A Saturday in York

Even with his thrashed and tender feet I thought Greg would prefer walking over what we had in store next: driving on the wrong side of the road. As stressful as it was though, he preferred driving to his walking on his poor feet. That says a lot about how much his feet hurt right now.

I was concerned about driving because as a pedestrian in the UK, my brain was still not switching to the wrong side of the road. I think it was easier 7 years ago when I was younger? But once you get on the road - actually driving - it is much easier.

My job was to navigate, keep us centered in the lane (a full time job), and keep Greg grounded with occasional reminders to stay on the left side of the road - before his brain could revert back to the right side. 

No matter how hard I leaned right in the passenger seat it didn't do any good; Greg was still hugging the left line.

Plug the post code into the sat nav and it will get you within a few hairs of where you want to go.  It actually worked really well!  We used 2 GPS's because ours, already programmed with our stops, didn't update fast enough or include as much detail.

We were headed to York. I threw that into the itinerary, stealing a day from Edinburgh at the end of our trip. I wanted to see a town in England other than the ones along the wall path, and York looked cool.

York is a popular town. There was a steady stream of cars headed in on the two lane road.

York is a historic walled city in England with a long and rich heritage from Roman times through to Viking times.

York is suspended in time because it wasn't a part of the industrial revolution (its industrial claim to fame was the Kit Kat) - which kept out the railway. It was never bombed, and it was never destroyed by fire.

There were four things on my To Do list for York:

1) Stroll down the Shambles

2) Take a walking tour

3) Walk along the walls

4) Visit York Minster

If we had more time here I would've added 5) Enjoy Afternoon Tea at Betty's Café Tea Room

York was very crowded, at least on a Saturday. I overheard someone, clearly an American, say York is like Six Flags (crowded amusement park).

We started by walking through the Shambles and nearby streets.  The quaint Shambles are actually the way they are because they were an area of neglect; someone with money would have torn the building down but instead they just left what was standing and added to it.  Most of the buildings on the street date from the 15th century and they have been well preserved.

The Shambles in York are the best-preserved medieval shopping streets in Europe. (This pic was taken at 7pm when everything was closed.)

The York Ghost Merchants (selling weird little artistic ghosts) had the longest line to get in - longer than the line for The Shop that Must Not Be Named

Ye Olde Pie shop in the Shambles. There was so much good food to choose from - so we meandered through the quaint area looking around and trying different foods. We couldn't taste it all!

Wandering the Shambles and Shambles Market was probably the highlight of the day (but the whole day was great). I discovered that Greg's feet prefer shopping! 

Next we took a 90-minute Best of York walking tour with www.yorktour.com. With only one other couple, our tour with Alfred was practically private. He had a knack for making history interesting and tying it all together.

York's history dates back to Roman times. The Multangular Tower was the West corner of the Roman fortress (AD 208)

Alfred walked us through many of York's "snickelways" - there are 41 ancient alleys that run between York's streets. I hadn't even noticed them when we were walking around before the tour.

After the tour, I left Greg's feet at the hotel and walked the city walls. It was later in the day so they were less crowded than normal. Note: they close at "dusk".

At 2.6 miles long, they are the longest medieval walls in England. Allow ~2 hrs to walk them (free) if you want to make it all the way around. They aren't connecting and you don't always walk on a wall ... you have to climb up and down in several places like the 'Kings Fishpond' - the waterway that accted as a more natural form of York's ancient defences.

In York the City Walls are known as Bar Walls, referring to the four main gateways into the city.

Getting up the wall at Bootham Bar near our hotel

The best part of the wall is between Monk Bar and Bootham Bar. Here you can see into the fancy homes along the way. Grays Court hotel looked very inviting. 

When walking the walls, you pass right by Clifford's Tower - which was built originally in 1068 by the orders of William I to try and dominate these Viking lands.

By the time I finished the walls (6:00pm), everything in York was closed except for the bars and restaurants.

York Minster is the second-largest Gothic cathedral of Northern Europe. Although on my To Do list, I didn't get to see inside because Alfred didn't take us in (I don't know how he could have had time).

York Minster (1230) is the largest gothic cathedral North of the Alps

What the inside of York Minster looks like

For dinner I thought it fitting to be in York, a place with a strong Vikings past, and go to Valhalla pub. I had never heard of "valhalla" until watching The Last Kingdom.

Valhalla - where the souls of brave Viking warriors are received. The pub has a great atmosphere!

At Valhalla you can order tasty tapas (both small and large plates) before the kitchen closes at 8:00pm. The portions of the "large" plates were very small.  To try to give you perspective, the left "large" plate is 6 fries.  I would hate to see the small!