a day spent in York.

York.

what an absolutely, interesting & amazing city. Although to me, it seems like a very large town. It isn't crazily busy like cities usually are.
We left our hotel about 9.30 and walked.. and walked.. all day until about 4 or so. Except for the 40mins that we sat on the top of the double decker tour bus, oh and the time we sat and drank tea and ate scones .. ..  I think I have made up for the lack of walking in the Dales!!

A stroll through York, taking in all the gorgeous Elizabethan architecture combined with a mix of medieval buildings, gave yet another view into long times past.

York. founded in 71 AD..... 71AD!!!! Can you comprehend that kind of history? I find it very difficult. At the moment, my head feels as if it is on history overload.

Head spinning from numbers.
highway men, hangings, battles and invasion. Forts and dungeons. Kings, Queens, lords and ladies. plague and cholera

but like Joe said today as we sat on top of the tour bus..
 'You just have to look at it all and say "wow" '.

because there is no way, that you can absorb it all in a day.

as I wandered about the small crooked streets, peeking into an assortment of gift shops & sweet shops, jewellery and shoes and all manner of stuff in between, I could feel the people of times gone by, where they lived and worked in the narrow alleys without plumbing, where sewerage ran down the streets and children played in the gutters. I wondered what they would think of us. Of us with our constant cups of tea and too much food.

so, a day spent walking in York:

Mickelgate. a place where Royals must ask the Lord Mayor for permission to enter the city, a rule from long ago. a place where heads of the beheaded traitors, were placed on stakes outside the city walls.

York Minster. photos do not do this piece of stunning architecture, justice.

the minute detail and workmaship in the Minster, is stunning. mind boggling actually

morning tea at Bettys. a famous tea shop. the scones were ok...not the best I have tried so far.
 [I think I will have to name this holiday of ours 'the great scone expedition' as it must seem that all we are doing is eating scones!!]

some things I learned today:
Henry V111 was a tyrant.
Jewish people were massacred here in times past and buried in mass graves, later were buried again, given consecration by a rabbi and left to rest in peace.
 And, if you see something here, in a shop that you want to buy. Then buy it there and then! Don't say you will come back later.. because you will never find the shop again. They disappear into little alleys and laneways. And then you must walk round and round searching for the shop that sells organic body products.

so. that ends our time in York. a short stay over. and our time in Yorkshire.
 tomorrow we are off to the Peak District.

a year later - 2013
York was beautiful. I remember walking at night, by myself while Joe was at the movies. I strolled the streets, did a little Christmas shopping and thoroughly enjoyed myself walking, in the drizzle, in the middle of York on a dark late autumn night.