full walk on my previous visit. It started drizzling but we had our hats on so we walked towards Shambles.

The Shambles is an old street in York with overhanging timber-framed buildings, some dating back as far as the fourteenth century and is sometimes used as a general term for the maze, twisting narrow lanes which are one of the best preserved medieval streets in the world. The street itself is mentioned in the Domesday Book, so we know that it has been in continuous existence for over 900 years. The Shambles was a once a street of butchers 's shops and houses and during that period there were no sanitary facilities or hygiene so animal guts and blood were thrown into open space in the street. The word Shambles, in this instance, is a reflection of the medieval word 'shammel' meaning wide wooden bench, such as workbench or worktop. We walked back in time along the crazy, hectic, maze of crowed little street and we got a real buzz walking this famous street of bygone era which lived up to its reputation offering the character, beauty and incredibly rich history. There was nice aroma of chocolates and fudge from the cute shops but I can imagine the pong of the nasty smells during medieval times. The little two storey buildings on the street literally stick out over your head, almost touching in the middle as you walk down the road; The shops have meat hooks still out there and all the cobbled roads here are very narrow and hard to walk through, only the vehicles permitted are the ones delivering products to the shops, a must visit if you are in York.

We also visited the market place near the Shambles where they were selling all sorts of things, we wandered over to Clifford's Tower where we had a look from the outside and we wanted to go for tea near the river. Unfortunately the tea house was closed so we went to TCS coffee shop as it had started to rain. We had chips and sandwich here, the lady made the chips in front of us which were freshly made from potatoes, my friend had pot of tea and I had lovely cup of coffee. There were few locals but no tourists at this coffee house, we sat on the table by the table and watched the world go by. The food was very reasonable and I was very surprised at the small bill we paid; we really liked this quaint coffee house nicely decorated which gives excellent service, nice food at a small price away from the mad rush of tourists.There is Tattoo artists on the first floor but we gave the tattoo a big miss 😊

We then went over to the Castel Museum which was excellent though it has nothing to do with castles, it has exhibits of the interiors of various rooms from different periods of history and a recreated Victorian street which is just what it says, a Victorian Street with various shops, bank, etc and it didn't disappoint. The "from birth to death" display shows items from different era and simple day to day activities like exhibits on how people washed themselves and their clothes and how people were buried at different times, wedding and christening dresses displays to giving different perspective. Then we walked a bit along the River Ouse, York is the beautiful town inside the walls; we saw lovely colourful summer flowers in bloom including daffodils, hyacinths, pansies, tulips, geese and ducks. We walked up to Millennium Bridge and back, where we found the Holy Trinity church hidden away from the main street; it still has the original box pews and it is older than York Minister. I liked the architecture and the church oozes of history; most such churches were, got rid of by the Victorians, the church does not have electric lighting and the gardens were lovely with beautiful spring bulbs, it is worth a visit to this lovely church.

We headed for Betty's Tea house, we waited for 15 minutes in a queue and we finally got a table in a corner near the kitchen area, which shook each time the waitress passed to other tables. We decided to ignore this; but we only had tea and cheese cake. The tea and cheese cake were okay, my friend told me that her tea in TCS coffee house was so much better then at the Betty's and I had better tea at many other places. The whole place was extremely busy, noisy swamped with all the tourists and we could not wait to get out from there. The price we paid was not good value and Betty's is just a TOURIST TRAP. I was very much disappointed as this tea house is well recommended on Tripadvisor and there is so much hype about Betty's but I would NOT recommend Betty's to anyone as it was one of the worse tea house, I have ever been. After Leaving Betty's, I passed 2-3 tea houses which were mainly empty and we wished we had our tea there instead of Betty's and we would had the full afternoon tea in quieter peaceful surroundings.


Then we wandered through the older streets with genuine historical feeling, York Minister looked magnificent in the light, we soaked in the lovely atmosphere. We also did some window shopping in some of the novelty stores before heading to the train station and we arrived about 15 min before our train was due. On the train we got friendly with a couple and we exchanged pictures. We arrived very late in London in the evening, very tired but extremely happy as we had such a magical day in this beautiful walled city of York. I will be back!!

---